Communications Contractor

The Stigler Center seeks a Communications Contractor to assist with digital marketing and communications efforts across all Center initiatives, including the ProMarket.org publication and Capitalisn’t podcast. They will assist with leveraging social media and online communications to raise the Center’s visibility, help foster a strong community, and connect with diverse audiences across digital platforms.

Under the guidance of the Associate Director, Communications & Marketing, they will promote content and initiatives related to the Stigler Center’s mission of understanding the interaction between politics and the economy – with a specific focus on regulatory capture, crony capitalism, the various forms of subversion of competition by special interest groups, and, more broadly, political economy and the future of capitalism in an ever-changing world. They will help create and curate the Center's voice and contribute to ensuring that the Center is viewed as a primary source, disseminator, and conduit of information on its core focus topics. 

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

**~15-20 hour commitment per week during the regular work week, with minor weekend work to maintain social media and occasionally longer workweeks during peak times

Social media & Content Marketing 

• Assist in developing and implementing social media and content marketing strategies across platforms to drive awareness for the Center’s activities.
• Help create and curate high-quality social media content (posts, graphics, videos, etc.) to increase engagement and reach. Assist with live-tweeting and covering Center events, including taking notes and photos.
• Assist in developing marketing materials and products (annual reports, event promotions, conference collateral)
• Coordinate and manage social media images for consistency and engagement
• Assist in managing external vendors, graphic designers, and writers for marketing projects
• Help maintain the Center’s YouTube channel and assist with informal video production

Marketing, Communications & Metrics

• Assist in updating marketing infrastructure (Google analytics, Salesforce, external websites, database systems)
• Help create newsletters and ensure links, images, and hyperlinks work properly
• Assist in maintaining and updating brand guidelines and style guide
• Help conduct market research, gather data, analyze metrics, and summarize findings
• Help manage and update the Center’s website
• Assist in tracking media mentions and updating the "In the News" page
• Help review and report comments from social media channels and podcast to gather feedback and maintain engagement

Other duties  

• Assist in preparing nomination documents for podcast and publication awards.
• Assist in maintaining the internal press database.
• Perform other related work as needed.

PREFERRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor’s degree required, preferably in communications, journalism, media, marketing, public relations, economics, political science, or a related field
• 2+ years of progressively responsible relevant work experience required, preferably in a similar role in a non-profit/academic setting
• Experience with social media campaigns and outreach
• Understanding of the fundamentals of traditional and social media and content creation.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication, proofreading/copyediting, problem-solving, decision-making, client and cross-department collaboration skills
• Ability to take knowledge and transform it into exciting, easily digestible, useful messages and disseminate it to the right audiences through the best distribution channels is critical
• Knowledge of social media marketing & management tools required
• Familiarity with HTML preferred
• Knowledge of content management systems; Sitecore or Wordpress preferred
• Knowledge of graphic design preferred; Proficiency in Canva and/or Adobe Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, and/or Dreamweaver) preferred.
• Knowledge of the Chicago Booth and/or the University of Chicago preferred
• Available to work some evenings and weekends 

Note: This is an independent contractor position. Hourly rate TBD; consultant/contractor to sign contract upon agreed-upon terms/policies and provide monthly invoices.