Media and Engagement Officer

Media and Engagement Officer
Canterbury, Kent
£26,092 pa plus excellent benefits
35 hours per week

The Media and Engagement Officer is an exciting and crucial new role suited to a natural storyteller who thrives in a fast-paced and collaborative environment. This role will support the way we communicate with communities across South and East Kent by gathering, creating and sharing stories in engaging and creative ways, whilst also handling media enquiries on behalf of the Diocese.

Reporting to the Senior Media and Engagement Officer and working closely with the team, you will play a key role in the execution of the communications and engagement strategy for our diocese and help to enhance our digital profile by creating informative, engaging and inspiring content to all our audiences.

You will acti as first point of contact for our clergy, parishes and staff to support their communications work, including support with digital, video, social and traditional media. You will also be a point of contact for media enquiries, as well as assisting with urgent/crisis communications.

You will ensure the diocesan website meets the needs of our audiences by working collaboratively with colleagues to ensure the content is up-to-date, fresh and relevant, whilst also providing an analytical approach to web performance.

With a relevant professional or educational background, you should have excellent written and verbal communication skills and be capable of writing engaging media content, including news stories and press releases.

You should be creative, detail-oriented, proactive in spotting trends and have a good awareness of current affairs, as well as having experience of editing, proofreading and fact-checking copy.

Experienced in managing and improving websites and social media platforms, you will be at ease analysing social media performance and capable of helping to implement the social media strategy, ensuring we connect and engage with audiences from a range of backgrounds.

As part of this role, it is important for you to maintain a high degree of personal visibility around the Diocese in order to build excellent relationships with clergy, parishioners, local communities, local leaders and media contacts. Therefore, sympathy with our values and the ability to relate to church communities, volunteers from a variety of traditions, and other key stakeholders, is essential.

After a period of training, you will be required to be on call one weekend a month and to work occasional weekends and evenings, with reasonable prior notice.

Canterbury Diocese is the oldest diocese in England, stretching from Maidstone to Thanet, the Isle of Sheppey to the Romney Marsh. We have 350 miles of coastline with historic ports and seaside resorts, alongside rural communities, market towns and commuter-belt urban developments. Affluent areas often sit alongside pockets of major deprivation, offering an exciting and challenging mission context.

At the heart of all we do is a vision of transformation for ourselves and our communities: no one can encounter God and remain unchanged. In the Diocese of Canterbury, we want to increasingly become a Christian community transformed through encounter with Christ, growing and overflowing to transform and bless the families, homes and communities we serve: Changed Lives, Changing Lives.

Closing date: 29 January 2025.