Social Media for nonprofit health care organizations

In September 2019, I was hired onto the Marketing & Events Team at Michigan Medicine's Adolescent Health Initiative (AHI) as their Marketing & Communications Assistant. AHI is a nonprofit extension of Michigan Medicine's Community Health Services (CHS), and as an organization, their mission is to advance innovative adolescent-centered health care through practice improvement, education, research, and youth and community engagement.

As a brand, ​​AHI's tone is evidence-based, inclusive, youth-centered, and politically neutral. As an organization, they use jargon-free language with call-to-actions, informal, while speaking from a human perspective. They address topics that can be controversial, and strive to communicate complicated ideas with respect to all parties involved, while above all, encourage the agency of adolescents.

My primary focus at AHI is managing the production and distribution of their external communications. This involves coordinating with AHI's interdisciplinary staff to promote their work across their website, social media (SM) platforms, bi-weekly newsletter, and external outreach. This involved maintaining their 4 social media accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram) with a social media calendar. ​
Here is a sample of the yearly social media calendar I created and maintained to track content creation, including copy, date scheduled to go live, and what platforms the post would go on.

Content creation

Social media, if utilized correctly, should tell your brand's story in a visual way that encourages action among your target audience. Below is some of the content and social media campaigns I have developed during my time at AHI.
With the racial reckoning that took place in the Summer of 2020, it positioned AHI as an organization to think more critically about what resources and information we create and share to better reach all members of the community.

As the Marketing & Communications Assistant, this meant examining our social media, newsletter, and the website and making goals to reach more marginalized populations of health care professionals.

With the support of the AHI Team and my own ongoing learning, I began integrating racial justice-centered resources and supporting trainings into the social media calendar. Additionally, I spearheaded our #AHIforRacialJustice social media campaign that expanded Black History Month into Black History year -- diving deeper into topics such as intersectionality, social determinants of health, and medical mistrust. 

As a result, I disseminated resources to nearly 10,000 health care professionals to better prepare them to center anti-racist practices in their work.  
Copy: LGBTQ+ youth are a diverse, vibrant, and resilient population that deserve to feel valued and heard.⁣
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Young people in the LGBTQ+ community have specific health care needs that need to be supported and affirmed. ⁣
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You can learn more about adolescent-centered LGBTQ+ best practices here. #Pride2021

Graphic were created with Adobe Illustrator. 

Leveraging influencers

Testimonials

"Rachel has done an outstanding job of weaving Michigan Medicine values into her work. She is intentional and thoughtful in her Marketing practices, and always brings care and integrity to her work. She actively challenges herself to be learning, and think critically about representing AHI and Michigan Medicine in the most responsive and inclusive way possible. Rachel is innovative in her approaches to Marketing and Communications. She constantly challenges AHI to think of new ways to reach their communities in a way that feels supportive. Rachel also incorporates team feedback into her work, and is always looking for ways to include more voices in the work. I’m proud of the work Rachel has done in response to meeting both AHI & Michigan Medicine values. She is a true asset to the institution and to the field."
-  Janine Driver, Marketing Specialist at the Adolescent Health Initiative.

"Rachel was my digital strategist for a year. I'm incredibly pleased with her innovation, work ethic, persistence, diplomacy, and creativity. She does more than sit back and let me dictate to her. She jumps in as a valued collaborator.  If needed, she has learned a new skill and pursued formal education to assist in any task I ask. If you have the opportunity to work with Rachel DO IT, she's like a whole team in one person,"
- Pamela Stewart, author.

"Rachel approaches all projects with heart and a lot of passion. She envelopes herself in the subject matter of her work, and she strives for perfection. She's not afraid to reach out when she needs help, wants to do more, or is looking for another perspective on things. Rachel is someone I would turn to for projects that need a creative lens or greater sensitivity. She is encouraging -- both personally and professionally -- and cheers for all to succeed. She's sure to bring an aura of positivity wherever she goes,"
- Caitlin Taylor, Communications Coordinator for Airport Community Schools, former Editor-in-Chief of Her Campus-Michigan State University.

"Rachel has gone above and beyond for Project LETS-MSU. She has brought many incredible ideas to the table and has never failed to execute them. Her creativity and passion is definitely noticeable in her work,"
- Sonali Solanki, former President of Project LETS-MSU.