Press Association has appointed Darren Waters as social media editor to focus on enhancing the agency's content gathering and its social profile. 

In the newly-created role he will have editorial ownership of PA’s presence on all business relevant social media platforms and will also support social media training of PA’s journalists and establish policy and best practice. 

Waters joins on 1 December from his editor-in-chief role at Microsoft UK, where he was responsible for all editorial content on MSN UK and the Bing Apps across the Windows’ platforms. He has also previously served as head of devices and social media at MSN UK, where he had overall responsibility for its social media strategy. He has 17 years of experience in the media industry, which includes being part of the senior editorial team at BBC News Online.

This follows the recent appointment of Pete Clifton as editor-in-chief, who is due to start in January 2015.