Intern Point Paper: Week 14

University of Maryland Jessica Schram

Department of Communication May 10, 2014
COMM386: Experiential Learning, spring 2014

POINT PAPER Campus Communicator Social Media Meeting

Subject: Today I attended a meeting on social media strategies with Chief Communications
Officer, Crystal Brown; Executive Director of Web and New Media Strategies, Linda Martin;
Director of University Communications, Katie Lawson; Assistant Director, Patrick Beasley;
Communications Specialist, Alana Carchedi; and the Web and New Media Strategies Specialist,
Justin Siraj. As a team, we hosted the meeting in the Main Administration building and spoke to
a number of campus communicators from different colleges and departments about their social
media strategies.

Background: Monitoring and managing social media presence is fundamental to the success of
any organization or agency when representing a client or brand. For a university, this statement
is especially true. Managing social media for an organization this large, however, comes with a
whole new type of strategyone that is multifaceted and multidirectional. Because the
University of Maryland is a conglomerate of colleges, schools and departments with their own
social media channels, it is necessary that the central hub of communications (our office) stays
up-to-date and informed about the progress, successes and failures of its extensions.

Discussion: The meeting began with an overview from each campus communicator about a few
of their current social media initiatives and a recap of their success and failures this semester.
While each communicator was speaking, others were encouraged to chime in and ask questions
or offer advice moving forward. Some common discussion topics were the following:
Questions about how communicators are measuring results (software, reach, data, etc.)
Invitations to connect communicators with other department heads or people they think
would be of use to them.
Inquiries as to the success of social media initiatives/ how executed
Discussion about the policy/etiquette of following students on social media (liability
issues)

It was very interesting to talk about social media analytics and hear communicators share
best practices with each other as well as offer suggestions moving forward. I definitely took
some notes for my own professional development as well as chimed in when I had something to
offer.
When the discussion about following students was brought up, I suggested a software called
Geofeedia that I learned about through a Cision webinar I took last semester. Geofeedia is a
location-based social media search and discovery platform that enables communicators to
identify social media happenings in a specific place (building, region, proximity, etc.).
I suggested that Geofeedia might be worth looking in to because it would allow
communicators to aggregate social media posts from a certain area and more efficiently interact
with their target publics. (i.e. @UMDLibraries could Geo-tag McKeldin and respond to peoples
Tweets even if they do not follow them or if they are not using the @UMDLibaries Twitter
handle)

Recommendation: When asked to attend a business meeting, it is wise to always speak up when
you have valuable information to offer. After the meeting, many of my colleagues, including the
Chief Communications Officer, Crystal Brown, came up to me and said they were happy that I
participated and commended me for offering suggestions about social media and related
software. The next day, Crystal Brown called me into her office and spoke to me about my
interest in continuing with UMD Marketing and Communications in another department next
semester. I was very pleased with the conversation and think it was a direct result of my
performance and professionalism at the previous days meeting.


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