On Twitter…
Hosted 11 dynamic #UMichChat panels which highlighed everything from innovation to activism. The engaging live dialogues now trend regionally on a monthly basis.
January
Student Life with Royster Harper
February
Innovation & Entrepreneurship (Kelly LaPierre, Thomas Zurbuchen, Jeffrey Sorensen, David Merritt, & Michael Finney)
April
Violence, Crime, and Social Media (Cliff Lampe, Desmond Patton, Detective Sergeant Boike, Eric Strauss)
May
“The King of Twitter” John Dingell’s wisdom on a lifetime of service
June
“Students at UMich”
July
“Forever Go Blue” Alumni
August
‘Activism and Racial Education’: A discussion of Between the World and Me, written by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Sept.
Welcome hoMe: Resources and advice for a new school year/Feature with President Schlissel (Lindsay Haas, Kyle Stefek, Michael Joiner-Hill)
October
Introducing Intraoperative Neuromonitering (Emily Matthews, Josh Mergos, Stephanie Schwartz)
Nov.
#GivingBlueday (Katherine Kowalski, Michael Reed, Ashley Howard/Madison Graver)
Dec.
Revamping HigherEd in 140 Characters (Matt Adams, Andrew Martin, Aswin Punathambeker)
Provided coverage and promoted collaborative engagement at 34 different presentations and events through #UMichTalks. The hashtag has been widely adopted across campus, allowing our collective audiences unprecedented access and coverage to important events and timely topics.
2/4 Jessy Grizzle
2/10 Roderick Little
2/20 Tyree Guyton
2/23 Tamas Gombosi
3/13 Corey Booker
3/16 CEO of WebMD
3/19 The Big Picture of Small Things
3/23 Rosalind
3/27 Teach-In +50
4/1 Victor Lieberman
4/6 Christin Carter-Su
4/7 The Man Behind The Sandwich, Ari Weinzweig
4/10 The Innovation of Tomorrow: A White House Insider’s Guide
4/13 Higher Education Work For Low-Income Students
5/15 Ford School Academic Engagement Conference
6/1 Wellespring
7/30 Diary of a Young Girl
8/5 UROP Symposia
8/14 Bridge Ceremony
9/15 Big Data
9/25 Entrepalooza
10/1 JSB Symposia
10/5 Michigan Institute for Data Science Kick-Off Symposium
10/8 Orchestras in the 21st Century: A New Paradigm
10/13 Piper Kerman
10/15 “Can College Make You Smarter?”
10/22 #sumit15
10/27 Talk it Up
11/2 Prechter Lecture
11 U-M Diversity Summit
11/24 Cybersecurity
12/1 Historic presentation
12/10 Gamefication and Education
12/18 LSA Honors
On Snapchat…
UMSocial continues to lead the pack in Snapchat storytelling among higher education institutions. Inquires for consultation on the network far outweighed any other requests received by the office in the 2015 calendar year. Stories and feature opportunities have become a key strategy in everyone’s social planning and across departments; and collaborations have replaced traditional outreach efforts such as email. In total, 63 different ephemeral stories were told. The growing popularity also gave birth to the creation of regular content takeovers and weekly features like LSA Tuesdays and Arts and Culture Thursdays. Additionally each story was downloaded and made available in a YouTube playlist.
Geofilter Campaign
Snap-a-versary (One Year on Snapchat) Blog Post
Dress that Squirrel
Travelocity Roaming Gnome
SpringFest
MRelay
Michigan Engineering Design Expo
Dance Marathon
WinterFest – #1 Public University
LSA Major/Minor Expo
#ABrighterBlue
TedX
Spring Commencement
Spring Term
National Best Friends Day
#AskUMich
#WolverineSummer
Shakespeare in the Arb
4th of July-GeoFilter Curation
Swing Dancing at the Cube
Tour of UMMA
Educational Theatre Company
Tour of Kelsey Museum
Taubman Museum
New Student Convocation
International Academy Open House
Stay In the Blue
World Suicide Prevention Day
Send Silence Packing
Game Day Spirit
So Just, So Fair
International Institute
Career fair
Banned Books exhibit
SMTD homecoming
Homecoming game
‘Waiting in line’ UMHS Organ Donor Awareness
Law, Justice, and Society minor (w/ LSA)
Safe drinking PSA
#MakeHealthFest2015
POP X
Diversity Summit
Big House blood drive
Wheelchair basketball
Exploring the Institute for the Humanities
MUSKET ‘Spring Awakening’
LSA: ‘Snapchat makes you happy”
Comm Dept Entertainment Media Forum
LSA: Research in EEB (sweet potatoes)
Hail Mail promotion
SQUEST
Michigan vs OSU
Galens Tag Days
Michigan’s best dance crew
Amcult hula performance
Kevorkian Collection at Bentley
Emoji Snowflakes
Study Tips
“Night Before Winter Break” video preview
New Year’s graphic
Bowl Game snap
Introduced an entire new suite of expanded campus geo-filters, including many limited-edition filters for special events and the first filter to be provided at all three University of Michigan campuses (Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn)
North Campus, Central (2), Big House Stadium, Big House Helmet, Medical Campus, Homecoming (2), Welcome Week (2), MGoGrad (2) and Giving Blue Day
On Instagram…
To capitalize on the continued growth of Instagram in 2015, UMSocial introduced a number of new efforts aimed at diversifying our content offerings and showcasing the breadth and depth of our university programing. Instagram ambassador takeovers and Saturday Michigan News videos are appearing on a monthly and weekly basis. Leveraging this new regular content we also implemented a daily theme that spans all seven day of the week and increased our content on takeover weeks to two posts each day.
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Spirit/Pride
WOAA
Academics
Global
Bentley
Hail Mail
News
T-Shirt giveaway at WinterFest
Cold Day Gear giveaway
Ann Arbor iPhone Case giveaway
Tinder Valentine’s Day Spoof
Spring Break Selfie Promo
LSA Major/Minor Expo Hyperlapse
Dear Wolverine (Depression Center)
#AlwaysLSA event coverage
Share your cap w/ #MyUMCap Contest
#AlwaysUMich
Common concert video
Behind-the-scenes Commencement
#WorldWideWednesday
#FoodFriday/#UMichFoodie
Ambassador: Jordan Katz
Ambassador: Eric Bronson
‘This Week’s Headlines’
‘On Assignment’ with #umicheeb
Ambassador: Emily Schieffer
Ambassador: Engineering Ethiopia collaboration
Ambassador: Austin Thomason
Ambassador: Career Center
Ambassador: UMHS Lead cancer doctor
Ambassador: Ginsberg Center
Ambassador: Giving Blueday
Ambassador: Library collective
Ambassador: UMHS Ghana Collaboration
Holiday Motion Graphics
Wolverines of Ann Arbor
On Facebook…
Facebook’s slowed growth and aging demographic presented many negative content results in 2014. To combat the negative environment of the platform and encourage more proactive and positive online dialogue, UMSocial created a number of new campaigns in 2015. Our most popular programs continue to be Michigan Mondays, which provide an opportunity to inspire our audiences with quotes by prominent or unknown alumni, students, and university stakeholders; and Wolverines of Ann Arbor, which has become a powerful platform for depicting diversity and sharing personal narratives. As with Instagram, we have also partnered with other units (LSA, UMHS, and the Bentley) to share themed content on a given day. Lastly, we have seen great success with embedded video, gifs, and photo albums (Michigan Photography).
