Communications Officer

PURPOSE

The post holder will be responsible for the development and delivery of a professional 360˚ communications service for the College and its ancillary operations. The main responsibility will be to develop strategies to raise the profile of the College by building effective PR/marketing campaigns which facilitate the successful growth of the College and its course offer using a range of communications tools. The Communications Officer will support all events (e.g. Open Days, Awards evenings) and ensure that maximum publicity is gained for the college with the objective of driving student recruitment and raising the profile of the College.

DUTIES

1. Work with the Marketing Manager and curriculum staff to develop targeted public relations, social media campaigns and marketing plans, schedules, processes and procedures in accordance with the college’s marketing objectives and to meet recruitment targets.

2. Implement activity that supports digital and social media marketing across multiple digital channels.

3. Develop, implement and maintain a comprehensive Public Relations/Social Media strategy and support the development of the organisation’s wider communications policies, rules and engagement.

4. Monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of all communications activity against key performance indicators and produce regular reports, using the information to inform future PR/Marketing strategies.

5. Generate engaging copy for online posts, media releases and other communications such as alumni profiles and course guide copy that appeals to target audiences including 16-19 year-olds, university level students, prospective adult learners, employers and other stakeholders.

6. Develop the college’s links with local, national and trade media in order to maximise opportunities to generate positive coverage, responding to out of hours crisis-related media enquiries when necessary.

7. Use social media to generate more traffic to the website and encourage the adoption of relevant social media techniques into the corporate culture of the College.

8. Be proactive and liaise with members of staff to identify and produce news stories and case studies as well as photographic/digital content that can be shared with the media and on the College’s online platforms.

9. Manage the College’s presence on social networking sites including the day-to-day content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, reacting to out of hours crisis communications when necessary .

10. Work with the Marketing Manager and the Digital Marketing Apprentice when required on marketing campaigns and to deliver specifically the digital element of campaigns including digital advertising, e-marketing, and on-line web-based activities.

11. Responsibility for planning, managing resources and workload to meet the set timelines for campaigns, publications, prospectuses and events.

12. Ensure social media is integrated into wider marketing campaigns and communications tools.

13. Work with the marketing team and wider colleagues to share best practice and to identify and develop cross-college social media activities.

14. Keep up to date with new and effective social media tools and techniques.

15. Development of internal marketing campaigns and communication vehicles including a calendar of internal communications activity.

16. Proactively contribute to copy writing activities: advertisements/social media sites, other publications, including prospectuses, course briefs, unit descriptors etc, SEO content-writing (ensuring keywords and descriptors are added to all courses).

17. Commit to and participate in activities as required, including but not limited to: enrolment & open events; Community Fun Day, community events, schools events and presentations. NB: Must be prepared to work flexibly to attend weekend and evening events.

18. To work with the wider marketing team to share best practice and to identify, develop & facilitate cross college marketing activities and opportunities for further growth.

19. To contribute to planning annual marketing and communications campaigns to make effective use of the budget.

20. To contribute to the operations of all marketing activities i.e. Open Events, Schools Events, FE & HE Awards & other marketing initiatives.

21. To produce media plans to raise the profile and build the professional reputation of the College.

22. To work with local and national journalists and develop excellent relationships to engender positive media coverage of the College. Develop an understanding of their agendas to achieve appropriate placement of stories.

23. Provide media briefings and plan and organise interviews, photo calls and press conferences as required.

24. Undertake media monitoring and analysis and report on PR coverage.

25. Keep up–to-date on news stories and current affairs affecting the College and the wider further education sector and share updates.

26. To actively support the Marketing Manager to deliver all aspects of the College marketing strategy.

27. To undertake other duties which may be required as a member of the marketing team, as & when appropriate

PERSON PROFILE

“The College supports the Skills for Life agenda and recognises the importance of all adults having functional literacy and numeracy whatever their role. All staff are therefore given the support to gain a level 2 qualification in literacy and / or numeracy if they do not already have one and all teaching staff are expected to promote the basic skills of their learners within their subjects.”

The successful candidate must demonstrate:

 Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

 Ability to manage and prioritise large workloads and work as part of a team

 Ability to work to short time-frame deadlines and to work on own initiative.

 Ability to write clearly and appropriately for diverse audiences in print and on-line

 Highly creative and positive approach to meeting objectives.

 Excellent interpersonal skills, capability to motivate, influence, persuade and facilitate action at the highest level

 A strong commitment to the high standards and ethos of the team, and to the vision and values of the

College

 Flexible approach to working hours, locations and a willingness to support a wide variety of activities within the college, including at weekend and evening events.

 A commitment to the College’s policy of equal opportunity.