Ashley Meehan

An incurable optimist and passionate digital storyteller, Ashley Meehan specializes in crafting social media strategies, producing exceptional video content, driving positive online engagement, and fostering channel growth. With over seven years of experience, Ashley is a creative and data driven digital marketer.She is currently the Social Media Specialist for the University of Toronto’s Alumni social media accounts (@uoftalumni) and institution-wide LinkedIn, where she tends to a vibrant global community of more than 860,000 members.Outside of the digital world, you can find her playing with her dog and making handmade items on her sewing machine.

Projects

Goal:

• To wish the audience members who celebrate Lunar New Year a prosperous Year of the Rat and build trust within the alumni community

Process:

• Developed the creative concept and brief to align with the client's goals

• Created props and sourced materials for photo shoot

• Developed a timeline with deadlines for shooting and editing

• Co-directed video shoot alongside videographer

• Wrote social media copy and advised on proper sizing per channels

Results:

• Amassed a total of 29.3k impressions and 8k video views across all channels

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Valentine's Day Digital Cards 2019

Goal:

• To celebrate the holiday with my audience and instill a sense of nostalgia in the community

Process:

• Developed the creative concept, brief and timeline

• Wrote the puns and worked with copywriter to edit them

• Sourced images to align with each piece of copy

• Consulted on the creative process while working with a designer to create each asset

• Wrote social media copy and executed posting on social media

Results:

• Amassed a total of 55.5k impressions, 5,461 engagements and a total engagement rate of 10%.

• The highest performing post on the alumni channels for 2020.

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Convocation Campaigns: 2020 & 2021

I have worked on the Convocation portfolio since 2018, where I developed social media strategies and schedules for both in-person and virtual ceremonies. I led the development of multiple video projects, consulted on the creative approach and utilized user-generated content to welcome the newest grads to the community.

Goal:

• To celebrate the newest U of T graduates, welcome them to the alumni community and encourage them to update their contact information.

Process:

• Developing the social media strategy and initiatives

• Creating a social media schedule for the campaign period

• Working with designers and videographers to create social media assets

• Managing timelines and writing social media copy

• Executing the plan and community managing with an empathetic and congratulatory tone

Results: Since I took over the Convocation portfolio in 2018, the Fall Campaign has seen:

• a 168% increase in impressions

• a 143% increase in engagements

Since 2018, the Spring Campaign saw:

• a 211% increase in impressions

• a 653% increase in engagements

I utilize user-generated content, trends, memes and cute puppy photos to help engage my community and communicate the brand's values. Here are a variety of top performing social posts that I have created.

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Alumni Reunion 2021

I have worked on the Alumni Reunion portfolio since 2017. It is a large and involved project that takes months of planning. I plan and execute pre-event, live-event and post-event coverage to drive registrations for Reunion. Generally, this major alumni event takes place over four days, in-person at the U of T campus, with over 10,000 attendees.
In 2021, Alumni Reunion went virtual, creating new challenges and opportunities for me to engage our audience through social media.

For U of T Reunion 2021, I led three major video projects:

• Alumni Brand Ambassadors Video: I worked with three micro-influencers to record an intimate and nostalgic video invitation for Reunion. The goal was to tell these alumni's stories and to foster a sense of community online. This video was the top performing post on LinkedIn for the campaign period.

• 2019 vs. 2021 Alumni Reunion Experience Video: this video compared getting ready for 2019 in-person Reunion to the 2021 virtual experience in a fun, trendy and relatable way. I developed the creative concept and script and remotely assisted on the shoot. This video garnered over 25,643 views and received extremely positive comments from the community.

• U of T Reunion Downloadable Content Video: to encourage downloads of branded zoom backgrounds, GIPHY stickers and photo props, this video shows how alumni can bring the spirit of Reunion into their homes. I developed the creative concept and script, gathered the video clips from participants and I even appear in the video. This video was a huge success, garnering over 29,547 views.

• GIPHY Stickers: To create opportunities and encourage our online community to share content from their own Instagram accounts, I managed the creative development of these fun and interactive GIPHY stickers. They yielded a total of 312,300 views. The top performing sticker was "I met my best friend at U of T," with 77,400 views.

Virtual Hub for U of T Alumni: Social Media and E-Newsletter

The Virtual Hub for U of T Alumni is a web page where online events are promoted to a wide alumni audience. To help encourage conversions to this web page on social media, I developed six short videos featuring the page's different event categories. These videos amassed a total of 140.4k impressions and 15.2k engagements.

To expand the reach of University wide events to alumni, I curate and manage a monthly e-newsletter, which features the top events from the Virtual Hub web page. This e-newsletter goes out to over 300,000 U of T alumni and friends. In the 2020/21 fiscal year it received an overall open rate of 32% and a click through rate of 5%.In 2021, Ashley and the team behind the Virtual Hub for U of T Alumni was awarded the Excellence Through Innovation Award.

Alumni Reunion 2022

Alumni Reunion is a robust and integrated project, which I have worked on since 2017, allowing me to take learnings from each year and improve upon the campaign. I plan and execute pre-event, live-event and post-event coverage to drive registrations, build excitement and awareness for the event. Generally, this major alumni event takes place over four days, in-person at the U of T campus, with over 10,000 attendees.

I did trend research, conceptualized video concepts, wrote scripts, coordinated a video shoot, directed, appeared in the video, and edited. Both videos were top performers for the campaign and total video efforts earned 140,232 impressions, 4,730 engagements, and 76,070 views.

Speaking

I love sharing real-world lessons from the fast paced world of social media. I've spoken on strategies behind social media that resonate with audiences—what to avoid, what to embrace, and how to build content ecosystems that last. My talks have mixed trends, data, and storytelling to spark new ideas for other digital marketers.Take a look at my recent presentations: