Starting in July 2019, I began working as a Communications Assistant for UTS' SOUL Program, a two-step community leadership and volunteering program for UTS students.
I managed and created content for UTS SOUL Facebook page; created the fortnightly newsletter for students, which includes volunteering opportunities, events, and a section on the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (the promotion of which is a key priority of the program); planned and executed communications efforts that will help recruit new and engage current students; interview students and community partners for written content.
Through my work, and the team’s combined efforts, students enrolled in the program increased to over 1000.
Paid facebook ad campaign videos
It takes just 35 hours to make a difference.
The first stage of the SOUL Award - the SOUL Badge - needs just 35 hours of volunteering (and two workshops), so why shouldn’t students take a bit of time to make a difference?
We ran this ad in the mid-semester break, targeting UTS students who weren’t already fans of the Facebook page. The number of students registered to the SOUL Award increased by 10% during the time the campaign ran.
Join, Grow, Give, and Achieve!
I conceptualised and made this ad based on the SOUL Award’s four steps: join, grow, give, and achieve. Using new rebrand celestial-themed imagery, I created a short story that aimed to set up a SOUL student’s journey as one of exploration, fascination, and discovery.
We ran this as an ad during the January-February push for new student recruitment to the program before university started in March. It saw the number of students enrolled in SOUL exceed 1000, and set up a new and exciting brand image for the program.
SDG-related content
Promoting the Sustainable Development Goals is a key focus of the SOUL program, and so I worked to create a bank of content that included short videos for social media and newsletter copy (setting up the groundwork for an SDG & Me section), aiming to increase knowledge and understanding of the SDGs for SOUL students and UTS in general.
Memes
In the spirit of reaching out to millennials, I created several volunteering- and SOUL-related memes - which were by far the posts that received the most engagement. Using cute animals and popular characters is the way to a young person’s heart, after all.
