Currently available for select engagements

Hire Social Media Director — social as a strategic channel

A Social Media Director owns social as a business channel, not a posting schedule: the platform strategy, the community, the influencer program, and the team that runs it all. They decide where the brand shows up and why, build audiences that compound, and connect social activity to commercial outcomes — from brand equity to social commerce revenue. This is the hire when social matters to the business but runs on autopilot.

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15+

Years Experience

100+

Projects Delivered

Countries Served

$25M+

Revenue Enabled

I'm Omer Muneer Qazi, a Dubai-based Fractional CTO & Solutions Architect with 15+ years of experience and 100+ projects delivered across 6 countries. I look for social directors who think in audiences and outcomes, not just content calendars — and who understand the analytics behind each platform. For day-to-day channel management, see head of social media.

What You Get

Social with strategy behind it

Platform strategy

Each platform assigned a role: where you build audience, where you convert, where you listen. Presence justified by purpose, not FOMO.

Community building

Audience growth run as a program: engagement tactics, community management standards, and the compounding asset of a real following.

Influencer & creator program

Creator partnerships managed professionally: sourcing, briefs, contracts, measurement. Influencer spend accountable like any other channel.

Social commerce

Where it fits: shops, affiliate links, and live selling integrated with the broader ecommerce operation. Social as a revenue line, not just a brand line.

Team leadership

Social managers and creators led against the strategy: content standards, posting cadence, and community tone all owned.

Social measurement

Reporting that connects social to business: audience growth quality, engagement that matters, attributed revenue, and share of voice against competitors.

How It Works

From random posting to strategic social

A structured engagement with no surprises — you’ll always know what’s happening and what’s next.

Social audit

Every platform assessed: audience quality, engagement reality, content performance, and competitive position. Vanity metrics called out.

Strategy & roles

Platform roles defined, content pillars set, community standards written, influencer program designed. The strategy quarter planned.

Team & cadence

Team aligned or hired, publishing and community rhythms established, creator outreach begins.

Grow & monetize

Audience compounded, influencer program scaled on results, social commerce tested where relevant. Quarterly strategy reviews.

Why Omer

Why hire a social media director through a Fractional CTO

Social leadership gets hired on follower counts and vibes; I hire it on strategy and systems. I check whether candidates can articulate why each platform matters to the business and show programs that moved real metrics — because a director who only knows content calendars will not survive the first budget review.

To make social a real channel, get in touch.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does a Social Media Director cost?

Full-time $110k–$160k. Fractional directors work when social is strategically important but the team is small.

What team do they lead?

Usually one to three social managers/creators plus influencer relationships. They build the function around content and community talent.

First 90 days?

Audit, platform strategy, content pillars, community standards, team aligned, influencer outreach started. Audience and engagement trends should turn within the quarter.

How is social ROI measured?

Audience growth quality, engagement rates that correlate with business outcomes, influencer-attributed revenue, social commerce sales, and share of voice. Honest about what social can and cannot prove.

Director vs Head of Social Media?

The director owns social strategy and its business outcomes; the head runs the channels day to day. If social needs strategic ownership, hire the director.

The operating system

What actually changes in your first quarter when you hire a social media director

When you hire a social media director, the thing you are really buying is not more posts, it is a repeatable content engine and someone senior enough to decide what you stop doing. In the first few weeks I build the editorial system that the whole function runs on: content pillars mapped to buying stages, a weekly cadence that production can actually sustain, a shared asset library, and a single source of truth for what is shipping and why. I separate always-on content from campaign pushes, because conflating the two is how teams end up busy and invisible at the same time. By the end of the quarter you should have a calendar that survives me leaving the room, not a backlog that depends on heroics.

The stack matters more than most founders expect, so I standardise it early. For planning and publishing I usually settle on Sprout Social or Metricool, with Notion or Airtable as the content calendar and brief hub. Creative lives in a managed library such as Air or Dash rather than scattered across Drive and DMs. Production runs on Figma, CapCut and Descript so editing is not bottlenecked on one person. For listening and share of voice I lean on Brandwatch or Talkwalker, and for creator operations GRIN or Aspire to keep briefs, usage rights and payments in one place. Reporting pulls through GA4 with disciplined UTMs and Supermetrics, so the numbers reconcile instead of three dashboards disagreeing.

