Associate Director, Social Media, Advancement Communications

Position Summary
The University Advancement team at Washington University in St. Louis is seeking an experienced, creative, innovative, and analytical individual to join Advancement Communications’ digital strategy team as associate director, alumni social media. The Advancement Communications team strives to inspire lifelong engagement and philanthropy through strategic, creative communications in collaboration with advancement and university partners.

Our social media channels exist to engage alumni, promote events and opportunities, and encourage participation in university giving days. WashU alumni are passionate about their alma mater, but they aren’t always aware of the many opportunities to stay engaged. Our goal is to connect with them and serve as a reliable source of helpful information, university and alumni news, nostalgic content, and a place to connect with other alumni who love WashU.

This new position will report to the director of digital strategy and collaborate across UA teams to develop and execute a comprehensive social media strategy that engages our existing audiences and attracts new followers. This person will create and curate compelling and relevant content for our three primary channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) and our LinkedIn alumni group and oversee the WashU Alumni YouTube channel.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities
– Day-to-day activities related to maintaining and growing audiences on primary WashU alumni channels (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter). Develop, schedule, and post original content tailored to audience and channel; design and produce custom graphics and text that align with WashU’s brand and target audiences; respond to comments and messages and uphold house rules and best practices for all accounts.
– Develop, implement, and maintain foundational social media strategy that aligns with University Advancement goals; collaborate with UA colleagues and university partners in support of strategy; regularly share content calendar and campaign results with UA staff.
– Track, analyze, and monitor performance of organic and paid content and for all alumni social accounts and report regularly to senior leadership.
– Monitor social media trends and successful campaigns of our peer institutions; attend conferences, workshops, and trainings to gain additional expertise; represent UA’s social media efforts at the university level and work with social media and communications teams throughout the university to promote major events and facilitate cross promotion of content.
– Develop and manage social ad campaigns that support UA’s fundraising and engagement goals. Work with partners in UA to create a budget and monitor ad effectiveness to make the best use of funds.
– Perform other duties as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications
– Three – five years’ experience with social media management in higher education or similar non-profit organization.
– Three years’ experience in social media management, including with Meta Business Suite, Meta Ads Manager, and Twitter Ads Manager.
– Experience creating and maintaining a comprehensive social media strategy and content calendar.
– Excellent photography skills.
– Experience with Adobe Creative Suite.
– Experience with social media management tools (Hootsuite, Sprout Social, Buffer, etc.) and analytics platforms.
– Experience with video editing software.
– Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a keen eye for detail.
– Mastery of best practices of writing for the web or social media platforms
– Demonstrated planning and time-management skills.
– Strong project management skills and ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously.
– Strong understanding of the importance of a cohesive and consistent visual brand identity.
– Ability to organize multiple layers of content and maintain consistency in voice, key messaging and site architecture; ability to engage in an iterative writing process, negotiate input and incorporate revisions from multiple subject matter experts.
– Experience with search engine optimization and search engine marketing practices.
– Strong desire to develop new knowledge and stay abreast of new social/digital trends.
– Excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to collaborate with university colleagues at every level and interact with students, alumni, event attendees, etc. expressed on social media.

Required Qualifications
– Bachelor’s degree in English, Journalism, Communications or Marketing.
– At least five years of professional experience with writing, editing and optimizing content for digital communications.
– A strong portfolio that demonstrates knowledge in writing and organizing content for the web.

Washington University’s collective success is greatly attributed to the passion and outstanding efforts of our community. Our faculty and staff are committed to excellence and dedicated to carrying out our missions of research, teaching and patient care.

WashU prides itself on being a place where people matter and serious work is done. Our people work together in an inclusive community that celebrates diverse perspectives, collaboration and innovation. We are a community of individuals inspired to work together to develop big ideas and tackle challenging problems.

We value the well-being of our people. Washington University strives to create a positive employee experience where faculty and staff thrive, both personally and professionally. Our faculty and staff find meaning, connection and vitality in their work and life with a healthy work-life balance and support to learn, grow and make an impact at WashU, the community and the world.