As Marketing Coordinator in the Office of Communications and Marketing (OCM), I was responsible for overseeing the department’s communications and ticketing system with clients across campus, supporting internal communications projects, and managing the interdepartmental marketing training group.
Internal Communications
As rebrand-related projects began, I supported the assistant vice president and creative director in creating an internal dashboard for communications updates and resources using Microsoft SharePoint, with an announcement system using a Yammer integration.
With the web migration and brand update reframing the website as a promotional tool for prospective students, instead of a database for current community members, I applied this skillset to supporting several departments in the creation of their own internal-facing portals. For example, the graduate advising team in the School of Education had dozens of resources only accessible to current students, as well as forms and lengthy procedural language on its older webpages, which were not relevant to prospective students and were overwhelming to nontarget audiences. I consulted with their team and helped to design and organize a SharePoint site, which would go on to become the go-to portal for current students to access necessary services and resources. This page was linked on the webpage for accessibility, but could only be accessed by internal audiences to ensure that each primary segment received an experience curated to their needs.
As Manhattanville moved to standardize its brand voice and identity, I was responsible for creating the institution’s custom style guide in Grammarly, complete with style tips and an institutional dictionary. It took several weeks to develop from scratch, but it led to a more consistent use of brand standards in materials across campus.
Client Ticketing
In addition to supporting communications practitioners across campus, my role was the primary interdepartmental liaison, ensuring that all campus constituents could efficiently request assets, event coverage, or other project assistance. When I joined the team full-time, OCM utilized HubSpot to process client tickets and project workflows. However, we repeatedly received complaints that it was challenging for campus constituents to navigate. Additionally, it did not provide automated updates when internal team members updated project statuses, which slowed down progress and created communication gaps. Lastly, as our team began to outline the tools needed for our upcoming website migration and rebrand, HubSpot did not provide the necessary integration for collaboration with other teams and their systems, such as IT and admissions.
With the support of the creative director, I researched and tested new project management system options and presented Monday as the most ideal option. In addition to providing more relevant tools, this new platform switch generated significant financial savings.
Once we were onboarded on Monday, I was responsible for setting up our boards and workspace, including the new project requisition form. In this process, I taught myself about project management automation and established automated workflows for update notifications and ticket organisation. These changes reduced project completion time and increased satisfaction by both clients and OCM team members.
Social Media Users Group (SMUG)
Social Media Users Group (SMUG) was originally conceived by the department’s assistant vice president as a way to bring campus communications practitioners together and deliver relevant updates, but lapsed as institutional focus shifted towards expanding communications initiatives and beginning primary research for the later rebrand. After I was onboarded to the team, I was tasked with reviving and expanding the group. During my tenure as the group’s manager, I:
- Conducted research and outreach to develop a new group roster, inclusive of newly formed social media interns and their supervisors
- Scheduled and hosted monthly training meetings, presenting a rotating array of topics to educate on best practices, brand standards, and technology updates
- Created a Microsoft Teams group with organised sub-channels for members, fostering community and collaboration between monthly meetings
With these efforts, I welcomed more than 50 new active members to SMUG in less than three months.
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