The offices of Web and new media and University communications presented a social media boot camp on Tuesday, April 22. During sessions on blogging, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, attendees practiced tips and tricks for making the most of social media platforms.
Blogging 102
Nicki Donnelson and Lucie Amberg gave an intermediate level workshop on blogging.
Their biggest takeaways
- Use photos and videos to reinforce your content or communicate a different piece of the story. (You can find these resources at the Missouri State Flickr stream, the marketing toolkit and the Missouri State YouTube channel.)
- Take advantage of heading options in the WordPress interface. Find a style you like and stick with it; consistent formatting gives your blog a professional appearance and lets your readers know what to expect.
- Feel free to write blog entries from your own voice. Use first and second person as appropriate. Short paragraphs are fine, too; in the digital world, even one sentence can be sufficient for a paragraph.
Access the presentation: Blogging 102
Twitter 
Jessica Clements led a session on Twitter.
Her biggest takeaways
- Incorporate multimedia and links into your tweets to make them more shareable.
- Tweets move off of people’s home feeds quickly. If a tweet works once, share it again!
- Evaluate what content your followers engage with the most and adjust your content strategy to reflect that.
Access the presentation: Tweetable
Brad Mitchell presented on Facebook.
His biggest takeaway
- In some departments and organizations, social media is the responsibility of student workers. An issue arises if a student graduates without transferring administrative access to someone else in the department. In order to preserve consistent access to your organization’s Facebook page, be sure that at least one full-time employee has administrative rights to the page.
Access the presentation: Social Media Boot Camp – Facebook
Courtney Wendel-Stevenson led a discussion on LinkedIn. 
Her biggest takeaways
- LinkedIn is a great platform for a very specific audience that wants to consume a certain type of content. To be effective on this platform, tie your content to professional development or career opportunities.
- Since 65% of LinkedIn’s users are 30-64 and 58% are college graduates, capitalize and cater to those audiences.
Access the presentation: LinkedIn
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