The 2025 DigiCohort is now open. Secure your spot today!
In today’s fast-paced world, staying up-to-date with the latest trends and techniques in social media is crucial. You have likely hired some students to fill the gaps, but even that comes with challenges.
Maintaining a student team may be challenging due to high turnover rates, busy schedules, and conflicting class schedules. Students also need more advanced training on using social media for business. It’s difficult to find time and resources to provide instruction.
Despite these challenges, it’s important to invest in training student teams. Doing so brings value to their work experience and provides a positive digital space for your community.
By investing in their professional development, institutions can establish trust with their student employees, knowing that they are equipped to represent the institution in a positive and impactful way.
And when students are trained and empowered, the digital strategies are authentic, timely, and, most importantly, connect with your audience.
The Academy meets students where they’re at — in skill level and function. Whether it’s a student ambassador making user-generated content for Instagram, a brand new student worker in enrollment or student affairs, or a student leader for one of many groups and clubs across campus. The Student Social Media Academy is for any and all areas of the campus environment where students are tasked with creating social media content.
Through a series of self-paced modules, students will receive expert guidance from experienced social media professionals. Using interactive videos, workshops, and exercises, they will delve into practical information, explore real-world examples, and develop critical thinking skills essential for managing social media in a campus context.
Explore how social media is used in higher education and the impact it has on campus connectivity.
Learn to identify the mission, vision, values, and voice of your institution and find ways to bring it to life.
Harness your campus' digital landscape by defining goals, learning about your audience, evaluating your channels, and measuring the content you deliver.
Dive into how to craft compelling content and discover the essential tools needed to engage your campus audience.
Develop critical thinking skills in strategy and be equipped to make informed decisions to protect sensitive campus information. Gain awareness in digital wellness.
Lessons on personal branding, advanced skills that will help you expand your role as a content creator, and future careers in social media.
The Academy workbook has gotten an upgrade! Based on your feedback, it’s now available as a PDF instead of a Google Sheet.
It’s easier to navigate with a cleaner and more organized layout, there are no compatibility issues, and there is a printable option if you prefer to work offline and takes notes by hand.
As a bonus, all purchasers of Academy students will receive a in-depth guide that provides a roadmap of what your students are learning. You will find summaries of each module and lesson, a copy of the assignments and Discord prompts, and supervisor tips throughout to help you take the learning to the next level. Plus – there are some resources available exclusively for supervisors at the very end.
Check out our expert coaches! These pros have years of experience leveraging social media platforms in higher education for branding, marketing, and engagement.
The Student Social Media Academy offers any campus the opportunity to access expertise and training needed to engage student employees as skilled support to move your social strategy forward.
Each student enrolled will receive:
Students are involved in social media across all areas of campus, not just in your division or office. When you consider all of the social media accounts that students manage, there could be dozens and dozens of students managing an institutional branded Instagram, TikTok, or blog!
Contact socialacademy@josieahlquist.com to learn more.
The Supervisor Toolkit is a self-paced module designed to help supervisors of students develop, train and retain student staff. Supervisors will gain powerful insights and real-world examples to equip students who help run campus social. The toolkit includes:
As a residence life graduate assistant in 2002, I started involving my student staff when platforms like MySpace and Facebook arrived. Over the years, I created more opportunities and formal training to empower students to be key communication strategists, no matter the platform.
Following many years of working on college campuses, I went rogue in 2013 and became an independent speaker, consultant, and coach on digital engagement and leadership.
The one thing I miss about working at a campus is guiding students over time and being part of their transformation. The creation of this Academy is a result of the last twenty years spent developing strategies, and I look forward to meeting you and your students!
Facebook Group: Student Leaders as Social Media Managers
Still have questions about the Academy?
I’d be happy to chat so you feel as excited about the program as I am!
