care and feeding of a social media team
TRANSCRIPT
Care and Feeding of a Social Media Team @lisacatto
WOU Newsflash Team Needs • More content for website and social media pla3orms • Content with an authen7c student voice • Help address campus demands and severe understanding
with student workers
The beginning • Idea for student social media team came from #heweb11 • Team created within Public Rela7ons Office
What they do • Write content for team student blog • Create content for flagship university social media
accounts • Helps manage and create content for flagship university
social media accounts
Year 1 Setup • 5 students (5-‐7 hours/week) • Individual mee7ngs with team members to assign du7es • Focus on wri7ng for a new student blog • Secondary duty of event photography • Assigned dates to post blog entries based on availability
and interest
Pros • Campus embraced team immediately • Began geQng requests to cover stories and events • Great tool for undergraduate admissions
Cons • Learning how to be a manager • Challenges with wri7ng quality • No campus awareness of team
Year 2 Changes from previous year • 9 students (<5 hours/week) • Regular team mee7ngs to assign du7es • Some hired to focus on wri7ng, some hired to focus on
photography • A few students had skills in both areas • Writers had assigned weekly blog days
Pros • Massive increase in campus event coverage • Facebook photo albums led to major increase in following
and engagement • Photos were available to campus departments for their
websites
Cons • Challenge to manage 9 students • Too narrow of a focus (wri7ng vs. photography) – needed
everyone to do both. • Students consistently worked below expected number of
hours
Year 3 Changes from previous year • 7 students (4-‐5 hours/week) • Everyone expected to write and take pictures • Involved them more in managing flagship university social
media accounts • Branded ourselves as WOU Newsflash Team
Pros • x
Cons • Applicants had stronger wri7ng background than
photography • Tried new ac7vi7es but we were inconsistent with
implementa7on • Tech issues with blog led to decrease in morale
Year 4 (current) Changes from previous year • 3-‐5 students (10 hours/week) • Switched from working remotely to working in office • Increased training on social media, wri7ng, photography
and prepared guidebook for job • Website redesign placed Newsflash blog feed on university
homepage • Added a Newsflash blog post to every university magazine
Goals for this year • Write for non-‐Newsflash venues
Lessons learned Pay vs. volunteer • Wanted to connect with current and prospec7ve students
by sharing the voices of how current students experience campus
Work remotely vs. in office • Wanted to connect with current and prospec7ve students
by sharing the voices of how current students experience campus
Specialized vs. generalized • Wanted to connect with current and prospec7ve students
by sharing the voices of how current students experience campus
Benefits of student SM team • Authen7c voice about the student experience • Feedback
Work remotely vs. in office • Wanted to connect with current and prospec7ve students
by sharing the voices of how current students experience campus
Specialized vs. generalized • Wanted to connect with current and prospec7ve students
by sharing the voices of how current students experience campus
WOU staff member
Newsflash student & blog post author
Comment from faculty member
Campus organizaGon engaging and correcGng informaGon Newsflash student response