Thesocial Lights

Group Account Director

Department: Client Success

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Minneapolis, MN

Reporting To: President + Chief Growth Officer

Compensation: $140,000 - $160,000 / year

Description

At The Social Lights, we’re a band of creative and energetic problem solvers who love nothing more than to help brands and individuals powerfully connect to their consumer by utilizing the power of social media. In other words, We help brands Decode Culture to Activate Fandoms on social media.

The Group Account Director is a client-whisperer, a big-picture thinker, an outstanding collaborator and a motivational leader with a tenacious desire to solve real business problems through marketing solutions that shape the future of our clients. This role oversees the health of a specific account portfolio as well as organic growth efforts ensuring we both service and scale our partnerships through strategic positioning and relationship‑building both externally and internally. In addition, the Group Account Director ensures the team delivers excellence in social media consultation for our clients, understands the business and marketing challenges each client aims to solve, and builds confidence in our capabilities with existing and new clients within our portfolio.

A successful Group Account Director is a key account leader capable of matrixed team leadership overseeing a client portfolio. This role requires strong business acumen and an ability to anticipate and proactively solve challenges while remaining composed, assured, and effective under pressure.

Key Responsibilities

The Group Account Director (GAD) is a critical leader at our agency, steering a portfolio of client accounts and the teams that support them. The GAD is tasked with driving growth, delivering innovative solutions, and consistently exceeding client expectations. They will inspire teams to produce their best work while ensuring the agency's continued success. This role requires exceptional professionalism, strategic problem-solving, and the ability to elevate both the quality of work and the agency’s reputation. It’s a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact on the business, the people you lead, and the agency's future.

Account Leadership

• Lead Strategic Client Partnerships: Serve as the principal leader of client accounts, ensuring we consistently exceed client expectations and deliver transformative results.
• Cultivate Senior Client Relationships: Forge deep, trust-based relationships with senior-level clients, acting as a strategic advisor on their business needs, and proactively identifying opportunities where The Social Lights can help achieve their business objectives.
• Inspire High-Performance Teams: Lead and motivate cross-functional teams to consistently produce exceptional work, fostering an environment that drives creativity, collaboration, and excellence.
• Command Client Engagements: Direct and orchestrate high-impact client interactions, including meetings, presentations, and strategic discussions, to ensure our ideas and solutions are compellingly communicated and embraced.
• Exemplify Presentation Mastery: Deliver presentations with authority and insight, anticipating client needs and questions, and confidently articulating how The Social Lights’ products, strategies and solutions directly address the challenges and opportunities at hand.

Account Health

• Oversee and optimize the financial performance of a portfolio of accounts, steering our organization toward operational excellence and financial success.
• Spearhead the retention and expansion of client portfolios, fostering enduring relationships and surpassing client expectations.
• Oversee the sales renewal process for assigned accounts outlining key partnership opportunities and driving the account strategy.
• Champion strategic initiatives, identifying opportunities to elevate client ambitions and pioneering novel avenues of support.
• Inspire and empower the team to deliver unparalleled performance, orchestrating compelling presentations and persuasive engagements.
• Oversee the financial vitality of key accounts, driving operational excellence and strategic foresight.
• Collaborate with the Senior Director of Client Success in crafting comprehensive renewal strategies, highlighting pivotal partnership opportunities and steering account trajectories.

Collaboration and Presentation Responsibilities

• Seamlessly collaborate alongside multi-disciplinary TSL discipline leads and their teams to develop social-first ideas and bring strategic leadership and thinking into all work throughout the agency.
• Collaborate with cross-agency partners on behalf of client interests.
• Present strategic thinking and outputs to clients and internal partners.
• Demonstrate presentation prowess by presenting ideas in a compelling and inspiring manner, anticipating questions that may arise and being fully prepared with thoughts that go well beyond what is written on a slide; ultimately helping internal and external partners see the value The Social Lights offers and how our ideas directly solve the challenge at hand.

Agency Thought Leadership

• Champion the establishment of our organization as the premier and sought-after provider of innovative social media solutions, elevating our reputation and setting new industry standards.
• Instill an agency-wide culture of curiosity, productivity and proactivity particularly related to content/engagement trends and innovations.
• Promote and encourage a positive workplace culture dedicated to serving clients first and delivering a high standard of work on their behalf.
• Champion a workplace dedicated to client service excellence and the delivery of superlative work standards.

People Management

• Strategically lead and cultivate high-performing project teams, advocates and direct reports, fostering a culture of excellence to drive collective growth and success.
• Build and manage high-performing teams with appropriate skills and knowledge.
• Work with direct reports to set measurable annual objectives, conduct bi-weekly check-ins and scheduled employee reviews, and provide continual and specific feedback to help each employee continue on their path to growth.
• Develop direct reports through ongoing coaching, skills development and encourage participation and/or memberships that foster growth and development.
• Identify and champion growth opportunities for agency personnel.
• Anticipate hiring needs, actively contribute to the hiring process for content and engagement roles, and assist in onboarding new team members.
• Create and present internal training content with the intent to continue advancing team skills and development across the agency.
• Orchestrate and oversee the integration and onboarding process for new team members, ensuring assimilation into our organization with the structure of the 30/60/90 day check-ins and fostering a culture of excellence from the outset.

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

• Bachelor’s Degree in Advertising, Journalism, Public Relations, Marketing or relevant field of study
• 15+ years of experience with 4+ specifically dedicated in a social media role and 4+ years of experience in a client-facing role
• Able to effectively build trust and be seen as an account leader with day-to-day and sometimes senior-level clients
• Strong time management, organization, and prioritization skills to balance multiple clients and accounts
• Able to maintain confidentiality with business relations, personnel matters and proprietary matters
• Effective presentation skills
• Proficiency in the Google Suite: Docs, Slides, Sheets
• Proficient in Keynote and PowerPoint
• Proficient in the Adobe Suite
• Ideally proficient in Hubspot

*This job description is not designed to cover or encompass a comprehensive listing of required activities, duties, or responsibilities. Specific functions may change, or additional ones may be assigned during the course of employment.

Benefits

• Medical Insurance
• Dental Insurance
• HSA With Company Contribution
• 401k Company Matching
• Paid Time Off
• Technology Enablement + AI Tools
• Summer Hours + Flexible Work Options
• Pet-Friendly Office
• Paid Parking