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Photo of the Week
Michigan Monday
Health
WOAA
Bentley
LSA
Global
Valentine’s Day photo submissions/album and graphic
Video: “Messages of Hope” Depression Center
National Reading Month/Women’s History Month content
Promotion of Yik Yak Pledge
Spring Commencement album
Video: Music Matters
Michigan Softball championship
Mothers Day/Fathers day
Album: President’s trip to China
Album: President’s trip to China
“Calling all poets” Call to action to write a Michigan poem
Video: #WolverineSummer
Album: #InternDetroit
Wolverines of Ann Arbor
Album: New Student Convocation
Album: Open House
Album: myhoMecoming
Album: #UMichMoments
Album: Game Days
On Pinterest…
UMSocial led a concentrated effort in 2015 to streamline the U-M Pinterest presence across all departments, campuses, and organizations. The amount of content required to properly maintain a robust Pinterest account, and the layout of the network itself, led to the absorption of many erroneous accounts. These efforts not only strengthened our brand presence but also alleviated the burden of updates for many smaller departments and organizations.
Michigan Squirrels (Squirrel Appreciation Day)
Absorbed College of LSA
Absorbed Recreational Sports
#MGoGrad Bucket List
Introduced Promoted Pins with Blog Post
Spring at #UMich
Summer at #UMich
Absorbed School of Information
Absorbed School of Public Health
New Students at Michigan
Absorbed Michigan Dining
Absorbed University Housing
Mcity
Dormspiration 2015
STEAM at Michigan/#GirlsWithToys (Efforts with us and LSA)
Absorbed Ginsberg Center
On YouTube…
Visuals are critical to social content. First it was images, then memes, and now short engaging video or gifs. In 2015 UMSocial sought to streamline our YouTube footprint and create more dynamic, regular content. By absorbing accounts, we helped content be better recognized; and by creating short videos on timely topics, we created top performing or searched for content. Lastly, we made a conscious effort to better package long ceremonial and event video coverage, thereby substantially increasing content views and shares.
Your Moment: Graduation Hype Video
Snapchat playlist
Messages of Hope
Major/Minor Expo
Spring Fest Video
2015 Spring Commencement Recap
2015 Spring Commencement Package (Zingerman’s, President, Dean of LSA, Engineering Commencement)
Softball Hype Video
FIFA Scandal
Rec Sports
InsideTheM: Michigan Dining
Lake Erie Algae (Michigan News)
#WolverineSummer
Mcity Dedication
Mexico Coffee (Michigan News)
Ghana (Michigan News)
Dow Global Impact Series
Diversity is…
“What is an Indian”
“The Night before Winter Break”
On YikYak…
New social networks appear every day, but few have caused such an uproar in higher education as Yik Yak. After publishing an initial evaluation of the platform in 2014, UMSocial chose to advocate for personal responsibility and proactive online dialogues on the network. Following a potential suicide threat published within the Ann Arbor Yik Yak feed, we rallied with students to show support and promote available resources. After a successful positivity pledge campaign, Yik Yak reached out to us and we partnered to created their first university-wide branded community ‘Hail Mail.’ Content for Hail Mail is created by our first Yik Yak-dedicated student intern in collaboration with our award-winning campus newspaper staff and our Office of Student Life. Additionally, UMSocial now pulls daily ‘Yaks’ and incorporates them into our Twitter streams and a ‘Yak’ of the week that is published on our Instagram. By educating our users on the platform, recognizing their contributions, and creating a steady flow of resources and information on a platform we know they regularly use, we have thus far alleviated many of the large-scale issues that many other universities have encountered at the hand of unchecked anonymity.
In Collaboration With…
Social content is stronger when we leverage the collective. The relationships UMSocial built in 2014 enabled the creation of a strong leadership team of cross campus social media communicators. In collaboration we were able to tell bigger, bolder stories, bring better resources to fruition and set brand goals.
