Location: River North, Chicago
Reports to: CEO
Compensation: $70,000 annually
Benefits: Health/Dental/Vision Insurance, 401k, PTO
About Empo & The Role
Empo is building the go-to platform for discovering what’s happening in your city in real time. From happy hours and live music to date nights and neighborhood hotspots, Empo helps people make spontaneous plans and discover where to go next.
We work directly with bars, restaurants, and hospitality groups to help them reach Gen Z and young professionals through social content, in-app promotion, push notifications, and creator-driven storytelling.
We’re looking for a highly creative, social-native Content Creator & Social Media Manager to help bring the Empo brand - and the energy of going out - to life across digital platforms.
This role is ideal for someone who lives and breathes social media, has strong creative instincts, and naturally thinks in trends, concepts, hooks, captions, edits, and viral moments. You should be excited by nightlife, hospitality, restaurants, culture, and the fast-paced rhythm of Chicago.
We are looking for someone who can be out in the city capturing content in real time — at restaurants, bars, happy hours, events, creator shoots, neighborhood spots, and behind-the-scenes moments — and turn those experiences into compelling, high-performing content that feels native to platforms like Instagram and TikTok.
The right person has strong aesthetic taste, understands internet culture, is deeply organized, and can independently turn ideas into polished content. This person will be responsible for filming, editing, posting, planning, and helping grow Empo across Instagram, TikTok, email, and beyond.
Strong abilities in all things visual — photography, video capture & editing, graphic design, storytelling, pacing, music selection, and creative direction — will be critical to success in this role.
Primary Responsibilities
- Capture real-time content opportunities across Chicago including restaurants, bars, happy hours, live music, events, creator partnerships, activations, and behind-the-scenes team moments
- Film the Empo team, creators, restaurant partners, and experiences in a way that feels authentic, elevated, and social-first
- Develop and execute fresh content ideas, recurring series, hooks, trends, and storylines across Instagram, TikTok, email, and other digital platforms
- Personally create, edit, and package short-form videos, reels, TikToks, carousels, graphics, stories, captions, covers, newsletters, and other branded content
- Maintain a content calendar and consistent publishing schedule
- Review existing content, venue assets, creator footage, user-generated content, and past campaigns to identify new opportunities for storytelling
- Repurpose strong-performing content across multiple channels and formats
- Write strong hooks, captions, titles, story copy, push copy, newsletter copy, and light website/blog copy
- Track content performance and identify what to repeat, refine, or retire
- Stay on top of emerging social trends, platform updates, creators, sounds, memes, and cultural moments
- Help grow Empo’s presence and community through creative, engaging, and shareable content
- Coordinate with creators, photographers, videographers, venue partners, and influencers as needed
- Support broader marketing initiatives including partnerships, activations, creator campaigns, photoshoots, and launch moments
- Occasionally attend evening or weekend events for content capture
What You Bring
- Experience running an actual brand's Instagram or TikTok end-to-end (not just contributing posts)
- Deep understanding of Instagram, TikTok, and social-first storytelling
- Strong pulse on internet culture, trends, nightlife, hospitality, and Gen Z behavior
- Excellent editing instincts including pacing, transitions, music selection, covers, and hooks
- Strong visual taste and understanding of branding, framing, composition, and aesthetics
- Comfort filming in real-time environments including bars, restaurants, events, and nightlife settings
- Ability to turn everyday moments into compelling content
- Strong writing skills for captions, story copy, newsletters, and social content
- Experience using editing tools such as CapCut, Adobe Premiere Pro, Canva, Photoshop, or similar platforms
- Highly organized with strong follow-through and ability to manage content calendars and deadlines
- Self-starter mentality with the ability to work independently and proactively pitch ideas
- Passion for restaurants, nightlife, hospitality, culture, and discovering what’s happening in the city
Why This Role Matters
Empo is entering the stage where how we show up shapes how fast we grow. The right person in this seat will define the public-facing version of a company scaling nationally — with direct CEO access and a clear path to grow into bigger brand and creative ownership over time. This is the kind of scope most coordinator-level roles never get close to.
How to Apply
Share the below to ethan@empo.app to be considered:
- Your resume
- A portfolio, work samples, and/or a link to a brand Instagram/TikTok you've run
- 3 posts that you are responsible for across any social platforms (personal or professional)
- 3 accounts you are following right now that you believe do a good job of capturing their target audience
