If you want to showcase the experience of being a student, who better to ask than the students themselves? We shine the spotlight on Boston University’s student creator program with Director of Social Media Dave McDonald. Much like with user-generated content, student creators bring authenticity, creativity, and expert knowledge to their audience.  Full Episode Details   Dave McDonald, Boston University’s Director of Social Media, joins Social Pros to talk about his Terrier Creator Program - a program for student social media creators to produce content about student life.   The program has been a huge success since its launch. BU’s social media content is fresh, engaging, and highly targeted to its audience because student creators have in-depth knowledge of what the target audience wants to see and engage with.   Dave explains how the program operates, his approach to coaching students, and why he prefers to let the students flex their creativity rather than restrict them with formal creative briefs. Dave also speaks about the importance of following trends, optimizing content for platforms, reporting on metrics, and ensuring creators always have the chance to bring new ideas to the table.  In This Episode:  1:22 - Dave explains his day-to-day responsibilities and the programs he runs 2:31 - How Boston University builds its international social presence 4:25 - Why reporting is so critical for Boston University’s social push 5:30 - What the Terrier Creator Program involves 8:42 – How the program optimizes content creation for each platform 10:07 – Why the program is open to new ideas from student creators 13:04 - How student creators highlight the student experience on social 14:09 - How Dave coaches student creators and other university departments 16:26 - The art of the pivot – how Dave coaches people through campaign pivots 17:45 - The importance of testing new ideas and jumping on trends 19:01 – How Dave balances the creator program with scheduled social content 20:30 - Why student creators don’t get strict creative briefs 23:03 - Dave’s advice on working with student content 24:27 – Dave shares some standout content stories 25:57 - What’s next for Dave’s team 28:59 - Dave’s top tip for becoming a social pro Resources  Grab your free Social Media Audit Bundle  Learn more about the Terrier Creator Program at Boston University  Connect with Dave on LinkedIn  Visit SocialPros.com for more insights from your favorite social media marketers.