Squirrel Appreciation Day: Twitter, Snapchat, Pinterest, @UmichStudents
#1 Public University Video/Promo
Valentine’s Day
Messages of Hope
Photos of the Week: Instagram, FB, Twitter
National Best Friends day: Snapchat, Twitter
#WolverineSummer: Snapchat, Youtube, Facebook, Instagram
Dubsmash: Instagram, Twitter
Fourth of July geo-filter campaign: Snapchat, Twitter
#STEAM/GirlswithToys: Throwbacks on FB, Twitter, Pinterest Board
Collaborative efforts with the Career Center
Collaborative efforts with Michigan Photography
Collaborative efforts with News Service: Retweeting Content, Instagram Takeover, Weekly Headlines Instagram Videos
Social Media R&D: Developing key skills to become a successful social media manager
Social Media Vending Machine—Fall 2015
National Media Of Honor
#moveinhoMe
Health and Wellness: Stay in the Blue
#myhomecoming: Snapchat stories, Instagram content, encouraging hashtag usage
#mgoBoo
By examining the way content performs on a given platform and studying our demographics and how they engage with content on each network, UMSocial often tailors a single content theme across channels uniquely. In 2015 we relied frequently upon our storytelling initiatives to help us provide video in one place, still images in another, live tweeting or interactive dialogue hosting in another—then lastly, looping back home to our website for a full summary recaps of efforts.
Michigan’s 178th Birthday
Springfest
MRelay
Dance Marathon
GEazy Concert
Spring Commencement
New Services Content via Instagram
Softball Championship: FB and Twitter
#AskUmich
Orientation
LinkedIn | Showcase pages
CCRB remodel: Snapchat, Youtube, FB Video
Mcity Dedication: Snapchat, Twitter (Live-tweet), Instagram Video, Pinterest
#InternDetroit: FB photo album, Twitter
Vending Machine: Photos on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. Snapchat, YouTube
U-M v. MSU: Snapchat PSA, Safe drinking WOAA, Alternative tailgate advertising
Homecoming: Snapchat, Starkid #UmichChat, #myhoMecoming Instagram, Facebook
UM vs OSU: Instagram post, FB album
Giving Blueday: UMichChat, Instagram Takeover, UMichStudent student tweeter
Diversity Summit: Snapchat Story, #UMichTalks
On SocialMedia.UMich.edu
Our website turned one in February of 2015, celebrating a year of providing resources and information to our peers who have recognized it as a pillar of best practice within higher education. The most-viewed blog posting of the year was of course our in-depth case study of the hacking of three of our athletics Facebook pages. Praised for its transparency and timeliness, socialmedia.umich.edu has evolved into a site that not only provides internal or higher ed communicators’ resources, but which also curates and explores the best and worst of social media for all.
#UMSocial’s Most A-Maize-Ing Campaigns
Yik Yak Pledge
Monthly Recaps
#UMichChat Recaps
Major/Minor Expo: LSA Collaboration
How #UMSocial uses Slack
TedXUofM Coverage+
#GoBlueDhabi Guest Blog
Squirrel Appreciation Day
Michigan Dining Guest Blog
Instagram Use Among Incoming Students
Instagram Ambassador Program
Wolverines of Ann Arbor Monthly Recaps
Social Vending Machine
Snap-A-Versery
Dormspiration Launch
New Semester, New Geofilters!
Linkedin for Higher Ed
Pumpkin Stencils
One year of #UMichChat
Printable Ornaments
WOAA yearly wrap-up
Hacked: A Case Study
Year in Review
With the formation of the UMSocial Leadership Team in 2015, we were able to really begin to update and adopt many overarching strategies and best practices across campus. The guidelines, procedures, and tools ensure all accounts properly represent the university and our brand from conception to fruition. Supporting a unified approach to social media strategy, content creation, and analytics ensures quality communications across every platform and provides a clearer view of our return on investment.
Facebook Best Practices
LinkedIn Showcase Pages
Protecting the Brand
Reporting Best Practices
YouTube Best Practices
Annual Report
Social Leadership Team
Social Leadership Meetings
Orientation packet materials distribution
Monthly Analytics Reports (President Schlissel, LSA, Bentley, UMHS, & Global)
Implementation of Proactive Listening Platform – Digital Roots
Creation of Monthly Workshops
Establishment of Bi-weekly consultations (LSA, Athletics, UMHS)
Implementation of Amplify