Empowering students to create and share campus stories

Juniata College employs students in its marketing office; however, unlike other colleges, it lets students drive its digital marketing efforts by granting them control over social networks and handing them cameras, booms and editing software — the very same tools the college uses when informing prospective students and donors about the institution. The college approach to hiring, training and retaining students creates distinct advantages compared to operations that choose not to empower students in a similar fashion. This paper shares the college leadership philosophies about how to empower students not only to click ‘share’ on a social media post containing marketing content, but to create content about Juniata College. Starting with a distinctive student employment mechanism, the paper details how the institution hires, trains and retains students, preparing them for future career success and, all the while, ensuring they gain valuable insight on content and content strategy for the college and its marketing efforts.