Community Engagement Strategist (Serving The Fargo PD)

Salary: $59,446.00 – $77,272.00 Annually

Location : Fargo, ND

Job Type: Full Time Regular (40)

Job Number: 2023-00260

Department: Communications & Governmental Affairs

Division: Administration/Public Inf – SELECT THIS OPTION

Opening Date: 08/28/2023

Closing Date: Continuous

Position Description

In addition to a resume and cover letter, please submit a portfolio of relevant work and three professional references in your application packet. Applications submitted without the components listed above will not be reviewed.

The Community Engagement Strategist will proactively curate, monitor, connect, edit, humanize, communicate, prioritize and adapt to collaboratively facilitate productive conversations between the organization and the public. These conversations will occur at various levels, especially online via social media interactions and app-based reporting. This position requires someone who thinks big, thrives in an extremely fast-paced environment and has a natural willingness to learn something new each day.
Primary Responsibilities
As an integral member of the Community Engagement Division within the Department of Communications & Governmental Affairs, the Community Engagement Strategist will serve in a lead role to facilitate communication between residents and City staff, while striving to build relationships at all levels. The position is responsible for creating and integrating social media campaigns into broader marketing initiatives, while consistently engaging in social listening. The Community Engagement Strategist is required to perform departmental website content curation. The position is critical in efforts to humanize complex public services to be easily consumed and understood by the general public, while ensuring a consistent tone during times of routine and crisis communications. A high degree of creativity and out-of-the-box thinking is necessary in this role. The Community Engagement Strategist is responsible for the quality and accuracy of their own work, with tasks being performed independently under general supervision.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

