When Jacqueline DuBois remembers her time as an intern, she imagines driving to the Starbucks on 13th and Capitol, ordering an iced shaken espresso, and opening her laptop to the Auxiliary Services social media pages.
DuBois began her internship with an iPhone and a vision of what Auxiliary Services’s social media presence could become. Now, she leaves behind a creative team of three social media interns, two photography interns, and successful social media accounts for six separate units.
“I got onto Aux in April of 2022, and I started building out what accounts would be made and how each account would look,” DuBois said. “A lot of planning happened in terms of building the social media channels.”
Each unit’s social media accounts became unique reflections of how that unit served IUPUI students. DuBois remembers transforming the IUPUI Bookstore accounts from internal news to a bright and colorful feed dedicated to celebrating the products the bookstore has to offer.
“For the bookstore, I wanted to start bringing in models from IUPUI to be able to showcase students on the page,” DuBois said.
Another one of DuBois’s social media changes was an unexpected, but savvy, marketing technique: incorporating memes into the Auxiliary Services accounts. DuBois says that memes are a great way to boost engagement on a social media page as students share and repost them.
“One of our best performing posts was that Barbie and Ken meme where she’s holding Ken,” DuBois said.
As Auxiliary Services’ social media presence grew, DuBois recognized a need for a team of interns to grow alongside it. She believes the best way to inspire creativity in marketing, regardless of the company or job description, is through collaboration.
“I like social media in terms of the creativity, but thinking about it as a 40 hour a week job, you have to always be creative, which is why I think it is important to have huge teams of creatives in social media,” DuBois said.
Initially, DuBois was responsible for posting on all Auxiliary Services related accounts. However, she soon requested a second social media intern dedicated to the Center for Young Children and mascot social media. Following that was a sports marketing intern for the IU Natatorium and Carroll Stadium accounts.
“When all the IU Indianapolis stuff started to get introduced and Aux began switching things over, I was like, we need to have more people on our social media and our creative team,” DuBois said. “That’s when we interviewed for the CYC and mascot intern, and I met Sawyer, who is our social media sports marketing intern, at a panel a year ago.”
DuBois also suggested hiring photography interns to provide the Auxiliary Services social media with a more professional look. Now, Auxiliary Services boasts two photography interns who are able to cover events across all units.
“I knew getting a photographer would step our social media up tremendously,” DuBois said.
One of these photography interns was Via Keith. DuBois and Keith collaborated on posts for the bookstore and main Auxiliary Services social media accounts.
“Knowing and working with Jaqueline has been a great privilege,” Keith said. “She is very driven with an outstanding ambition in any work environment. I have loved being her co-worker as well as her friend.”
Along with helping to grow the Auxiliary Services network, DuBois spent her college years building her personal network. After entering college separated by masks and quarantines, DuBois feels she is making up for lost time with her community.
“Since freshman year, I’ve grown to love being around people and surrounding myself with people that come from different walks of life and have different motivations and passions,” DuBois said.
In the future, DuBois hopes to find a job related to marketing research. Her time at IUPUI taught her that, in addition to social media work, she is also a passionate researcher, writer, and lifelong learner.
“Learning about why people do what they do, and why they make buying choices that they do, is so interesting to me,” DuBois said.
Thanks to DuBois, Auxiliary Services’ social media presence has become more unique and compelling, and its creative intern team has become more collaborative, providing opportunities for future students to apply their learning through on-campus work experience. Auxiliary Services congratulates Jacqueline DuBois on her graduation and wishes her the best of luck in the future.
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