How the University of Miami Turned Students and Staff into Social Media Ambassadors
Student- and staff-led ambassador programs have helped the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine boost engagement 50 percent and reach nearly half a million accounts — without spending a dollar on paid social.
// By Althea Fung //
When a two-person social media team is responsible for representing an entire academic health system online, every post starts to feel like triage: What gets attention first? What can wait? And how do you create content that actually feels human when you’re stretched thin?
Izabela Bos, digital marketing manager, University of Miami Health System, Miller School of Medicine
That was the reality facing the digital team at the University of Miami Health System and the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine. Like at many health systems, the team was expected to grow awareness, engagement, and recruitment — without a large budget or dedicated influencer spend.
“We are a mighty team of two managing big programs. So, we have to think about how we balance our time and also prioritize,” says Izabela Bos, digital marketing manager at the University of Miami Health System, Miller School of Medicine, at HCIC25 in Las Vegas.
Instead of trying to outproduce bigger teams, they changed the model entirely.
In a session entitled “Empowering Leader Voices: The Impact of Social Media Ambassadors in Academic Health Systems,” Bos and her colleague, Kaitlyn Plowman, discussed how they orchestrated a robust social media program that boosted the health system and medical school’s social media engagement by 50 percent and drove double-digit follower growth on Instagram and TikTok organically.