Campus Community

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Campus Community

The Social @ Michigan State community is a professional development group for campus communicators responsible for managing university-affiliated social media accounts.

Connect With Us

Microsoft Teams

The Social @ Michigan State group has a team on Microsoft Teams through Spartan365. Request to join the Social @ Michigan State team through the Teams platform when logged in using your MSU Net ID. 

Facebook Group

The Social @ Michigan State Facebook group provides an opportunity for members to engage online. It is a private group, so only members can view content shared within the group. To join the group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/socialatmichiganstate and request to join. Note: University Communications staff members moderate requests to join. If your public Facebook profile does not make it clear that you work in communications at Michigan State, email the group manager to ask that we approve your request to join. The forum is a great place to ask questions and provide feedback to other members, share articles about updates to social media platforms, and learn about various programs and opportunities on campus. All members are encouraged to participate in the conversation.

Email Newsletter 

Join the Social @ Michigan State email listserv to receive monthly newsletters and meeting invitations from the group. Newsletters typically include announcements of upcoming meetings, post-meeting recaps, announcements and shared resources. To join, visit https://go.msu.edu/SocialSubscribe.

Workshops

The campus community offers a series of workshops offering intensive focus on particular topics, ranging from strategy to content creation. Workshops are announced via our email listserv and our Facebook group. They have been moved online for the 2020-2021 academic year. Recordings will be added here for users who wish to watch on demand after the workshop date.

The Creating a Social Media Strategy workshop was held on September 24, 2020. Please see below of assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.

























The Creating a Content Strategy workshop was held on November 3, 2020. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.















The Using Insights to Guide Content workshop was held on November 19, 2020. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.




























The Social Media Listening workshop was held on January 21, 2021. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.













The Instagram: Grid & Stories workshop was held on February 18, 2021. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.














The Creating Video for Social Media workshop was held on March 18, 2021. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.

























The Designing for Social Media workshop was held on April 21, 2021. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.












The Using Social Analytics workshop was held on July 14, 2022. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.























The Conducting and Analyzing Competitive Research workshop was held on October 27, 2022. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.





















The Accessibility on Social Media workshop was held on September 7, 2023. Please see below for assets shared during the workshop, as well as a recording for on-demand viewing.











Meetings

The campus community holds quarterly meetings where we discuss a variety of topics related to social media. Meetings are announced via our email listserv and our Facebook group. Meetings for the 2020-2021 academic year have been moved online.

If you have a suggestion for a future meeting topic, please email our team with "Community Suggestion" in the subject line. 

Previous Meeting Recaps and Resources
 

Ellen Doepke and Katie Bylin shared insights gleaned from 2022 social media content on institutional channels, as well as predictions and platform updates to plan for in 2023.












Ellen Doepke and Katie Bylin shared insights gleaned from 2021 social media content on institutional channels, as well as predictions and platform updates to plan for in 2022.















Ellen Doepke and Katie Bylin shared information about how the algorithms on various social media channels work, and tips for constructing content to optimize for the channels.
















The February 23, 2021, meeting featured lightning round presentations from Social @ Michigan State community members. We would like to thank our colleagues for sharing their insights with our group. The presentation slide decks are available below.

















The December 3, 2020, meeting featured a guest speaker. Tyler A. Thomas, Senior Director of Integrated Content, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, shared his presentation "Pandemic Punching Bag: Managing Social Media & Your Health In a Pandemic."
















The July 23, 2020, meeting featured updates and presentations related to advocacy and issues management on social media. Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.

We continue to push out our back-to-campus campaign efforts on the institutional social media accounts. Please help share and use the hashtag #SpartansWill when encouraging Spartans to practice safety measures.











The December 19, 2019 meeting featured lightning round presentations from several campus communicators. Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.

Several individuals have asked for the vendor used by REHS for environmental graphics installation. Here is the contact they use for their campus work:

Foresight Supersign
1200 Marquette
Lansing, MI 48906
Ph: (517) 487-5071
FAX: (517) 487-6211
Email: signs@foresightgroup.net
Web: http://www.foresightsupersign.com








Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.






















Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.
















Thank you to all who were able to join us for our recent meeting of the Social @ Michigan State group.

A few general announcements were shared:

  • Communications and Brand Strategy is working to redesign the social media accounts directory. The current version is an interim design. Stay tuned for additional updates about this process.
  • We’re beginning to add campus partners to the Sprinklr social media management platform. We’ll be scheduling demos of the platform around campus in the coming weeks for units interested in learning more. These will be announced via email and the Facebook group.
  • We’ll be conducting a membership survey to gather feedback on the Social @ Michigan State group and any suggestions for future meeting topics. As always, feel free to send ideas our way via email to Katie Kelly.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at: https://go.msu.edu/DNH

































Thank you to all who were able to join us for our recent meeting of the Social @ Michigan State group.

The presentation deck, available for download here, includes the following:

  • Communications and Brand Strategy updates and announcements
  • Checklist for transitioning staff management of social media accounts
  • Social media climate update
  • How to avoid issues on social media
  • Branding resources for social accounts















Thank you to all who were able to join us for our March Social @ Michigan State group meeting.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.

  • Platform update slides: Ellen discussed changes across various social media platforms.
  • ComArtSci presentation: Nicole Szymczak and Nikki O’Meara shared the MSU College of Communication Arts and Science social media strategy.
  • Social analytics template: Nikki also shared the social analytics template the college uses for tracking engagement on social media. It is available as a Google spreadsheet, and an Excel version is also available at the link above.










Thank you to all who were able to join us for our fourth Social @ Michigan State group meeting.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.


































Thank you to all who were able to join us for our third meeting of the Social @ Michigan State group.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.

As a follow up to the trolls/negativity issue, we also wanted to share an additional resource not discussed at the meeting. The Behavioral Threat Assessment Team (BTAT) is a campus team working to evaluate reported potentially dangerous behavior. If in the course of your work you come across messages that indicate a possible threat of harm to self or others of the campus community, please contact BTAT. You can learn more at http://btat.msu.edu/.


























Thank you to all who were able to join us for our second meeting of the Social @ Michigan State group. We were glad to have such great conversation around the topics of social media platforms and content, and we hope you found it helpful as well.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below.

  • Social platform content and terms of service presentation slides: Ellen discussed the institutional account target audiences for each major social platform, the content these audience members are looking for, and how the audience members typically engage. Katie discussed tips for managing accounts on these platforms and how to avoid violating platform terms of services.
  • Story Wars (Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook Live) presentation slides: Ellen broke down the difference between Snapchat and Instagram Stories, and discussed how Communications and Brand Strategy uses both. She also talked about our experiences with Facebook Live.
  • Photo release language template: This is the photo release language approved by the Office of the General Counsel, which Communications and Brand Strategy uses for all our photos and videos.










Thank you to all who were able to join us for our inaugural meeting of the Social @ Michigan State group. We hope you found it helpful. We intend to have these meetings on a quarterly basis. Our next meeting date is to be determined, but we will announce it via this email list and the Facebook group so please stay tuned. We are also exploring different meeting venues. If you have a location that might serve the group’s needs (holds 80+ people, has a full tech presentation set-up, and is free to campus units), we’d love to hear from you. Please contact Katie Kelly with your suggestions.

Resources shared at the meeting are available for download at the links below:











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