Social Media and Storytelling Specialist

Overview and Responsibilities

Saint Mary's University of Minnesota is seeking candidates who are eager to contribute to its Lasallian Catholic mission of awakening, nurturing, and empowering learners to ethical lives of service and leadership. We invite individuals to help transform lives through education, inspired by the Catholic Intellectual Tradition’s quest to understand the human experience through faith and reason and its embrace of all who are dedicated to learning from one another through authentic conversations in search of the truth. We are especially interested in and give preference to candidates who demonstrate a vision to create and nurture initiatives that will advance our mission within the scope of their duties and who will foster a culture of dialogue that, with respect for all people, supports the search for meaning and purpose in pursuit of excellence.

 

Job Summary

 

Reporting to the senior director of communications, the Social Media and Storytelling Specialist is responsible for social media —- some paid and all organic – to champion the university’s brand voice across our organic digital social channels. As part of the Office of Communication and working in concert with key stakeholders across the university, this role crafts compelling content that showcases campus life, student experiences, and celebrates the Saint Mary’s community. This position is dedicated to organic growth, community building, and rich multi-format storytelling to amplify universitywide editorial and content strategy, enhancing the university’s brand and voice to achieve key institutional goals.

 

Salary Range: $52,000- $60,000

Main Duties & Responsibilities

• Manage the daily posting, scheduling, and overall brand presence across the university's flagship social media channels (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook).
• Develop, execute, and maintain a comprehensive organic social media content calendar across platforms (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Instagram, etc.) that aligns with the university’s brand voice and communication goals.
• Research, interview, and write compelling short-form stories (social media captions, video scripts, campus highlights) that align with long-form narratives for the university's primary channels.
• Act as a key liaison to coordinate storytelling and social coverage with crucial campus stakeholders, including academics, athletics, alumni engagement, advancement, enrollment, career services, and more, ensuring all facets of the university are represented.
• Adapt long-form editorial pieces into bite-sized, platform-native social content, ensuring organic social efforts directly support and amplify the universitywide editorial calendar.

Other Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain collaborative and successful relationships with partners across the university
• Foster positive university affinity by actively engaging with prospective students and parents, current students, faculty, staff, alumni, and donors in not just the organic social content creation, but within comment sections and direct messages daily.
• Track and analyze organic KPIs (reach, engagement, audience sentiment, etc.) to measure the impact of content, campaigns, and stories and optimize future content strategies.
• Monitor social channels for reputational issues, managing public relations statements and work on issues mitigation at the direction of the senior director of communications

Qualifications

Experience and Education Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, advertising, digital marketing, or related field is required
• 2-4 years experience running social media accounts with integrated marketing and communication campaigns
• Understanding of digital channels and best practices (Sprout Social, Facebook, LinkedIn, Tik Tok and more), including metrics and the user experience
• Experience crafting photo and video content for social media use preferred
• Knowledge of AP style is preferred

 

Essential Knowledge & Skills

• Highly collaborative, engaging, strong communication skills
• Strong organizational skills including attention to detail and multitasking skills.
• Working knowledge of Wrike or other project management software helpful.
• Understanding of and ability to translate social media metrics into actionable insights, showing a clear understanding of what makes an individual post/campaign succeed or fail. 
• Excellent writing, editing, proofreading, and oral communication skills; a focus on ad and marketing writing. Understanding of design software or templates is helpful.
• Advanced collaborative skills and team building orientation to work effectively and harmoniously with technical and non-technical colleagues.
• High ethical standards and integrity required, appreciation working for a Lasallian Catholic organization where mission and values ground all work

Physical Demands

• Sedentary work. Sedentary work involves lifting no more than 10 pounds at a time and occasionally lifting or carrying articles like docket files, ledgers, and small tools. Although a sedentary job is defined as one which involves sitting, a certain amount of walking and standing is often necessary in carrying out job duties. Jobs are sedentary if walking and standing are required occasionally and other sedentary criteria are met.

 

Physical Hazards – Health and Safety Concerns

• General office environments

 

Application Requirements

 

Apply online at https://www.smumn.edu/about/offices-services/human-resources/employment-opportunities/ and include a cover letter, resume, and contact information for three professional references.

 

Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota believes inclusion and human dignity contributes to a robust academic and work environment and is critical to achieving the University's mission in an increasingly diverse society. Individuals with expertise and diverse skills from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. The successful candidate must support, respect, and advance the mission of Saint Mary's University as a Lasallian Catholic institution.

 

Saint Mary’s offers a comprehensive benefit package including health, dental, vision, life and disability insurance, flexible spending, retirement pension plan, and both undergraduate and graduate tuition remission plans.

 

All offers of employment are contingent upon the successful completion of a criminal background check.