@StaffsUni Social Media
Everyone who has contacted Staffordshire University on social media has most likely been in conversation with Laura Allen – whether they know it or not. Laura is the University’s social media officer, handling strategy, content and engagement. Since joining in 2015, she has launched the Staffs Uni Instagram and Snapchat accounts, taken the Facebook page to over 46,000 Likes and the Twitter account to over 30,000 followers.
“Coming from an entrepreneurial and business management background, I came into the role with lots of new ideas that hadn’t been done before,” Laura explained. “There was no Instagram account before, for example, and I also wanted to inject some personality into our social channels and that meant adapting everything we were putting out there.”
Laura’s enthusiasm for the role – “I really love my job” – and passion for the city of Stoke-on-Trent saw her win the Proud to Be Staffs Award at the University’s Celebrating Staff Success 2017 event. She said: “I’m very passionate about the University and the city so I was really proud to win the award.”
Magazine Founder
Originally from Werrington, just outside Stoke-on-Trent, and now living in Bucknall, Laura has always studied, lived and worked in Staffordshire. She attended Stafford College to undertake a Staffordshire University Foundation Degree and then a top-up year to achieve a BA(Hons) in Entrepreneurship for the Creative and Cultural Industries.
“I’ve always been interested in expressing my creative side within my studies,” Laura said. “When I did my degree, my final major project was a creative arts magazine, called Prototype, which gave artists across the Stoke-on-Trent a platform to promote themselves and their work. After graduating I secured Prince’s Trust funding to continue running the magazine while working part-time.”
Alongside running her magazine, Laura worked as a marketing assistant for Stoke-on-Trent based yankee candles and home fragrance seller Aromatics Limited. After three years growing her magazine’s readership and reach, Laura took the decision to stop its production and take a full-time job as business development manager with Aromatics. Her role included admin, marketing, business development, human resources, training and more. After a year, she left to find another job, and in January 2015 started working at Staffordshire University.
FutureFest 2017
Laura has now been the University’s social media officer for almost three years. She said: “I was back focussing on the creative side of things again, which was what I was looking for. When I was running the magazine, I had to build the social media following and this grew into a large online audience. Part of my role at Aromatics was managing their 10 social media pages, so I had a lot of knowledge and understanding of the area when I started at Staffs. I’m really enjoying my role and hope to progress as a social media strategist in my future career.”
Laura will be taking part in Staffordshire University’s FutureFest 2017, an employability event for students, graduates and employers. She will talk about using social media to find a job and the importance of a maintaining a professional, friendly persona online. She said: “Employers can see your public posts, so it’s important students and graduates don’t publish anything that could jeopardise their chances of getting a job. I’ll also talk to employers about the benefits of using social media for their businesse
Profile correct as of October 2017
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