Digital Media Officer for History Matters

This post is open to current students and employees of the University of Sheffield only.

5 hours per week, fixed term to 30th September 2017.

ROLE DESCRIPTION

The admin tasks for History Matters divide into four areas: planning content, blogging, promoting and maintenance:

Planning:

• Maintaining and updating a list of pieces commissioned/promised/in progress/in hand.

• Keeping an eye out for upcoming anniversaries, film releases, TV programmes and the like on historical themes. With editor’s input, commissioning content from colleagues/PhD students/guest contributors well in advance.

• Identifying history-related stories in the news and approaching authors to commission content at short notice, with editor’s input.

• Prioritising publication dates where there is more than one option, with editor’s input.

Blogging:

• Copy-editing and proof-reading content; where substantial changes are needed liaising with contributor to get agreement for changes (everything, with the exception of minor typographical issues, needs to be checked by editor before publication and this process may need editor’s input depending on extent of changes)

• Uploading content into Wordpress where contributors cannot do this for themselves

• Adding image (checking copyright clearance is okay), tags and SEO text (the blurb about each article that will appear in the Google search results etc.)

• Where contributors are inputting directly to Wordpress checking that the above has been done to appropriate standard and that credits are included where necessary.

Promoting:

• Launching blog post on publication day (preferably between 8.15 and 9am)

• Tweeting about blog from @unishefhistory

o In morning when launched (also tweet from @usesofhistory to push up rankings)

o At lunchtime (East Coast breakfast)

o At 5pm (West Coast breakfast) • Retweeting mentions of blog from others during day from @unishefhistory

• Tweeting directly about blog to selected twitterers who may help promote it

• Putting on Facebook

• Where blog ties into major news story, alerting central media and social media teams (editor would usually be involved with a story of this type)

• Nudging author to respond to comments on blog where necessary

• Promoting old content when it is relevant to current news stories.

Maintenance

• Checking spam folder periodically and deleting unwanted messages

• Monitoring comments coming in to Wordpress and approving/checking/deleting as appropriate

• Monitoring audience figures and identifying patterns that will be useful for promoting particular stories in future (needs editor’s input).

This post is for five hours per week (though there may be some flexibility from week to week), with an immediate start date and an end date of 30 September 2017.

This role is paid at grade 6.1 on the University of Sheffield salary scales (£13.86 per hour, plus holiday pay).

A knowledge of Wordpress is desirable, and a clear ability to learn new software packages is essential. An understanding of blogging and social media is essential, and experience of personal blogging would be an advantage. The ability to work diplomatically and sensitively with contributors is essential, as is a high standard of English and the ability to proof-read and copy-edit.

How to apply

A brief statement (one side of A4 maximum) explaining your suitability for the role, along with your CV, should be sent to Caroline Pennock at [email protected] by 12 noon on Wednesday 15th February 2017.

Informal enquiries about this post should be directed towards Caroline Pennock: [email protected], 0114 222 2579.