About the position
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System is seeking a Communications and Marketing Specialist to join a dynamic and innovative statewide team working to improve the health and lives of Alabamians. The Communications and Marketing Specialist will provide expertise for development, implementation, and evaluation of social media and marketing strategies content for Alabama Extension's Live Well Alabama and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) programmatic teams and other ACES communications projects and initiatives, and content for Alabama Extension marketing and media efforts. This position will be housed and supervised within Alabama Extension's Communications, Strategic Marketing, and Client Relations department and will work under the guidance of the Live Well Alabama and Thriving Communities leadership teams. Successful candidates will have a positive attitude and an interest in writing about topics related to increasing physical activity, improving nutrition, and developing safer community spaces.
Responsibilities
- Develops marketing and communication plans to promote the vision, mission, goals and achievements of Alabama Extension's Live Well Alabama program, SNAP-Ed programs, and Thriving Communities.
- Identify impact stories and share through news releases, promotional materials, and other reports across multiple mediums, including digital, print, video and mass media.
- Develop strategies for the creation, population, maintenance, and management of the Live Well Alabama social media pages.
- Utilize basic graphic design abilities with Adobe Creative Suite software, specifically Adobe Illustrator and InDesign, to support the team on design projects or social media graphics.
- Serve as a bridge between the Thriving Communities/SNAP-Ed team and the communications and marketing team.
- Some in-state travel to county-based program efforts for developing news releases and impact stories will be required.
- Collaborate with creative services teammates to incorporate visually engaging graphics, photography, and videography into online content, promotional materials, and stakeholder reports.
- Coordinates marketing and communication calendars, production schedules and deadlines, including coordination of work carried out by external vendors.
Requirements
- Bachelor's degree in Journalism, Communications, Marketing or related field.
- Level I- Bachelor's degree.
- Level II- Bachelor's degree plus 2 years of experience in marketing and communications services to include print journalism.
- Level III- Bachelor's degree plus 4 years of experience in marketing and communications services to include print journalism.
- Excellent writing and editing skills, with proficiency in AP style, as well as solid news judgment.
- Ability to work effectively and in a positive manner while providing excellent customer service.
- Excellent communication skills and the ability to work in a team environment.
- Understanding of current and evolving media technologies.
- Ability to develop relationships with agents to encourage continued sharing of small, everyday success stories through social media.
- Ability to maintain diplomacy at all times, possess a high level of professionalism, be customer service driven and flexible in attitude.
- Ability to work both independently and collaboratively and manage multiple priorities.
- Ability to drive department vehicles and rental vehicles to perform job responsibilities as occasional travel is required.
- Ability to work occasional evenings and weekends, if necessary, in order to meet deadlines.
Nice-to-haves
- Experience in communication and/or media/marketing in the private or public sector.
- Passion for agriculture, food safety, wildlife and natural resources and experience writing and communicating about these topics for a lay audience.
- Knowledge and experience related to website content creation in WordPress.
Benefits
- Job satisfaction! Be a part of life-changing work serving on an engaged team of professionals!
- Competitive retirement plan and benefits.
- Generous leave (including two weeks off during the holidays!)
- Fun, flexible, and diverse work environment.
- Paid parental leave.
- Auburn University tuition assistance for yourself and dependents.
- Supportive leadership & peers.
