Job Description
Who We Are
MSU’s Center for Entrepreneurship and Outreach (E-Center) empowers students to plan, launch and grow successful local and global companies based on new ideas or MSU-invented technology. Our companies are graded in the real world – by success or failure with actual, paying customers. We use applied learning to strengthen our pipeline of entrepreneurs from K-12 to college students to graduates. We have broad involvement of alumni and friends to help mentor, coach and invest in our startups. Our priority on generating a track record of exits and profitable local businesses makes us a national leader in this field and motivates ever-increasing investor interest in these areas. These companies contribute to a thriving young professional community, cementing Starkville as the startup hub of Mississippi and propelling our expansion throughout the Southeast.
Where You Fit
The Marketing Associate is responsible for delivering messaging from the E-Center to students, faculty, and external partners. This position shapes the messaging, selects tools, and executes delivery across a wide range of channels and mediums. This position’s principal goal is to recruit students and faculty to become involved in E-Center programs. The second major goal is to promote startup success stories and help startups get featured in the local and national press. Finally, the Marketing Associate should ensure that both internal and external stakeholders stay informed about the E-Center’s services and work. This position directly supports Goal 6 of our 2021-2031 strategic plan and reports to the Director.
Expectation
This is a broad role with significant responsibility, high expectations, and considerable freedom. Your day-to-day activity will be often somewhat undefined, and you must be a self-starter. While assigned to a specific team, you are expected to assist with all aspects of the CEO. Sometimes this includes seemingly mundane yet necessary tasks like cleaning workspaces, organizing files, and running errands. Other times it includes meeting and having lunch with actual billionaires. Our student team must handle both situations with enthusiastic professionalism. We are focused on driving team wins. Like team sports, we expect you to help us win the game, by working to the best of your abilities to help ultimately form startup companies that exit the program successfully.
Primary Responsibilities
- Plan, organize, and execute marketing campaigns to recruit student and faculty entrepreneurs
- Work closely with the Graphic Design Associate to regularly develop engaging collateral and materials
- Lead efforts to source story leads and construct short narratives that highlight successful entrepreneurs.
- Collaborate and seed story ideas to journalists that can help entrepreneurs gain meaningful press exposure
- Maintain persistent social media messaging on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
- Develop new and creative ideas to increase the reach of all target audiences.
- Greet office guests, answer questions, and direct to proper individuals
- Assist with paperwork, answering telephones, filing correspondence, running errands on campus, stuffing envelopes, making copies, cleaning workspaces, and researching topics online
- Make suggestions on how to streamline processes or increase the efficacy of program
- Complete other duties as requested by professional staff
Minimum Qualifications
- Currently enrolled at Mississippi State University
- Maintains good academic standing with at least a 2.5 GPA
- Demonstrated examples of managing an organization’s social media
Preferred Qualifications
- Currently working on a new startup or prior experience with a startup company
- Extensive, demonstrated ability to manage multi-channel, organizational-level social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, ect)
- Experience with social management tools such as Buffer, Hootsuite, ect
- Experience with managing newsletters
- Experience with writing press releases, stories, or other similar PR
- Experience with Canva
Position Details
- Type: Part-time (up to 20-hr/wk)
- Pay Range: $10-15/hr
- Benefits: Not Eligible
- Restrictions: Currently enrolled MSU students in good academic standing