Job Introduction

Note: x2 of the roles require an in-depth knowledge of cricket and will work across our cricket social media output. Please indicate if you wish to be considered for these cricket roles during the application process.

BBC Sport online is the largest sports site/app in the UK, attracting around 27million browsers a week. On social media, BBC Sport has more than 38m followers across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube giving us a massive outlet to reach younger audiences.

We want BBC Sport’s output to reflect and understand the audiences we serve - for example, the different geographical regions of the UK and the experience of people from underrepresented groups (eg people from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds, people with lived experience of disability, individuals within the LGBTQ+ community and those from lower socio economic groups). We are therefore actively seeking individuals with skills or experience that can help contribute towards... ensuring we maximise the diversity of our coverage and content.

Role Responsibility

Social Media Journalists play a key role at BBC Sport, keeping our audience informed of the very latest sports news, covering major live events, taking part in online conversations around the biggest talking points and promoting the best of what BBC Sport has to offer on television, radio and online. You’ll do that as an author of some of the UK’s biggest sports social media accounts. This role will work predominantly on content for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Our tone across social media is casual and conversational, but at the end of the day we’re still the BBC and that means you’ll be expected to uphold and build on the reputation we’ve carved out over many decades as the UK’s most trusted sports news source. Straddling that line between informal and authoritative is a real skill and something you’ll need to do daily in this role.

And while those core journalistic values of accuracy and impartiality are incredibly important, it’s not all facts, figures and breaking news reports in the social media team. After all, sport is meant to be fun and we like to reflect that in what we do on social media. Take a look at our TikTok account, for example, or our @bbcfootball account on Instagram: they’re aimed squarely at younger audiences and often skew light-hearted.

This is a good time to mention working hours as it’s not your average 9-5. In this role, the standard work pattern is x4 10-hour shifts per week. A lot of sport takes place at weekends and in the evenings, so there’s an expectation you’ll be available to work at these times. Not every evening or weekend, of course, but you should be aware the role does often require “non-standard” hours. The role is based in Salford and will require a roughly 50-50 split of time spent in the office and working from home.

Are you the right candidate?

Candidates for this role should have experience creating and publishing content on social media for large audiences. You’ll have a real passion and flair for writing posts and really live and breathe social media. Applicants for the cricket roles should ideally have previous experience working with cricket content.

News or journalism experience is essential as much of the role centres around translating sports news stories to a social audience. Strong editorial judgement is required.

In-depth sporting knowledge and experience covering live sport on social media is key but so is knowing your memes and social trends. We aim to inform AND entertain audiences. And while much of the output will centre around written work, a strong understanding of what works for video – particularly in the vertical video space – would be advantageous.

It goes without saying you’ll need to have a good grasp on what content works for social audiences. Why would we post a certain type of video on YouTube but not on Twitter? Which of our TV talent will connect best with our TikTok followers? And how might we entertain the audience while still maintaining our high editorial standards?

If you think you’d be a good fit we'd love to hear from you.

Essential Criteria

Strong editorial/news judgement

Experience working in live sport coverage

Experience of working in social media

Strong sporting knowledge

This is not an entry level role, we're looking for candidates with experience within the area, please review the criteria for the role before applying. We also welcome applications from those who may with to perform the roles on a part-time or job-share basis.

Package Description

Band: C

Contract type:- 1 x FTC/Attachment 13/03/2023 - 15/03/2024, 1 x FTC/Attachment 02/05/2023 - 03/11/2023, 1 x FTC/Attachment 02/05/2023 - 22/03/2024, 2 x FTC/Attachment 02/05/2023 - 22/03/2024

Location: This is a hybrid role and the successful candidate will balance office/location with home working

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application . There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits - We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

About The BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Attached documents
• Job Description
• BBC Values
Salford UK

Salary Criteria