Job Summary
The Associate Director of Social Media Strategy provides strategic
leadership for the University of Utah's enterprise social media
presence, overseeing the development and execution of comprehensive
social media strategies that strengthen institutional reputation,
increase brand awareness, engage key audiences, and support
university-wide strategic initiatives.
Reporting to the Senior Director of Brand Strategy, this position
leads a team of social media professionals responsible for
developing innovative content strategies, managing various
institutional social channels, implementing paid and organic social
campaigns, cultivating campus partnerships, and leveraging
analytics to continuously improve performance.
This role serves as the University's senior subject matter expert
on social media strategy, emerging platforms, audience behavior,
influencer engagement, and digital storytelling while ensuring all
social media initiatives align with the University's brand
standards, accessibility requirements, and strategic marketing
goals.
The Associate Director collaborates extensively with creative
services, digital marketing, web development, project management,
media relations, university leadership, and colleges across campus
to create cohesive campaigns that advance the University's mission
and elevate its national reputation.
Learn more about the great benefits of working for
University of Utah: benefits.utah.edu
Responsibilities
Enterprise Social Media Strategy
- Develop and execute the University's comprehensive social media
strategy across institutional platforms.
Establish long-term strategic priorities that support brand
awareness, enrollment, fundraising, research visibility, athletics,
student engagement, and reputation management.
Identify emerging trends, technologies, and audience behaviors
to ensure the University remains an innovative leader in higher
education social media.
Develop annual social media roadmaps aligned with institutional
objectives.
Ensure social media initiatives support integrated brand and
marketing campaigns across digital marketing, web, email, video,
and traditional media.
Team Management
- Direct, manage, mentor, and develop a team of social media
professionals responsible for content creation, publishing,
community management, and campaign execution.
- Establish clear goals, expectations, performance metrics, and
professional development opportunities.
- Conduct hiring, coaching, performance evaluations, and team
development efforts.
- Foster a collaborative, innovative, and data-informed team
culture.
- Manage workloads and prioritize initiatives across multiple
concurrent projects.
Content Strategy
- Lead the development of strategic content plans that elevate
the University's brand while engaging prospective students, current
students, alumni, faculty, staff, donors, and community
partners.
- Oversee editorial planning across institutional social
channels.
- Collaborate with designers, photographers, videographers,
writers, and marketing strategists to produce compelling,
audience-focused storytelling.
- Ensure content reflects institutional priorities, brand voice,
accessibility standards, and inclusive communication
principles.
- Guide real-time storytelling during major university events and
milestones.
Campaign Leadership
- Partner with Digital Marketing to integrate paid and organic
social strategies.
- Lead social media planning for enterprise marketing
campaigns.
- Develop channel strategies supporting various organizational
units across the university.
- Coordinate with campus communicators to amplify institutional
priorities.
- Identify opportunities to maximize campaign reach and
engagement.
Community Management
- Develop strategies for audience engagement across institutional
channels.
- Establish best practices for community management and
moderation.
- Coordinate with University Communications during issues
requiring strategic social response.
- Monitor sentiment, emerging conversations, and reputation
trends.
- Develop crisis communication procedures related to social
media.
Data Analytics Tracking and Reporting
- Define key performance indicators for institutional social
media.
- Analyze campaign performance using platform analytics and
third-party tools.
- Translate data into actionable recommendations.
- Develop executive dashboards and reports for university
leadership.
- Conduct testing and optimization to improve engagement,
audience growth, and campaign effectiveness.
Campus Thought Leadership
- Serve as the University's primary advisor on social media
strategy and best practices.
- Develop governance standards, publishing guidelines, and
platform policies.
- Consult with colleges, departments, and administrative units on
strategic social media initiatives.
- Lead campus-wide education and training related to social
media.
- Build strong partnerships with university leadership and campus
communicators.
Minimum Qualifications
EQUIVALENCY STATEMENT: 1 year of higher education
can be substituted for 1 year of directly related work experience
(Example: bachelor's degree = 4 years of directly related work
experience).
Associate Director, Social Media Management:
Requires a bachelor's (or equivalency) + 10 years or a master's (or
equivalency) + 8 years of directly related work experience.
Preferences
- Experience leading enterprise social media strategy for a
complex organization, preferably in the higher-ed space.
- Demonstrated success managing high-performing creative or
digital teams.
- Experience developing integrated marketing campaigns across
paid, owned, and earned channels.
- Strong understanding of audience segmentation, content
strategy, and digital storytelling.
- Experience managing social advertising budgets.
- Knowledge of accessibility standards and inclusive digital
communications.
- Experience using enterprise analytics platforms and social
listening tools.
- Exceptional communication, collaboration, and executive
presentation skills.
- Experience working within higher education, healthcare,
government, or similarly complex organizations preferred.
Special Instructions
Requisition Number: PRN46032B
Full Time or Part Time? Full Time
Work Schedule Summary: Standard work week. May need to be
available some evenings and weekends depending on event
coverage.
Department: 00339 - Marketing & Communications
Location: Campus
Pay Rate Range: $80,000 - $90,000
Close Date: 10/27/2026
Open Until Filled:
To apply, visit https://apptrkr.com/9790788"">https://utah.peopleadmin.com/postings/208203
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