Does your local university have an on-campus faculty-supported student-run agency? We are not the first to attempt to start an agency on campus; however, we did our homework, and I can share the ins and outs of this kind of project for all community stakeholders, including NISM experts. For students, this is an opportunity to work with real clients on marketing and social media work and get paid in a supported environment. Faculty members also benefit by connecting with clients and honing their own agency skills. Community partners benefit from quality-assured work, with a hint of giving back through the partnership. And NISM members can volunteer to mentor students through university connections. The College of St. Scholastica is a small private Benedictine college located in Duluth, MN. The community is rich in small- to mid-size businesses, many of which desire access to interns or student support at low cost. The Saints Agency was born out of many years of requests by businesses for students to help with work for free and students seeking paid learning experiences. The mission of the Saints Agency is to provide high-quality and customized solutions to small businesses and nonprofits in the Duluth area, while fostering real-world learning experiences for students through professional collaboration and faculty-guided projects.
Members of the Saints Agency stand outside Duluth Core Learning in Duluth, MN.
Saints Agency Social Media Projects
Over the academic year, a team of three students majoring in Marketing, Business Management, and Organizational Leadership tackled projects ranging from analyzing Meta social media metrics for a small yoga studio to developing a content plan for a retail mattress store.
Marketing, business, and management students stand outside Happy Sleeper Mattress.
Student social media projects are semi-structured to include:
- Complete a social media audit
- Create a social media plan
- Develop a social media content calendar with campaign content (up to 20 posts)
Students take these steps to build content for each client:
1. Brand Personality & Voice: After conducting research, the team ensures it considers the brand personality and voice in any content planning. Brand personality includes words that would describe the brand as you would a human’s personality traits. The voice is how you sound to your audience. These items are considered for drafting copy or for creating or selecting images for social media platforms.
2. Content Pillars: The team creates at least 3 content pillars for the client. Under the pillars are content categories such as How to, UGC, behind-the-scenes, and a day in the life. The next step is to match the content to the right formats for the platforms, i.e., video, carousel posts, etc.
3. Create Content Calendar: The best-practice view is to create a content plan at least 30 days out. This includes being realistic about the number of posts per week the client team can handle and the appropriateness of the platform’s cadence.
- Includes campaign ideas that could span weeks, months, or particular events/timelines.
- Builds evergreen content ideas that are pre-created and could be used year-round as needed.
- A plan for purposeful community engagement is part of the content strategy
4. Visual Content: Uses the client’s brand elements, including color palette, logo, and fonts.
Interior view of Happy Sleeper Mattress.
5. Copy for Posts: Includes intentional CTAs for the audience. Depending on the goals, the team might direct the audience to a webpage or to a form. Agency leaders approve all content work before it is shared with clients.
Students present content recommendations during a Saints Agency client pitch meeting.
Students
The Saints Agency provides students with paid, flexible experiential learning opportunities that align with both their academic and extracurricular commitments. Students who participate in the program benefit from schedules that allow them to remain fully engaged in college activities, including athletics, leadership roles, and campus activities.
Faculty
Students work with faculty to develop social media plans, marketing plans, and/or support clients’ finance and accounting needs, bridging classroom learning with real-world application. As a result, students graduate with practical experience that makes them more confident, engaged, and workforce-ready. Many faculty members are active in discipline-specific groups, fostering deep connections within the community. There is no greater joy than seeing a student work on a social media content plan for an organization.
Community Partners
Students and faculty members want to work with you! Help faculty members by reaching out to share your company information. On-campus agencies can help fill the employment gap by offering a Fiverr-like service to find “interns” to help.
NISM Community
View the websites of your local colleges and universities to see if they offer an on-campus agency. If so, this is a great opportunity to mentor or have your organization become a client to get a project done in an affordable, meaningful way. Social media work takes a village. Partnerships are the path forward for higher ed institutions and communities to thrive. Get involved with student learning wherever you are at; I promise you won’t regret it!
Author Bio
Author BioMelissa Goodson is an Associate Professor in Business Management and Marketing and the Director of the Sandbulte Center for Ethical Leadership at The College of St. Scholastica. She received a B.S. in Mass Communications, an M.B.A. in Marketing, an MEd in Education, and a Ph.D. in Organization and Management. Goodson, a former faculty member in the MBA in Leadership and Change and an M.Ed. adjunct, brings expertise in organizational strategy, digital communications, and leadership ethics. Dr. Goodson is a certified Social Media Strategist through the National Institute for Social Media. Before teaching, she spent over a decade working in leadership roles in marketing communications, product management, and strategic planning for media companies, including the Star Tribune, as well as a successful Twin Cities cooperative. Melissa’s research interests include brand management, leadership development, and social media practice in organizations.
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