Social Media Community Manager - Co-op

Behind the Bricks

About the company and role:

Behind the Bricks is RIT’s Finance & Administration platform consisting of a team of writers, graphic designers, videographers, and brand managers that is entirely student-run. As the Summer Social Media Community Manager, I led a team of creatives in curating content for this collegiate digital publication that bridged the gap between faculty and student culture while developing a strategy to make maintaining the brand social media presence more efficient, adaptable, and credible.

Developing Strategy Through a Transitional Period

I joined this company during a period when the platform was looking to branch out and cover a wider range of topics that would be of interest to the current student body.

My goal for this co-op was to:

  • Formulate a strategy to develop visual content that is easily shared and highly engaging for the members of the RIT community

  • Increase social media following across all platforms by at least 15% by developing a cohesive content schedule that will guide current and future admin

  • Update the visual design of both the website and brand kit to reflect a modern and sleek aesthetic

My Approach

 

Evergreen Social Media Campaigns

Although my time with BTB was temporary, I wanted to leave a lasting strategy that can be adaptable to anyone who fulfills this position in the future. That’s why I developed three evergreen social media campaigns that cater to the ever-changing college student population. Each campaign heavily relies on current events and capturing the culture of the campus as it evolves through time.

Inspired by the trends of 2017, each campaign solved the need to develop visual content that is easily shared and highly engaging for the members of the RIT community.

Examples of each campaign:

Monthly Social Media Reports

In order to get a better understanding of how the community performed, I gathered and analyzed data from all social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WordPress, and YouTube) and presented it to my staff on a monthly basis. These meetings consisted of all members of the creative and admin team and served as an opportunity to show what was working, what wasn’t, and what we could do better. Each meeting concluded with a brainstorming session that dictated how each team member moved forward for the remainder of the month.

Each report guided me closer to developing a sound strategy by the end of this co-op. My team valued understanding how their art performed on a bigger platform, helping them grow in their individual crafts.

Personalized Brand Style Guide

To successfully capture the new direction the platform wished to go in, I developed a Style Guide that includes core graphic elements, social media strategy, and website elements.

One of the biggest projects of this co-op was developing iconography that could be used to further the brand’s image through social integration. In addition, I was also challenged to redesign the website via WordPress.

In developing art styles for a collegiate platform, I thoroughly researched and abided to the university’s brand guidelines while exploring ways to creatively stand out from the rest.

Results

 

  • By the end of the co-op, I surpassed the 15% expected social media following across all platforms.

  • With an objective to increase visual content and shareability, Instagram saw an overall increase in post shares. While Facebook and Twitter did not show improvement in shares and retweets, I was presented with an opportunity to focus on adapting content per platform by studying individual best practices.

  • By creating evergreen campaigns and a brand style guide, the next co-op manager was able to transition into the role effortlessly and maintained the social media presence of the brand while focusing on new projects to support the platform.