Most of my value is in the decisions, not the posting. I force a real answer on paid versus organic: which content earns reach on its own, which is worth boosting, and where a modest spend behind a proven post beats another net-new idea. I decide which platforms to genuinely cut rather than half-serve, because a dormant channel costs trust. I set the ratio of founder-led to brand-led content, and build the handoff that lets a personal account scale without the founder in every frame. I also define what good looks like per format before we invest in it, so we are not chasing a trend three weeks after it has already peaked.

The mistakes I fix are consistent across clients. Vanity metrics driving decisions, where follower growth is celebrated while saves, shares and qualified traffic quietly flatline. Content made in a vacuum with no listening loop, so the brand talks past the conversations already happening about it. Approval chains so slow that timely content ships dead. Creators managed by vibes, with no briefs, no usage rights and no attribution, which turns spend into a gamble. And reporting built to look good rather than to inform, burying the one chart that would change next quarter's plan. I replace each of these with a system, then document it so the function keeps working after the engagement ends.

Who it's for

When clients hire me for this

The founder is the brand and it will not scale

A founder-led account carries all the reach, and growth has stalled because every post needs them personally. I build the systems to extract the voice into briefs, formats and a second cast of faces, so the brand keeps the magnetism without consuming the founder's week.

Three agencies in two years

They have churned through agencies and freelancers, each starting the strategy over, leaving no continuity or owned knowledge. I come in as the senior accountable layer, set one strategy and operating system, and either direct the existing vendors or replace them, so the function finally compounds instead of resetting.

Posting daily, strategy nowhere

A small in-house team ships content every day and is quietly burning out, with no pillars, no listening loop and no idea what is working. I install the engine and measurement so effort converts to outcomes, and the team stops guessing what to make next.

Juniors with no one to direct them

They have hired a capable social manager or two creators but nobody senior to set standards, make platform bets or own the number. I provide that direction on a fractional basis, coach the team, and build the review cadence so the juniors grow into the gap rather than drowning in it.

Questions buyers ask

Can you run this on a fractional or interim basis while we recruit a permanent hire?

Yes, and it is one of the most common ways people hire a social media director through me. I can run the function interim, stabilise strategy and operations, then help you write the role, screen candidates and hand over a documented system so your permanent hire starts from a running engine rather than a blank page. Many clients find the fractional arrangement is enough on its own and never make the full-time hire.

Do you cover paid social, or only organic and community?

Both, and I treat them as one system rather than two teams. I direct organic content and community as the foundation, then use paid deliberately: boosting proven posts, retargeting warm audiences, and testing creative at small spend before scaling. I will own the paid strategy and briefs and work with your media buyer or agency on execution, so the creative and the spend are not pulling in different directions.

We already have freelancers and an agency. Can you direct them rather than replace them?

Usually yes, and that is often the better outcome. When you hire a social media director you are buying senior direction, and good vendors improve dramatically with a clear strategy, proper briefs and a single accountable owner. I will audit who is actually delivering, set the standards and cadence they work to, and only recommend replacing a vendor where the gap is capability rather than direction.

How quickly can you start, and what does the first month look like?

I can typically start within one to two weeks on a monthly retainer with a simple statement of work, no long lock-in. The first month is an audit of content, channels, listening and metrics, then the strategy, content pillars and operating cadence, plus the stack and reporting set up. You get a documented plan and the first improved content shipping inside that window, not a quarter of discovery.

Do you work with B2B and LinkedIn, or mainly consumer brands?

Both. The platform mix changes but the discipline does not. For B2B I usually centre LinkedIn and a founder or executive voice, with content built around the buying committee and sales enablement rather than reach for its own sake. For consumer brands the weight shifts to short-form video, community and social commerce. I decide the mix from your audience and buying journey, not from habit.

Social media director versus social media manager, which do we actually need?

A social media manager runs the day to day: publishing, community replies and format execution. A director owns the strategy, the platform bets, the budget and the number the function is judged on, and leads the managers. If you have capable hands already but no one setting the direction or accountable for outcomes, you need to hire a social media director, not another manager.

Currently available for select engagements

Make social strategic

Tell me your platforms and what social does for the business today — I will scope the leadership it needs.

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