Her Campus
Her Campus is a national collegiate magazine. I was a founding member for the chapter at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. I worked my way up from being a section editor and social media manager to being a co president my senior year. This project involved branding, social media management, and digital marketing over the course of a school year.
Skills
- Content, Social Media, Branding, Leadership, Editing, Writing
programs
- Canva, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, CMS
brand aesthetic
- Pink, Feminine, Collegiate, Trendy
The Client
Her Campus, Inc is a national media company outside of Boston, MA. They run a national collegiate online magazine geared towards women. Their brand is heavy on women empowerment and has a modern girl power theme. There’s a lot of bright colors, especially pink, Instagram and social media trends like neon signs, coffee art, and memes are prevalent. Some members in our chapter described the atmosphere as “If a sorority ran an online magazine.”
Goals
Because we were a chapter of a national magazine we had certain requirements we had to meet weekly. We also received sponsored content requests. Twice a year they would send us “Survival Kits” which had items that we could use to make social media posts, reviews in our articles, or use for club giveaways. I used ours to create an incentive program to increase club engagement. We got items from brands like Aéropostale, Krazy Glue, Bed Head, and more.
6 articles weekly
6 social media posts weekly, at least two on each platform
Sponsored content posts and club events
Process & Challenges
The challenge with Her Campus was building a brand from scratch for our individual chapter, while also following a brand that had already been established by the national office. I looked at their social media for inspiration to make sure we were aligned, while also trying to make it relevant to our own campus students.
We chose a lot of pinks, a lot of girl power and girl boss motifs and quotes, and a lot of memes. Nationals posts like Teen Vouge or other teen magazines so we also looked there for inspiration. Finally we looked at our own on campus social media pages and publications to make sure we were relevant to our own student base and representing ourselves inline with the school’s own public branding.
results
The way our campus was set up we did a lot of print materials to pass out at on campus events and tabling in our campus marketplace. We also did a good deal of social media to promote our chapter and student work. In the end we got a 50% increase in club members in a month and successfully established a brand that is even stronger now, three years later, with their current leadership.
Print Materials
Social Posts
my Posts
Final Thoughts
Overall, Her Campus was a great learning experience in publication, digital spaces, and leadership. The national office held us to high standards and we really had to follow and implement a brand and hold our own standards high enough to fit that. We were also learning a lot on our own through trial and error on what was going to work with our specific audience. Overall, I wouldn’t change the experience of creating a brand form scratch for anything in the world.
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© Brigid Downey 2021