1. CURATING SOCIAL MEDIA – Responsible for developing, creating and consistently posting engaging content consistent with The City of Fargo’s social media voice and strategic goals.
   1. The Community Engagement Strategist works as a social media operational lead.
   2. Engage in storytelling and information-sharing methods which combine text with audio, pictures, motion graphics and video to maintain a daily presence on social media platforms.
   3. Build and manage a dynamic social media content calendar to support departmental and organizational campaigns and partnerships. An emphasis will be placed on developing strong internal relationships, as well as those with community partners and residents.
   4. Ensure a consistent voice online while reacting professionally (including during times of crisis) in full consideration of the commenter and/or audience point(s) of view.
   5. Invest substantial effort to provide factual and engaging content to create highly impactful collateral relating to key initiatives.
   6. Promote continuity of operations by identifying and coaching staff to assist in engagement efforts when needed.
   7. Advise and provide assistance to staff on effective social media techniques to ensure a unified voice regardless of social media publisher.
   8. Maintain and grow knowledge on best practices and digital trends.
   9. Collaborate with Community Engagement Manager to make operational suggestions to improve social media policies and terms of use.
2. MONITORING SOCIAL SENTIMENT – Serves as the operational advisor to departmental staff and leadership on matters of social media engagement, crisis communication efforts and community trends.
   1. Assess and update social media posts (as needed) in real-time to determine sentiment, reaction, reach and the potential need for follow-up clarifications, responses or additional posts.
   2. Extract insights from compiled data/results to adjust strategy and execution plans across multiple social media platforms based on data-driven analytics.
   3. Monitor effectiveness of specific programs via benchmarking with peer organizations, as well as the general impressions of the City’s brand, on a routine basis. Evolve content curation strategies based on findings.
   4. Triage comments received via social media which affect the organization (but not necessarily the team member’s specific department) to the appropriate personnel within the City.
   5. Continually monitor departmental social posts and evaluate social media coverage.
   6. Establish a framework to respond in a timely manner to feedback from tens-of-thousands of followers on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms to provide official responses and comments (which will include working beyond regular business hours).
   7. May serve as a liaison and/or provide support for outside agencies and/or other City departments during major incidents, emergencies, or disasters; may serve as a member of the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during community crisis or disasters and participate in EOC exercises.
3. CONNECTING WITH THE COMMUNITY– Facilitate engagement through interactive community discussions and forums. This includes identifying, responding to and learning from both direct and indirect resident and staff interactions.
   1. Identify and nurture opportunities to educate, respond to and engage in dialogue with community members via social media.
   2. Represent The City of Fargo brand and build relationships with residents, businesses and community partners daily.
   3. Plan and organize community-wide events (including all logistic considerations).
   4. Support efforts across the organization to maintain strong relationships with residents, user communities and influencers (including those fully outside of the City’s span of control) to advance the City’s goals and objectives.
   5. Provide superior social customer service and expedited first response times.
4. WEBSITE EDITING– Serve as a lead point of contact for operational website maintenance.
   1. Provide operational and routine updates to the City’s website as needed in a timely manner.
   2. Receive and assess applicability and scope of departmental requests for minor website structure modifications.
   3. Regularly evaluate the website’s various departmental main pages and sub-pages to ensure web navigation, presentation and contents are integrated with the department’s overall communication initiatives. This involves ensuring web service standards are being utilized, including global graphical and operational consistencies.
   4. Works closely with departmental staff to assure web navigation, presentation and content are integrated with and support other City communication initiatives and reflect City editorial, graphics and other standards.
   5. Review website analytics using the City’s software platform to continually improve usability, ease of access and optimization of high visibility pages.
5. CROWDSOURCING– Continually engage in active listening to identify, monitor and assess discourse being generated about or towards the department across a wide array of platforms, applications and community-focused forums.
   1. Encourage and optimize utilization of resident engagement tools.
   2. Recommend implementation of new technologies which may aid in the collection and distribution of information within the community.
   3. Monitor and consider potential implementation of other department/agency’s successful programs.
6. HUMANIZING – Through interpretation of technical information and public services, produce simplified information to be relatable to and understandable by the community.
   1. Function as an exceptional communicator with the ability to effectively translate technical information and disseminate it to employees of the department and members of the public.
   2. Possess and execute a knowledge of departmental principles, methods and practices to create innovative, impactful and brand-elevating content.
   3. Transform statistical data into visual graphics and diagrams, which can make complex ideas more understandable and accessible.
   4. Develop and cultivate informal street-level relationships with departmental staff members to generate ideas (excavating the ‘untold story’) which will effectively humanize the work product of the staff, all while promoting the vision, mission and values of the department.
7. COMMUNICATING– Courteously and professionally maintain working relationships with others in carrying out job functions.
   1. Communicate with team members to provide information relating to work assignments and progress of work or to convey information about conditions or work-related needs.
   2. Understand how to interact with and energize a broad range of diverse employee groups.
   3. Act in a lead role to link the Communications & Governmental Affairs team members with the applicable departmental contacts to promote public relations campaigns and efforts. This includes identifying and fostering partnerships with brand champions, service-level experts and customer service ambassadors.
   4. Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with a wide range of public and private sector officials and members of the public.
   5. Interact with the community and across departments to exchange detailed and/or technical information in which the ability to explain concepts is exercised.
8. PRIORITIZING SAFETY– Perform all job duties in compliance with safety guidelines and with an ongoing awareness of safety practices.
   1. Know and follow department and City rules as well as sound work and safety practices in order to accomplish the job objectives and avoid injury or loss.
   2. Wear proper protective equipment when policy requires or conditions indicate a need exists and utilize proper body mechanics and ergonomics while performing work.
   3. When potentially unsafe conditions are observed, make an effort to avoid or correct them if they are controllable and draw them to the attention of the responsible supervisor or safety representative in a timely manner.
9. ADAPTING – Perform other duties and activities as assigned.

Physical Demands
Most work is performed in a normal work environment. Work is generally light with considerable variety. Extensive use of computer, telephone and other office equipment is required. Daily work often involves moving between rooms. There is considerable attention to detail and deadlines. Intermittent driving is required to attend meetings. Occasional overnight travel may be required. The person in this position may be required to be on-call during some evenings and weekends. In an emergency situation, the person may be required to be on-site for a prolonged period of time at a designated facility.

Activities include stooping, kneeling, crouching, reaching, standing, walking, pushing, pulling, lifting, fingering, grasping, feeling, talking, hearing/listening, seeing/observing and repetitive motions.

Sedentary Work: Exerting up to 25 pounds of force occasionally and/or a negligible amount of force frequently or constantly to lift, carry, push, pull or otherwise move objects, including the human body. Sedentary work involves sitting most of the time. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required only occasionally and all other sedentary criteria are met.

Some requirements in this job description may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health and safety of themselves or other employees. All requirements are subject to modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities.

Requirements are representative of minimum levels of knowledge, skills and experience required. To perform this job successfully, the worker must possess the abilities and aptitudes to perform each duty proficiently.

This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an “at will” employment relationship. The City Administrator retains the discretion to add duties or change the duties of this position at any time.

Employment is contingent upon successful completion of comprehensive background investigation, credit check, fingerprints, polygraph and drug screen.

The City of Fargo offers a comprehensive benefit package, to include participation in the North Dakota Public Employees Retirement System. For more information on our benefits click

If you are applying for a Part Time Temporary or Seasonal position, you are not eligible for benefits through the City of Fargo.