By Heather Cass, Publications Manager, Penn State Behrend
Alanna Gillis ’24
While job hunting, Alanna Gillis ’24 stumbled across a position as a programs assistant at the Adams County Historical Society (ACHS) in Gettysburg. It seemed a good fit for Gillis, who earned a Creative Writing degree and minored in History at Penn State Behrend.
Though the organization eventually filled that position internally, they encouraged Gillis to interview for a part-time customer service position.
She was disappointed but figured she would interview for the experience.
“One very convincing interview and tour of the building—including their massive library and archives— later, I was working for ACHS as a visitor services associate in a part-time capacity,” she said. “Even though it wasn’t the job I hoped to land right out of college, it was still a job in my field that I felt confident I could do well.”
She did it so well that by September, she was promoted to part-time associate in the marketing department.
“They had been looking for someone to fill that position in marketing and had seen on my resume that I had experience with writing, graphic design, and running social media for the clubs I was in at Behrend,” she said.
Gillis was promoted again in just a few months. Today, she is the full-time social media and marketing coordinator at ACHS, where she creates and curates content for the organization’s social media pages, produces short- and long-form video projects, and contributes to marketing materials and publications.
We chatted with Gillis to learn more about her job, how Behrend helped her get there, what she’s learned so far, and what she’s looking forward to.
Tell us a little bit about the Adams County Historical Society.
The Adams County Historical Society is a nonprofit historical society that runs two museums in Gettysburg. ACHS focuses on preserving, protecting, and sharing the stories of Gettysburg and Adams County. Through our two museums, Gettysburg Beyond the Battle and The Shriver House Museum, we highlight the local history, reaching all the way back to the time of the dinosaurs.
How did your Behrend education help you obtain this role?
Both of my areas of study were crucial. My History minor helped me get my foot in the door, but my Creative Writing degree allowed me move up and achieve the job I have now.
My job is mainly about communicating with the public, whether that be to our museum patrons, to our followers, or to our YouTube viewers. I needed to have a good grasp of how to best communicate with people through the written word—a skill I felt confident in because of my Creative Writing degree.
Having a good grasp of the English language, from word choice to register, helps me effectively draft both a fun TikTok script and a more formal press release, which is the flexibility that ACHS needed from someone in this position.
My Creative Writing degree has also allowed ACHS to start new projects they wanted to do but didn’t have the staff for, such as publishing firsthand accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg.
What are your primary duties in your current role?
I am responsible for our social media pages; I create and curate content for Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. I generate daily content for all these sites, which varies from photos with captions, to short form videos highlighting our museum, to video thumbnails, to longer videos aimed at teaching people the history of Adams County and Gettysburg.
Beyond that, I am also responsible for filming and editing our longform videos for YouTube. So far, I’ve worked on nearly forty videos with a combined view count of nearly 150,000 on the platform.
I also help with our publications. This includes civilian accounts of the Battle of Gettysburg, informational and promotional flyers, and a museum guide featuring many of the artifacts on display and in our archival collections, like those published by The Smithsonian.
What does a typical day look like for you?
My day starts with a 40-minute commute, but I don’t complain about it too much because it’s a beautiful drive through rural south-central Pennsylvania. It gives me time to center myself and prepare for the day ahead.
The first thing I do is check my email inbox and the inboxes of our various social media sites. If any messages came in overnight, I’ll respond or pass them along to the correct department.
From there, I usually spend the morning editing YouTube and TikTok videos. Depending on the length of the video, this can take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or more.
After lunch, I work and draft social posts for the week. If I get all that done, I’ll spend time working on secondary assignments like publications.
When do you gather content?
Certain days of the week are reserved for filming content only; I’ll go out onto the Gettysburg Battlefield or into other parts of Adams County with our historian and film episodes for our YouTube channel. Usually, this is how I spend Fridays.
What has been your favorite project so far?
I’m really enjoying getting to put together the civilian accounts of the battle. This project is a perfect blend of my major and my minor, and it’s very rewarding to be able to work on a project where both are useful. Putting together these accounts has also allowed me to see a different type of publishing than I had when I worked on Lake Effect, Behrend’s literary journal.
And your favorite post so far?
The YouTube video “Tim’s Top 10 Defunct Gettysburg Attractions.” Tim Smith is our historian, and he and I spend a lot of time together filming our YouTube videos. I also often consult with him during research or when I’m fact-checking my written content. This was the first episode he and I worked on together, and it was also the first I’d shot and edited in this style. I managed to sneak in some jokes during the editing process, which made the project quite fun.
Have you done anything that turned out to be an unexpected success?
A few YouTube videos have unexpectedly done well. We don’t typically get more than 3,000 views on our longer lecture videos, but “The Confederate Retreat” lecture has 28,000 views, significantly more than we anticipated.
An unexpected success that is more directly related to me and my work is that I started a book club for fans of Adams County history. Each month, ACHS staff selects a book, usually historical nonfiction, and I prepare a weekly discussion on each section. It’s a virtual book club, which means we have participants from all over the country. So far, we have over 110 members!
What would people be surprised to know about social media marketing?
A lot of work goes into social media content management and marketing. It’s not as easy as just selecting an image, writing a quick caption, and hitting “post.” Often, images require editing or designs must be created. From there, captions must be drafted and edited to ensure that voice aligns with the company and the historical content is correct. The next step is tagging the correct people and inserting the corresponding ticket links, if necessary. After that, the post is good to go live. Then, it must be cross-posted to all the other platforms. All that work is for one single post, and ACHS usually posts a minimum of five times per week on each platform.
What are you looking forward to? Are there any big events or projects you’re excited about?
This May, we are hosting the Gettysburg Film Festival: Victory in World War II. We will have guests ranging from historical filmmakers like Ken Burns to authors and screenwriters. I’m excited to help with this and make connections with people in the fields of both writing and history.
What have you learned the hard way?
When I first started, I was hesitant to ask for help. For a short time, I tried to grin, bear it, and figure it out by myself.
When this resulted in content that I wasn’t happy with, I realized I had two choices: admit I couldn’t do something and ask for help or submit work that I wasn’t proud of.
I asked for help. I realized that if I wanted to succeed in this job and create work that I was happy to have my name associated with, I may need to reach out for guidance sometimes. It’s OK to not know it all.
Gillis: “Every now and then, we get to work on fun events or participate in exciting demonstrations. Two examples that I can think of are when I had the chance to shoot a Civil War cannon (above) and when I participated in a day-long leadership tour of the Gettysburg battlefield (below).”
Behind-the-scenes of filming a YouTube video in the ACHS archives.
Gillis’ workspace. “I took this while editing a Civilian Account of the Battle of Gettysburg (with my Penn State Behrend mug in the background),” she said.
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