Head of Social

Role Overview

Patrika Digital is hiring a fast, floor-level, and highly reactive Head of Social to build our social footprint into a powerful, standalone distribution layer. This leader will run a dedicated social/video desk backed by design and editorial resources, retaining absolute authority over platform format standards and paid social amplification budgets.

Key Responsibilities & Core Problems to Solve

• Establish Alternative Distribution Channels: Transition social media into a hard-metric distribution channel that converts attention into measurable business traffic.
• Native Strategy Overhaul: Abandon generic web-headline reposting in favor of a native, platform-first storytelling strategy optimized for native short-form video and WhatsApp-first architectures.
• Owned-Audience Conversion: Design funnels that turn casual social media engagement into owned, high-retention assets like app installations, newsletter registrations, and WhatsApp channel subscribers.
• Newsroom Collaboration: Maintain an active presence on the newsroom floor alongside editorial desks during high-velocity breaking news events to pilot real-time format bets and platform experiments.

Experience & Scale Requirements

• Proven track record leading social media for a premier publisher or content brand with a multi-million follower/subscriber base across Instagram, YouTube Shorts, and WhatsApp Channels.
• Experience directing an always-on, 24/7 newsroom social desk operating under tight breaking-news timelines.
• Prior history scaling a WhatsApp Channel or parallel closed-messaging framework specifically for a Hindi-belt demographic.

Critical Disqualifiers

• Corporate brand/agency-side backgrounds that rely on multi-week campaign lead times rather than newsroom-velocity rhythms.
• Lack of direct, native fluency in Hindi-language, vernacular internet culture (this cannot be handled via translation services).
• A vanity-metrics mindset that prioritizes follower tallies without linking social growth directly to traffic, app installs, or digital revenue.