Emmalee D. Smith — Social Media Portfolio

12 years of impact

From local news to national brands to enterprise retail — a career built on turning social into a serious business driver at every stage.

2025 – PresentKroger Co.

Senior Manager, Paid & Organic Social · Affiliate Strategy

Leading enterprise-wide paid, organic, and influencer social strategy across one of America's largest retailers. Overseeing agency relationships, setting team vision, and translating enterprise priorities into social-first storytelling at scale.

6 direct + dotted-line reports 102% OKR attainment 774M annual impressions

Promoted to Senior Manager 2025 Webby Honoree

2021 – 2025Kroger Co.

Social Media Manager

Built Kroger's social practice from a pilot into a core business function. Unified paid and organic strategy, reshaped cross-team workflows, and delivered award-winning campaigns that became the benchmark for enterprise social.

$7.2M incremental sales 1,345% ROI increase 12.4M engagements

ADDY Gold ADDY Silver Telly Honoree Webby Honoree

2021E.W. Scripps

Senior Manager, Social Media – News (Scripps Networks)

Led social and digital strategy across national news brands. Built cross-functional campaigns with marketing, creative, and editorial teams. Managed a team of 5 social professionals across multiple properties.

Team of 5 National news scale

Promoted to Senior Manager Emmy Nominee

2019 – 2021E.W. Scripps · Newsy

Social Media Manager

Designed and executed full social strategy for a national streaming news brand. Grew engagement dramatically and developed the social playbook that became the standard across Scripps properties.

70% engagement growth Portfolio-wide playbook launched

2014 – 2019E.W. Scripps · WCPO-TV

Digital Marketing Coordinator → Digital Advertising Campaign Coordinator

Foundation years: grew from digital advertising into integrated marketing strategy. Executed audience-growth campaigns and produced digital content for a leading local news brand.

5 years · foundational growth

Volunteer · 2023 – Present Social Media Manager Chamber of Mothers

Bringing enterprise-level social strategy to a national maternal advocacy organization — building brand voice, audience, and community for a mission that matters personally and professionally.

People leadership

Building and developing high-performing teams is one of the parts of this work I care about most. Across my career I've led teams ranging from 3 to 6 people, and I approach management the same way I approach strategy: with intention, clarity, and genuine investment in the people involved.

At Kroger, I currently lead 3 direct reports and 3 dotted-line reports — setting vision, priorities, and development paths for a team that operates across paid, organic, influencer, and affiliate. I believe the team's best work happens when people have clear ownership, honest feedback, and room to grow.

At Scripps, I managed a team of 5 across national news brands, building a cross-functional culture where social, editorial, and creative worked in genuine alignment — not just in parallel.

I've also served as a hiring manager, built structured interview processes for specialized roles, and written performance reviews that center both candor and development.

Kroger Co. · 2025 – Present

6 reports across paid, organic & influencer

3 direct + 3 dotted-line reports in a matrixed organization. Setting team vision, managing workload equity, conducting performance reviews, and developing career paths for a specialized social team.

Hiring manager Performance development Matrixed org

E.W. Scripps · 2019 – 2021

Team of 5 across national news brands

Led social strategy and team execution across Scripps Networks. Built cross-functional alignment with editorial and creative, and developed the playbook that standardized social across the portfolio.

Cross-functional leadership Playbook development Team building

Case studies

Growth

Pilot to core practice: $7.2M in six months

Kroger Co. · 2021–2023

$7.2M incremental sales · 102% OKR attainment

Built a social pilot program from scratch into a core business practice. Unified paid and organic strategy, reshaped cross-team workflows, and aligned social with enterprise commercial goals — generating $7.2M in incremental sales within the first six months at scale.

Award-winning

Record ROI: 1,345% increase on paid placements

Kroger Co. · 2022–2024

1,345% ROI · Webby Honoree · ADDY Gold

Optimized creative, media, and agency relationships to deliver award-winning paid social. Drove record engagement across Kroger's paid social program and earned recognition from Webby, ADDY, and Telly.

Strategy

70% engagement growth across national news brands

E.W. Scripps · Newsy · 2019–2021

70% engagement increase · Social playbook launched

Designed and executed full social strategy for a national streaming news brand. Grew engagement 70% and built the standardized playbook that shaped content strategy across the Scripps portfolio.

Values-led

Building social voice for maternal advocacy

Chamber of Mothers · 2023–Present

Volunteer SMM · Mission-driven brand building

Volunteer social media manager for a national maternal advocacy organization — bringing enterprise-level strategic rigor to cause-driven storytelling for a mission that intersects personally and professionally.

Recognition

Webby Honoree

Multi-time · The Webby Awards

ADDY Gold

Regional · American Advertising Awards

ADDY Silver

Regional · American Advertising Awards

Telly Honoree

The Telly Awards

Emmy Nominee

Regional · NATAS

Meta Creative Strategy

Professional Certification · Meta

About

I'm a senior social media leader with 12 years of experience turning social from a supporting function into a revenue driver at scale.

At Kroger, I lead enterprise-wide paid, organic, and influencer strategy — managing a team, overseeing agencies, and partnering across marketing, merchandising, and corporate communications to move real business metrics.

Before Kroger, I spent seven years at E.W. Scripps building social strategy across national news brands — fast-moving, high-stakes environments where the content calendar never stops and every post carries the brand.

I'm drawn to brands with a clear point of view. Especially mission-driven companies where social isn't just a channel — it's a community.

Core disciplines

Paid social strategy
Organic content
Influencer marketing
Affiliate strategy
Brand storytelling
Team leadership
Agency management
Performance analytics
Cross-functional collaboration

Platforms & tools

Meta Ads Manager
Sprinklr
Sprout Social
Google Analytics
Adobe Analytics
Adobe Creative Suite

Certifications

Meta Creative Strategy Professional
Six Sigma Yellow Belt

EmmaleeD. Smith