Cassaundra Moore is the executive director of new media strategy at Washington University in St. Louis. Cassaundra leads WashU’s central social media strategy in an ongoing effort to engage, inform and connect with the university’s core audiences. Through partnerships across the WashU campus community, she has developed and led the creation of meaningful and compelling content that assists in telling the university’s story.
Cassaundra leads the governance of social media best practices, crisis communications and provides guidance for executive leadership who create social media channels. Before WashU, she managed multiple client engagement roles, including social media, video, client education, and events.
Rachel oversees digital and social media strategy, external communications direction, public and media relations, internal messaging, crisis management, and executive communications. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, she spent close to a decade as a journalist, and joined the world of higher education in 2014, finding her passion at the intersection of story-telling and education.
She manages a team of incredible student workers each year on the UAFS campus who run TikTok, Instagram, website and LinkedIn campaigns. With her student team, she’s claimed a number of social media impact awards including a CASE Grand Gold award in 2022 for a direct to student social media outreach campaign titled Mental Health Monday. Last academic year her team’s efforts gained the small regional public for 5.9 billion impressions across earned media.
She was named to the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal Forty under 40 class. She spends her time at home with her musician husband Cory, their two children, Sara and Kyler, their German Shepherd dog, Atticus, and an ever growing slate of foster puppies.
I am a digital & social media marketing and communications professional with over 20 years of experience across multiple industries. I’ve worked on client-side, agency, and media environments, giving me a full-circle understanding. I graduated from the University of Denver with a B.A. in Digital Media Studies and a Master of Science in Marketing from Florida International University (FIU).
My experience includes building websites, blogging, social media management, digital audits, content production, crisis management, podcasting, and digital strategy with a specialty in Hispanic audiences. I’ve worked with brands such as Dr Pepper, Avocados from México, Clamato, Southwest Airlines, The Home Depot, and more. My work has been recognized and awarded, including the Latin Social TV Award for Best Connected Show (Idol Puerto Rico 2012).
I currently serve as Social Media Director for FIU, developing content strategies, social listening, training, media buying, and analytics while supporting colleges and units.
Morgan Campbell is a social media manager for the Daniels School of Business at Purdue University. She graduated from IUPUI in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations. Her responsibilities include content creation, implementing strategy, paid campaigns, consulting, videography, photography, crisis communication, social listening, and more. Additionally, she supervises 2-3 student interns throughout the year who assist with the creation of content for the school’s social media channels. Before joining Purdue University, she presented at conferences, participated in podcasts, and contributed to several articles relating to the launch of Indiana University’s TikTok account and strategy.
She/hers
Residing and working in Columbus, Ohio, Kati has six years of higher education digital marketing experience as the Coordinator of Social Media and Digital Marketing at Youngstown State University where she managed the university’s official social media accounts, coordinated media production for the university, and managed a team of four student employees. In 2021, Kati transitioned to the aviation industry where she’s currently managing social media, websites, photography, and videography for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. She continues her work with college students, bringing in an intern each year to help run social media. More recently, she joined Team Josie as the Marketing Manager.
When she isn’t spending her days online, she’s filling her camera roll with photos of her dog, Roonie, playing dominoes and card games with friends, baking with her mom, and cheering on her favorite sports teams.
Over the last ten years, I have trained thousands of students and professionals across the globe on how to craft purposeful and values-driven social media strategies that are effective and engaging.
The one thing I miss about working at a campus is guiding students over time and being part of their transformation. The creation of this academy is a result of the last twenty years spent developing strategies, and I look forward to meeting you and your students.
Rebekah Tilley is the assistant vice president of communication and marketing for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement (UICA). In that role she supports fundraising and alumni engagement efforts for the university, including its CASE Gold winning Iowa Magazine, and serves UICA in a variety of strategic communication efforts.
Previously she was the director of strategic communication for the University of Iowa Tippie College of Business, and the director of communication for the University of Kentucky College of Law. She is a Kentucky native and a proud alum of the University of Kentucky.
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