Social Media Manager

Reporting to the Assistant Vice President of Communications and Marketing, the Social Media Manager leads Lake Forest College's institutional social media presence, combining strategic oversight with hands-on content creation and execution. The position develops engaging, authentic, and data-informed social media strategies that strengthen the College's brand, tell compelling stories, and build meaningful connections with key audiences. Responsibilities: Social Media Content Creation and Management: Create, capture, edit, publish, and manage engaging content across the College's institutional social media channels, including photography and short-form video. Maintain a consistent and authentic College voice and ensure content supports institutional priorities, audience needs, and platform best practices. Social Media Strategy and Content Planning: Develop and execute channel-specific social media strategies and manage the College's social media content calendar. Plan content around institutional priorities, departmental goals, events, campaigns, and timely opportunities while adapting strategies based on platform trends and evolving audience behaviors. Campus Collaboration and Story Development: Collaborate with OCM colleagues, campus partners, and students to identify compelling stories and content opportunities that bring the Lake Forest College experience to life. Coordinate content across channels and initiatives and serve as a resource to campus partners on social media strategy and best practices. Student Creator Program: Develop and manage a robust student creator program, working with campus partners to identify, mentor, and guide student content creators who can authentically capture and share the student experience across the College's diverse campus community. Social Media Analytics and Optimization: Monitor and analyze social media performance, audience engagement, and channel trends. Translate performance data and audience insights into recommendations and adjustments that continually strengthen content strategy and effectiveness. Social Listening, Trends, and Issue Awareness: Stay closely attuned to conversations, trends, and activity across College social media channels to identify timely content opportunities and potential issues. Exercise sound judgment in recognizing sensitive conversations or concerns that should be elevated to College leadership. Event and Institutional Content Support: Provide social media and photography coverage for select College events and activities, including occasional coverage outside regular business hours, and assist with visual content needs that support broader OCM communications efforts. Qualifications: Bachelor's degree and two (2) years of relevant professional experience in social media, digital communications, content marketing, or a related field. Strong written, verbal, and interpersonal communication skills, including writing, editing, and storytelling. Strong organizational and project management skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities and deadlines. Ability to collaborate effectively with faculty, staff, students, administrators, and external partners. Professional experience managing social media channels and developing digital content for an organization or brand. Demonstrated experience creating social-first content, including photography and short-form video. Experience developing and executing social media content calendars and campaigns. Experience using social media management, scheduling, analytics, and reporting tools. Working knowledge of major social platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, and emerging platforms. Experience using photography, video editing, graphic design, or other digital content creation tools. Strong writing and editing skills with demonstrated ability to create engaging content for digital audiences. Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines in a fast-paced, collaborative environment. Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends to support College events and social media or photography coverage. Salary & Benefits Starting range is dependent upon individual qualifications and experience but expected to be in the range of $55,000 - $65,000. Benefits: Employee Benefits | Lake Forest College Application Interested applicants should apply online at Career Center | Recruitment If you are interested in learning more about employment at Lake Forest College, please visit Working at Lake Forest | Lake Forest College . Organization A highly selective liberal arts college located on Chicago's North Shore, Lake Forest College enrolls more than 1,700 students from more than 40 states and from more than 100 countries. Lake Forest is one of the most diverse small colleges in the Midwest with more than 40% combined are domestic students of color and international students. The majority of our STEM pool is female and includes a significant number of first generation and traditionally underrepresented students. At Lake Forest College, the quality of a faculty member's teaching is the most important criterion for evaluation. The College also expects peer-reviewed publications and active participation in the College community. Lake Forest College embraces diversity and encourages applications from women, members of historically underrepresented groups, veterans, and individuals with disabilities. Lake Forest College offers equal employment opportunities to all persons without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, parental status, marital status, age, disability, citizenship status, veteran status, genetic information, or any other classification protected in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local EEO laws.