Communications Assistant

Location: St Cross College, 61 St Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3LZ

The Communications Assistant plays a key role in the day-to-day delivery of the St Cross College communications strategy, providing comprehensive and proactive communications support across the College’s internal and external channels.

Working closely with the Senior Engagement Manager, the post holder will plan and organise communications activity, draft and coordinate content, maintain the College’s digital channels, and work with colleagues across the College to promote its activities and achievements both internally and externally, to foster a strong sense of community and raise the College’s profile.

The Communications Assistant will work alongside the part-time Student Communications Assistant on social media activity, and will coordinate the annual production of the College Record under the oversight of the Senior Engagement Manager.

Core responsibilities

• Draft and proofread content for the College’s internal and external communications channels, including print, digital and social media platforms.
• Contribute to the implementation of the College’s communications strategy, including planning and scheduling content distribution, and uploading content to the College’s website and social media feeds.
• Maintain the day-to-day content of the College website, making routine edits and updates and liaising with relevant colleagues to help ensure that content remains accurate, current and accessible.
• Plan, create, schedule and publish routine content across the College’s social media channels, working alongside the part-time Student Communications Assistant, who has a particular focus on Instagram and student-facing content.
• Coordinate routine internal communications across the College’s established channels, including producing the regular College email bulletin, updating digital display boards and supporting communications through College WhatsApp Communities.
• Work with colleagues in the College to identify opportunities for media stories and/or communications content.
• Create and adapt visual and multimedia content in support of College communications activity, including editing recorded video content, adding titles, captions and other standard elements, using established brand assets and templates. Assist with the production of other promotional materials, including coordinating with designers, photographers, printers and other suppliers where specialist support is required.
• Coordinate the annual production of the College Record, under the oversight of the Senior Engagement Manager, including maintaining the production schedule, coordinating contributions, collating and preparing content and imagery, editing and proofreading material, and liaising with external suppliers through the design, proofing and production process.
• Assist in the evaluation of communications activities through a range of tools such as online surveys, feedback forms and digital analytics.
• Work with the communications team to ensure that all College communications follow the University and College guidelines on branding.
• Act as a point of contact for the team by handling phone, email and written enquiries, knowing when to escalate enquiries to another member of the team.
• Be an active member of the University’s Communications Community of Practice and/or other relevant networks/groups, in order to share information, promote best practice and ensure a coordinated approach to cross-University communications.
• Foster positive and collaborative relationships with key external third parties (for instance, designers, printers, suppliers), to promote the positive reputation of the University.

In-person interviews will take place at St Cross College in the week commencing 28th September.

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