Cat Prill, Marketing Coordinator at Lancaster University having worked at departmental, central and faculty level in a range of roles. All of this helps to position her skills in contributing to building the community the University has across its social channels. Cat works with the campaigns team at Lancaster, creating and amplifying fresh and distinctive content. An advocate for student voice, accessibility, diversity, visibility and representation in content, she believes the HE sector can continually grow to be a better ally for the young people it supports.

She’s talked at numerous events about how to cultivate the right conversation through channels in order to connect with a youth audience. She also has the most insanely cute puppy.

In this episode we talk about what makes online communities work, how Lancaster approach being an inclusive community and how to humanise your online voice.

This episode we speak to Emma Gilmartin, Head of Social Media and Student Communications at the University of Glasgow. 

We explore how to maintain an authentic voice across channels, why it's important to develop your community - particularly when issues arise -  and how all aspects of your community can play its part. 

Emma's award-winning activity at the University of Glasgow stems from the university's drive to be recognised as "world changers" yet reflective and supportive of its existing community and all things #TeamUofG - all of which is played out effectively through its social media presence. 

Universities have a complex campus community to reflect when it comes to engaging current and prospective youth audiences. Azeem Ahmad has worked in digital marketing for a while, moving from agency to client side and then over to the Higher Education sector, working as Digital Marketing Manager at Staffordshire University. 

He shares how he used data to inform his approach as well as talks on another issue he's been talking about recently too.... the lack of diversity at event line-ups. We also bring this into the context of how to ensure the right voices are amplified on campus to better reflect how diverse a campus community truly is. 

He also hosts his own podcast Azeem Digital Asks @azeemdigiasks 

Mara is the Director of Digital Communications for global youth charity, One Young World. Valuing a youth audience is one thing, but empowering it to create change is what One Young World is best known for. We talk about how Mara landed at One Young World, ask for advice on how to help develop young people's voice through different lines of communications and asked how they've done this through lockdown as well as how to convert that interest into activism. 

We also ask for where she turns to for inspiration;  Start Up Grind, Mission 1.5, Hubspot Newsletter

Follow Mara on Twitter https://twitter.com/mara_a_s  

Alistair has worked in digital marketing for over 12 years, with around 6 years working in the Higher Education sector. Currently working at The University of Manchester, he shares how he and his team reflect youth voice in the content they deliver, as well as value youth voice to shape the work that they do and inform how to get the tone right. 

We also find out what brand and campaign Alistair thinks do a great job of engaging a youth audience and what book and podcast he recommends we check out. 

Follow Alistair on Twitter https://twitter.com/alistairbeech 

On brands/campaigns that do a great job engaging youth audiences, Alistair shouts out PE with Joe Wicks  and Adidas 

Books: Predatory Thinking by Dave Trott

Podcasts: Social in Six by Social Chain  and Thought Feeder