Web Communications Specialist

Position Summary

The Web & Communications Specialist is a dynamic and creative professional responsible for internal and external marketing and communications, brand visibility and showcasing the distinctive value to students, families, alumni, and industry and community the college to which the staff member is assigned. The position blends exceptional professional writing skills, strategic communications, social media marketing, and student recruitment support to attract and engage prospective undergraduate and graduate students. This individual develops and executes writing, content and media relations projects, digital campaigns, manages content across platforms, and ensures cohesive messaging aligned with marketing and communications goals for UDM.

Specifically, the Web & Communications Specialist writes, edits, designs, research, develops and publishes professional level feature stories, press releases, website content, collateral marketing and communications materials, and other communication-related materials for electronic communications, websites, print collateral and multi-media projects. A major focus of this position is on the creation and curation of video content for marketing use. The specialist will report to and work under the direct supervision of the University’s Marketing & Communications Department (MarCom) to support the communications needs of the College of Health Professions to which individual will be assigned. This individual will also have dotted line reporting and work closely with the college dean to support the day-to-day operations of the college. Tactical leads in MarCom will serve as support leads for the specialist. The Web & Communications specialist will also perform editing duties as assigned and track the effectiveness of electronic communications, media penetration, marketing campaign performance and return-on-investment via data analytics. Additionally, the staff member will undergo a comprehensive orientation training/onboarding with Human Resources and MarCom in the first week or more, followed by an orientation training/onboarding with the College of Health Professions. 

 Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Research, interview and draft professional-grade, error-free feature articles for magazines, marketing and communications collateral content and press releases for media distribution in support of the College of Health Professions to which staff member is assigned. 
• Assist in story generation, including identification of potential story ideas with general public consumption value, generation of copy, and assisting in University strategy for media relations release and distribution to support college.
• Write, edit and develop a variety of digital communication products for UDM websites, including content and formatting for digital publications, academic unit websites, digital portals and other assets as assigned. This includes comprehensive, multi-tiered writing projects, associated website content and marketing content as assigned by MarCom and assigned college.
• Assist in reviewing press releases, stories, collateral and website content for assigned academic college/department and when available, across the University. This includes assistance in shepherding releases through the MarCom approval process.
• Lead the College of Health Career’s multi-platform social media presence across all relevant platforms in accordance with UDM approved social media guidelines and standards. This includes regularly posting, monitoring of engagement, responding to comments/messages, and other efforts to grow the college’s digital audience. The specialist will also maintain/manage assigned academic college social media platforms (Facebook, TikTok, X, You Tube, LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat).
• Under the supervision of MarCom and in alignment with college goals, build and manage student content influencer teams to assist in content creation and distribution.
• Assist with marketing campaign development for assigned college under direction of MarCom and in consultation with University Advancement leadership. 
• Assist with public relations and media relations, including generation of press releases and media pitches, generation of media distribution reports, as well as visibility reports from PR Newswire for MarCom and College of Health Careers.
• Assist in developing/updating college and program marketing webpages as directed by MarCom and college/school leadership for various academic programs, including copy, photos, video, statistics and infographics for assigned academic college/department. This includes working with internal University and college partners to identify and assess communication needs for website updates and online content, based on established strategic objectives.
• Ensure