Home-based: Social Media Expert Consultant (259 working days) – Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a champion.

Purpose of Activity/Assignment

Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) communications and advocacy team creates and delivers compelling content to regional audiences of parents, young people, and UNICEF supporters. We build engaged communities across social media and web platforms in multiple languages while providing expert digital services and support to the country offices. UNICEF ECARO social media channels are essential for the digital communication strategy and are central to strengthening our presence in the region with English and Russian-speaking audiences.

Scope of Work

The Social Media Expert Consultant will lead the production of social media posts in English and Russian for UNICEF ECARO social media channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikTok, and others). Under the guidance of the Digital Communication Specialist, the expert will create and craft compelling content to engage different audiences on UNICEF ECARO digital channels to help achieve the objectives of the Regional Office Communication and Advocacy area and support the Ukraine emergency response.
The consultant will:

• Work with the Digital communication specialist to create and curate high-quality and relevant content in English and Russian from country offices of the region, adapting it to guarantee narrative and visual identity coherence and consistency for the region’s social media channels.
• Explore new digital tendencies and formats, bringing innovative approaches to the digital channels to increase reach and engagement.
• Produce social media packs for main advocacy and communication activities.
• Support the Digital communication specialist with the activities of the young creators group from the ECA region to co-create content for the digital channels.
• Support the monitoring and measurement of social media performance, maintain a metrics table, and analyze the results of UNICEF ECARO’s social media channels and website by producing monthly and ad hoc reports.
• Support monitoring and measuring the ECA region communication performance by producing monthly and annual reports containing digital and media performance.
• Implement, monitor, and report on social media ad campaigns to amplify reach and engagement, test new messages, and drive traffic to the RO website.
• Provide community management to moderate comments on organic posts, mapping potential risks.
• Support publishing content on the website (Drupal) when needed, creating and publishing new pages, articles, web stories, press releases, and others, and updating the homepage.
• Work in dialogue with program areas and country office colleagues to guarantee that the regional content calendar represents the region and the RO communication and advocacy priorities.
• Perform other communication and content duties as required and agreed upon with the supervisor.

Work Assignment Overview

Tasks / Milestone	Deliverables / Outputs	Timeline / Deadline
Creation and curation of content for social media channels.	• Creates and curates 2,400 high-quality posts in English and Russian for ECARO’s social media channels, guaranteeing coherence and consistency of the digital presence. • Produce at least one monthly social media pack to support main advocacy and communication activities.	161 working days
Planning and implementation of content for social media channels.	• Plans the content calendar in English and Russian for ECARO’s social media channels, guaranteeing the digital presence’s coherence and consistency. A detailed work plan with a dedicated number of days will be established at the beginning of each month.	36 working days
Reporting and analysis on social media channels and website performance for UNICEF ECARO channels and ECA region.	• Monitors metrics from UNICEF ECARO’s channels monthly, keeping the metrics table up to date, and produces 12 monthly reports to inform digital content strategy. • Monitors metrics and performance monthly, producing 12 monthly reports with digital and media performance from the ECA region. • A detailed work plan with a dedicated number of days will be established at the beginning of each month.	49 working days
Work in dialogue with program areas, country office colleagues, and other stakeholders to guarantee that the regional content calendar is aligned with RO priorities.	• Work with country offices, regional teams, and other stakeholders to provide support for the production and publication of social media and website. A detailed work plan with a dedicated number of days will be established at the beginning of each month.	13 working days

Estimated Duration of the Contract

This assignment will run from April 2024 to April 2026 with an initial 259 working days assigned to the period covering April 2024 to April 2025.

Consultant’s Work Place and Official Travel

The Consultant will be remote/home-based with no travel foreseen.

Estimated Cost of the Consultancy & Payment Schedule

Payment will be made on submission of an invoice and satisfactory completion of the above-mentioned deliverables. UNICEF reserves the right to withhold all or a portion of payment if performance is unsatisfactory, if work/outputs are incomplete, not delivered or for failure to meet deadlines. All materials developed will remain the copyright of UNICEF and UNICEF will be free to adapt and modify them in the future.

Please submit a professional fee (in USD) based on 259 working days to undertake this assignment.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• Bachelor’s degree or higher qualification in marketing, communications, or a related field.
• At least four (4) years of experience developing and implementing social media content.
• Proven ability to write flawless copy in English (Russian is highly desirable).
• Strong technical knowledge of advertising platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and other digital channels.
• Proven success managing social media channels to achieve communications and advocacy goals.
• Clear analytical thinking and strategic vision.
• Strong creative drive to create new ideas, find opportunities and solve big challenges.
• Ability to write sharp, engaging, and persuasive ad copy.
• Deep technical knowledge of digital marketing and social media metrics measurement, reporting and evidence generation.
• Strong understanding of human rights, international development, or humanitarian response.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s core values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability, and Sustainability (CRITAS), and core competencies in Communication, Working with People and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most marginalized children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Please include a full CV and Cover Letter in your application. Additionally, indicate your availability and professional fee (in USD) to undertake the terms of reference above. Applications submitted without a professional fee will not be considered. Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

The selected candidate is solely responsible to ensure that the visa (applicable) and health insurance required to perform the duties of the contract are valid for the entire period of the contract. Selected candidates are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the assignment. It does not apply to consultants who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their consultancy contracts.

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for consultants with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. We encourage you to disclose your disability during your application in case you need reasonable accommodation during the selection process and afterwards in your assignment.