At the end of my summer internship with the Marketing & Communications department of Enrollment Services at the University of North Florida I was hired as a Marketing Coordinator. I was responsible for running social media campaigns and measuring engagement, overall project management and assisting with the creative direction of printed material.
Social Media
I had the opportunity to work on our day-to-day social presence and multi-platform campaigns for various departments. I was not only responsible for brainstorming and helping in content creation but monitoring in overall engagement. While I was there we produced the #BeAnOpsrey campaign that utilizes email integration to drive traffic to the university’s admissions blog and encourages students to apply. Within the first few weeks of the campaign blog traffic grew by 600%. The whole campaign can be viewed on the UNF Admissions Blog.
Project Management
One of my tasks was developing a project management system to track all projects from start to finish. This system was utilized every week to ensure that all tasks were getting completed on time and to analyze if there were any delays. If there were we were able to see what caused them and how can they be prevented in the future to make our processes more efficient.
Print Collateral
I was also heavily involved with the production of printed marketing material for the upcoming recruitment year. I had the most involvement in the out-of-state viewbook which is a publication that is sent to prospective students who reside outside of Florida. We worked together to develop strong content, select photography and organize information in a clear manner so that it would accurately capture the campus to someone who did not get a chance to visit in person.
Internship
Before being hired on as a Marketing Coordinator, I spent the summer interning with the University of North Florida’s Enrollment Services Marketing & Communications department. This office oversees communication and marketing for prospective students (orientation, recruiting and social media) and communication with current students (financial aid, orientation and the registrar).
During my time as an integrated marketing intern some of the major projects I was involved in were a department wide presentation marketing pitch, production and creative direction of printed material, writing for the blog, orientation and working with third-party vendors.
Department Presentation
At the beginning of July, the Strategic Marketing & Communications office presented their marketing pitch for the admissions sector of Enrollment Services. We presented to the directors of different departments to showcase what the office has been working on with to reach our three target markets, students, parents and guidance counselors through print, social media and a communication flow. For the presentation I helped organize the structure, develop and execute the visuals and review the overall script.
Blog and Orientation
I developed my writing skills being a guest student writer on the UNF Admissions blog for four different articles. Many students who were following us on all different social media would come to orientation but would still have holds that prevented them from signing up for classes during the program. When we identified this problem, I created the blog post “What You Wish They Told You Before Orientation” to help fix this communication gap. My other posts include an introduction piece called “Who is #FaithTheIntern,” a spotlight on the “Summer B Kickoff Schedule” to keep incoming fall students excited about the campus and a spotlight on one of the events called “UNF Hump Day.”
At orientation, I was involved in keeping the incoming students interested in the university. Some of the ways we did this was by offering prizes and giveaways for small tasks like the first person to take a picture with #FaithTheIntern or take a picture with your Orientation Team Leader. Other aspects of social media that I helped with would be posting photos on Instagram throughout the program and we would retweet students who posted pictures or tweeted throughout the program.
Third-Party Vendors
One of my other responsibilities included updating our pages on third-party vendors such as Cappex and Zinch. I was responsible for reaching out to the University of North Florida’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment to get up to date facts and figures then I acted as a liaison between our office and these sites. Once the information was current, I checked these sites regularly throughout the week to help answer any questions prospective student may have. Also, I analyzed each vendor and reviewed opportunities we could utilize that we are not currently.
