Job posting: site animator for TheBigWild.org | Social Signal

One of our favourite projects has been The Big Wild, a site where people who love Canada's wilderness can share stories, connect with each other and take action to protect our big wild spaces.

We worked with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and the Mountain Equipment Coop, the site's founders, to make it more engaging and easier to use, and for the past four months, our own Aaron Pettigrew has served as the site's animator - encouraging contributions, promoting the site and ramping up participation.

Now The Big Wild has reached the stage where it's ready to hire an animator on their own. And for a conservation-minded social media type - someone who feels just as at home wrangling blog posts and Flickr photos as they do sleeping under the stars a day's hike from the nearest human settlement - this just might be your dream job.

But you have to act now: the posting closes on Wednesday, July 22. That's just five days from now. So set down your pack, drop your oars, toss the pitons to one side and head to the CPAWS website, where you'll find this:

Social media genius wanted
thebigwild.org

Location: Vancouver, BC, MEC Head Office
Reporting to: CPAWS National
Type: Contract, part time, 20 hours/week
Start date: Mid-end August, 2009
Length: 1 Year with possibility of extension
Application Deadline: July 22, 2009
Salary: Hourly

Are you the next site animator for thebigwild.org? We are looking for someone with social media savvy and a love of Canada's wild places.

You'll be the face of the Big Wild (www.thebigwild.org). The Big Wild celebrates Canada's outdoor culture and large wild expanses: our forests, lakes, free-flowing rivers and stunning coasts. It's an open and fun online community of people who are passionate about outdoor activity. And it's people working together to keep at least half of Canada’s public land and water wild forever. You'll be the site's moderator and animator, posting news, encouraging more people to add their voice on The Big Wild, supporting Big Wild Challenge takers, and keeping the Big Wild social network pages hopping.

About you:

You have three great obsessions: the outdoors, building community and online technology. Chances are you’re involved with a volunteer or advocacy organization. And you probably have your own blog, a personal web site or an online community you call home.

You're web-savvy, confident, ecologically aware and funny as all get out. You're just as comfortable talking to bloggers as you are squeezing out Twitter updates, ideally in both English and French. And you understand the demands - and potential - of an intensive public outreach campaign.

What you’ll be doing:

• Encouraging traffic to and supporters of thebigwild.org
• Animating our online community. You'll kick off discussions, moderate comments, and defuse conflict
• Creating regular content for our blog (Blog Wild)
• Maintaining and grooming the site, helping great user-generated content to rise to the surface
• Creating and maintaining profiles for the campaigns on leading social networks
• Responding quickly to queries from the public, and networking with likeminded bloggers
• Conducting ongoing social media and web monitoring and providing reports
• Participating in promotions and engagement strategy
• Carrying out additional project(s) when agreed upon by all parties (e.g. training)

What you’ll need to do it well:

• Be proficient and comfortable with social media "Web 2.0". You're at least as obsessed with what makes an active community as you are with online technology.
• Ideally, you’re familiar with Drupal.
• Be confident and articulate, in English and preferably in French too, in public and online. You write quickly and well, with a distinctive style that works on the printed page, a static site or a blog post.
• Be an organizer who can engage and motivate supporters. You're a friendly face and diplomat who quickly responds to queries from the public, and networks with likeminded bloggers.

About us:

The Big Wild was founded by CPAWS and Mountain Equipment Co-op:

CPAWS is Canada's pre-eminent, national community-based voice for public wilderness protection. Since 1963 CPAWS has taken a lead role in establishing two-thirds of Canada's protected wild spaces -- an area over seven times the size of Nova Scotia.www.cpaws.org

Mountain Equipment Co-op is Canada’s leading outdoor retailer and largest co-operative. MEC is nearly 3 million members strong and counting. www.mec.ca

How To Apply:

Please submit resume with cover letter (can be a combination of written and other media), quoting posting BIG WILD SITE ANIMATOR by July 22, 2009 to:

Mountain Equipment Co-op
Human Resources, MEC Head Office
149 West 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5Y 4A6
Fax 604.731.3826
Email: Jobs@mec.ca

We thank all applicants for their interest, but we will only contact selected candidates.