Social Media Maven: Talking with WVU's strategist about lessons learned

Now that you know how to use Twitter and social media for your own professional development, how do you make sure you are using your institution's social media accounts to engage prospective and current students and strengthen alumni relationships?

AACRAO institutional member West Virginia University has hundreds of official social media accounts representing the Office of the Registrar, Admissions, online campus and more.  To centralize the university's social media efforts, WVU created a social media hub that showcases the university's presence on all major social media networks and provide tips and general guidelines for campus social media managers.  WVU's social media hub also includes an extensive social media directory, resources for students, staff and faculty to contribute to WVU's social media, and a blog that documents WVU's newest social media campaigns and lessons they've learned.

Powerful social media campaigns and strategies for a college or university are authentic, engaging, and showcase what makes their campus different from others.  “A lot of what we post on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are meant to support the university’s admissions and recruiting,” said Tony Dobies, Social Media Strategist for WVU.  “For example, our Takeover Tuesday campaign on Snapchat was for the purpose of recruiting, to show prospective students what it is like to be a student here.”

“I think many tend to force content onto prospective students, instead of taking the time to observe what is trending and what the audience wants to hear,” said Dobies.  “We also observe big brands to see what campaigns may be popular for our audience, and then adapting them for our institution.  Lately, we’ve noticed a trend in short videos, so we’ve done a few campaigns of highly visual 30-second videos for our social media accounts.”

#AACRAO Year in Review

• AACRAO led #EMChat for the month of October, leading discussions about strategic enrollment management.

• Attendees at AACRAO's 101st Annual Meeting, Technology and Transfer Conference and Strategic Enrollment Management Conference took to Twitter, Facebook and AACRAO Engage to share their conference experiences.

Does your institution have a social media success story?  Email connect@aacrao.org and we will share your accomplishments with the rest of the membership!

Are you social media savvy?  We are accepting applications for #AACRAO social media volunteers!  Read more about the position.