Creating A Positive Social Media Presence WVU’s Department of Communication Studies

For the last three months I worked for WVU’s Department of Communication Studies as a Digital and Social Media Specialist. In this position I held several responsibilities and job roles, such as:

• Designing, executing an editorial calendar of planned commu-nications via digital media,

• creating “sticky content” for delivery through appropriate digi-tal media platforms as specified by the editorial calendar,

• drafting press releases for submission to local media, including on-campus media outlets and press offices,

• creating multimedia content for distribution through Depart-ment YouTube and SlideShare accounts,

• identifying unique opportunities to incorporate Department-re-lated news and interests into ongoing campus and regional events.

I had four main platforms that I was largely responsible for; Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and the Department of Communi-cation Studies website. Using these four platforms as my tools, I provided the department with various services such as promoting events sponsored by the department and the its affiliated Frater-nity, Lambda Pi Eta, provided live coverage for the department’s events, conveyed important information to members of the depart-ment and ‘followers’ of the department, and portrayed the depart-ment in a positive manner such that it would encourage more peo-ple to become involved with the department.

My main objective in the work I did for the department was to create and maintain a positive social media presence. This was done in several different ways but they all revolved all the four tiers of social media:

• Education• Collaboration• Communication• Entertainment

About MyInternship About My Poster

My poster presents the four platforms that I worked with this semster; the department website, Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter. I arranged the four platforms into a Venn diagram to show how all my work overlapped, connected, and built upon each other. In or-der to create a positive social media presence I needed to use all four of these platforms effectively.

The Venn diagram shows how each platform linked to each other and ultimately centered around the department website, because that was the center stone of all my work. When all is said and done, the Department of Communication Studies is a educa-tional community dedicated to excellence in teaching, research, and service. I dedicated each platform to a tier of social media to show how each platform contributed to creating conversation about WVU’s Department of Communication Studies. These tiers con-nect, overlap, and build upon each much like a Venn diagram. Each platform is assigned to a tier.

• The department website -- Education• Facebook -- Collaboration• Twitter -- Communication• Pinterest -- Entertainment

Peter Rondy, Digital and Social Media Specialist for WVU’s Department of Communication Studies

The department website was about the educational experience available to all mem-bers of the community. Each member had a different experience and job was to gather their experience and make it relatable for oth-ers. To do this, I contacted various members in the community, professors and different types of students, to gather information about them and write spotlights on them, highlight-ing their own experience. My job was to make these experiences available to others. These spotlights showed that the department was full of real and fun but hardworking people, who are dedicated to passionate teaching and research, but still people you could get along and relate with.

I created several of these profiles for undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, and alumni. Every week I rotated two profiles out, so each profile stayed up for about a month. This was to keep the content fresh without changing it too frequently.

The department website was the center stone for my work. Even though I worked with Twitter, Pinterest, and Facebook. Everything linked back to the department website and from the website visitors could easily access anyone of the three platforms.

Facebook provided a means to collaborate with other members of the community, which included people in the Department of Communication Studies, people in groups associated with the department like Lambda Pi Eta, and other people interested in the de-partment.

Facebook was used as a collaboration tool be-cause anyone who was a member could post on the page and everyone respond, comment, or reply to it. Pictures from events hosted by the department were posted here and people could go like, share, comment on, or use them. The activity on this page was kept steady mostly due to the fact that different members were posting at different times about different subjects and events.

Whenever there was a reason to celebrate or to remember someone, Facebook was the place for it to be posted. Whether it was for a successful dissertation or the passing of influential member of the communi-ty, it was posted on Facebook. It was in these moments when the sense of community was strongest and with community comes collaboration. The stronger the com-munity, the stronger the collaboration.

Twitter provided a way to directly communicate with the Communication Studies community and other interested parties and a way for them to communicate with me and the rest of the social media team. In order to communicate with the community and maintain a positive social media presence through Twitter, I:

• Used Twitter to get news out fast and update the community about deadlines, events, and breaking news about the department and its affiliates.

• Used Twitter to engage the community in conversa-tion when doing a live tweet session. An example of this can be seen to the left.

• Used Twitter to provide live coverage of the depart-ment’s events. During an event, I and/or the other interns would send out tweets about what was going on at that particular moment, highlights, and pictures to the community via the department’s Twitter ac-count.

The department’s Pinterest account fea-tures boards for spotlight profiles, memes, research presentations, major events held by the department, study abroad opportunities, and much more. Pinterest allowed me to link individual pictures back to the department’s website, Facebook page, and SlideShare.

The memes were a great way to use en-tertainment as way to communicate with the department’s audience. Internet memes are funny, fun to create, and can be easy shared. Combine these features with Pinterest and you get a way to attract people with entertainment and a way to hold their interest with the abil-ity to link the memes back to the department website, Facebook page, or Twitter account where they can continue to learn more about the department and get involved.

Other items that posted on Pinterest were:• Pictures from events,• cover slides from SlideShare research pre-

sentations,• study abroad pictures, • spotlight profiles and pictures,• undergraduate advising,• ungergraduate courses.

Collaboration and Facebook

Communication and Twitter

Entertainment and Pinterest

Facebook and Twitter often overlapped and linked together because collaboration in-volves some sort of communication. Facebook was used as a means to communicate with the community as well. Facebook posts were automatically sent out via Twitter, so items on Facebook could also be used to start conver-sations both on Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Twitter

Facebook and Pinterest often overlapped because the content that posted on Facebook could easily be used as a pin on Pinterest, like photos. Once pinned, it could be linked back to Facebook, the source (if it was content from outside the department), or back to the Depart-ment’s website.

Twitter and Pinterest overlapped because of the content that was posted on Facebook also got sent out to Twitter. Since much of the content used for Pinterest came from Facebook, the same content was available on Twitter, linking the three platforms together.

Facebook offered a way to get people involved with the department and create a greater sense of community via a social media platform. To accomplish this, I used Facebook to:

• create events on the calendar as well as remind the community about those events as they approached and invite them to the event

• provide useful information and important links

• post albums from events hosted by the de-partment that many members of the commu-nity attended.

Facebook and Pinterest Twitter and Pinterest

Education and Depart-ment Website

To the right you can see an example of a live tweet session. I did live tweet ses-sions for events and for classes. This one was done to promote registration for Comm Studies’ classes, specifically Comm 105 (In-tro to Mass Media).