Manager, Schools & Partnerships Social Media Strategy

Manager, Schools & Partnerships Social Media Strategy

Position Description

The Manager, Schools & Partnerships Social Media Strategy leads the strategy, coordination and enablement of social media across Biola’s schools, academic programs and designated university partners. Working through a distributed ownership model, this position develops strong relationships with School Champions and local content contributors, equips them to plan and execute effective social media, strengthens recurring story pipelines and establishes accountability for consistent execution. The Manager helps schools and partners connect their audience needs, academic strengths and enrollment priorities with Biola’s broader institutional brand while coordinating closely with central Social, Audience Intelligence & Engagement, Enrollment Marketing, Admissions and University Media Production.

Alignment with Theological Positions

The person who fills this position must be someone who personally agrees with Biola’s Articles of Faith and Statement of Biblical Principles and who is supportive of the positions taken by Biola as contained in its Eschatology Teaching Position. As such, this person may not speak against or act in a manner inconsistent with these positions during the course of their employment at Biola.

Department

Enrollment Management

Supervisor

This position reports to the Associate Vice President of Enrollment Marketing

Educational Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in communications, marketing, public relations, journalism, digital media or a related field, or an equivalent combination of relevant education and professional experience.

Work Requirements

• Full-time, 12-month position, salaried position.
• Position is based at Biola University in La Mirada, California, with regular on-campus presence required for collaboration with schools, partners, students
• Occasional evening or weekend work may be required in support of priority events, campaigns and content opportunities.
• Any hybrid or flexible work arrangement is subject to university and department requirements.

Essential Duties

• Lead social media strategy and strategic relationships for Biola’s schools, academic programs and designated university partners.
• Develop, support and strengthen a School Champion network that establishes clear local ownership, communication practices and expectations for distributed social media.
• Work with School Champions, school leaders and other partners to develop audience-informed social strategies, content priorities, calendars and sustainable publishing plans.
• Build recurring story pipelines that surface compelling student, faculty, alumni, academic, career, program and community stories from across Biola.
• Enable schools and partners to create, publish and engage through their own channels rather than centralizing routine execution within the central Social team.
• Coach and equip School Champions, student creators and other distributed contributors through training, editorial guidance, platform best practices, templates, resources and ongoing consultation.
• Establish appropriate execution accountability through regular planning, check-ins, follow-through and visibility into distributed social activity.
• Supervise, mentor and guide assigned student workers, interns and central student contributors supporting Schools & Partnerships Social Media work, including assigning appropriate content and workflow responsibilities, developing their professional Social Media and content-creation skills, and ensuring the quality, reliability and alignment of their contributions with university and Social Media standards.
• Provide selective hands-on content creation, publishing and campaign support when strategically warranted, particularly during launches, priority initiatives, high-impact opportunities or periods of transition, while maintaining primary ownership and accountability with local account owners.
• Coordinate school and partner campaigns with central Social, Enrollment Marketing, Admissions and other relevant university teams.
• Apply audience research, social listening findings and performance insights to improve school and partner social strategies.
• Implement approved UTM, campaign-tagging and measurement standards across distributed accounts in collaboration with the Manager, Audience Intelligence & Engagement.
• Support healthy audience engagement and appropriate escalation practices across distributed accounts while maintaining routine community ownership with the relevant school, partner or account team.
• Support social account governance, including account health, administrator access, adherence to standards and recommendations regarding the creation, consolidation or closure of university-affiliated accounts.
• Identify strong school and partner content that should be considered for amplification through Biola Main or designated Admissions channels.
• Collaborate with University Media Production to identify and facilitate strategically appropriate professional media opportunities.
• Maintain a clear distinction between routine distributed social content and professional media needs requiring University Media Production resources.
• Maintain current knowledge of social platforms, content formats, audience behaviors, distributed social media practices and higher-education trends.
• Perform other duties as assigned that the supervisor determines are appropriate to the position.

Objective Goals to be Attained

• Establish and maintain an accountable, sustainable School Champion network across participating schools and partners.
• Ensure school and partner social accounts have clear audiences, ownership, strategies, priorities and actionable content plans.
• Increase consistent execution and reduce dependence on the central Social team for routine school-level content creation and publishing.
• Expand authentic student, faculty, alumni, academic, career and program storytelling across distributed channels.
• Improve coordination among school and partner accounts, central Social, Enrollment Marketing, Admissions and University Media Production.
• Strengthen audience engagement and community health within school and partner social ecosystems.
• Increase adoption of approved UTM, campaign-tagging and measurement standards across distributed accounts.
• Use audience intelligence and performance findings to improve distributed social strategies and content decisions.
• Support relevant enrollment priorities while preserving appropriate institutional, academic, community and brand objectives.

Required Skills/Qualifications

• Minimum of four years of professional experience in social media, digital content, communications, marketing or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated ability to develop social media strategies for multiple accounts, business units, departments or distinct audience groups.
• Strong knowledge of major social media platforms, platform-native content formats and emerging practices.
• Demonstrated ability to build productive relationships and influence stakeholders without relying on formal organizational authority.
• Strong editorial judgment and the ability to identify and develop compelling academic, student, faculty, alumni and community stories.
• Excellent writing, copywriting, editing and verbal communication skills.
• Experience developing content calendars, campaigns and recurring content programs.
• Demonstrated ability to coach, train and enable distributed contributors, student creators or other non-specialist content producers.
• Working knowledge of community-management practices, moderation standards and escalation processes.
• Strong analytics literacy and ability to apply audience and performance insights to strategic decisions.
• Familiarity with UTM tagging and social-to-web campaign measurement practices.
• Strong project-management, prioritization and follow-through skills.
• Strong understanding of brand stewardship and the ability to maintain institutional standards across decentralized channels.
• Ability to manage multiple stakeholder relationships, priorities and deadlines simultaneously.
• Strong collaboration, adaptability, problem-solving and professional judgment.
• Ability to support and advance Biola University’s mission.

Other Desired Duties/Skills

• Five or more years of relevant professional experience.
• Experience working in higher education, enrollment marketing, nonprofit, faith-based or another decentralized, multi-unit organization.
• Experience supporting multiple schools, departments, business units or partner organizations.
• Experience developing ambassador, Champion, influencer or distributed creator programs.
• Experience coaching or supervising student employees or student creators.
• Experience developing and delivering workshops, training programs or resource libraries.
• Experience with social media management, publishing and account-governance platforms.
• Familiarity with social listening, audience-intelligence and analytics tools.
• Familiarity with GA4, organic campaign measurement and attribution concepts.
• Experience collaborating with video, photography, design and other creative-production teams.
• Experience partnering effectively with deans, faculty, academic leaders and program staff.
• Familiarity with social media accessibility best practices.

Hiring Range: $70,304.00 - 71,112.00 annual