Social MediaLunch & Learn e-Learning SeriesMarch 1, 2012

Heather TravisCommunications Officer (eCommunications)Faculty of Engineering

March 1, 2012

Agenda• Western Engineering gets social (overview)

• Why you should get socially involved (personally and professionally)

• The future of social media

Western Engineering gets social • Our world is more social than ever

• The speed at which information travels is exponential

• Information is no longer limited locally

• Anyone can spread their message (positive and negative)

Things to consider• Clearly define how/why you want to use social

media

• Establish your goals; set targets

• Figure out who is responsible for managing the accounts

• Do a week-long paper run to assess content

• Think long-term

Western Engineering Social Media Tools - Twitter

Western Engineering currently manages two Twitter accounts:

@WesternEng

@WEDisruptions

Twitter

https://twitter.com/

Remember: You are limited to 140 characters - this includes punctuation and spaces.

You can post photos and videos.

Twitter will shorten links, but you can also use a free application like tinyurl.com or bitly.com (which allows you to track analysis on your links).

Twitter@WesternEng

Twitter@WEDisruptions

Why use Twitter?• As of Nov. 14:

374 Tweets; 503 Followers

• To date:646 Tweets; 635 Followers

• Six of Western’s 12 faculties are Tweeting. With exception of Ivey, @WesternEng has the highest number of followers (including students, alumni, industry partners and interested community members.

FlickrWestern Engineering Flickr Gallery

http://www.flickr.com/photos/westerneng/sets/

FlickrLet’s take a look…

Flickr• Flickr is free, but with limitations - able to

upload 2 videos and 300MB of photos each month.

• Always include a title and description

• You arrange photos into ‘sets’ or ‘collections’

• Include tags to increase search results

• Promote your Flickr set on your website, blog and Twitter account

Western Engineering’s Flickr• 74 sets in Western Engineering’s Flickr Gallery

• White Ribbon Campaign – 6 photos; 262 views

• 2012 Western Engineering Toboggan Team – 8 photos; 252 views

• A slideshow of photos is embedded on Western Engineering’s home page.

• Photos can be promoted on Twitter and weekly email.

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/login.php

Facebook• Western Engineering currently has four

Facebook pages targeted at prospective undergraduate students:

• Western Engineering Class of 2013

• Western Engineering Class of 2014

• Western Engineering Class of 2015

• Western Engineering Class of 2016

Facebook

YouTubeWestern Engineering’s YouTube Playlist

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB0714AECCADCF6EB&feature=plc

p

YouTube

YouTube

YouTube• 60 videos in Western Engineering’s Playlist

• Top viewed video – 14,581 viewsCamping Trailer – Second Year UWO Mechanical Engineering Project

• Experience Engineering video – 2,603 views

What do the numbers say?

BlogsWhat WE have to say

http://atwestern.typepad.com/westerneng/

Blogs

Blogs – What the stats say• Restarted the blog Dec. 21, 2011

• 767 Visits• 559 Unique visits• 1,117 Page views

• Visitors from Canada, Japan, U.S. China, India, Iran, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and United Kingdom

How does it all come together?

Other social media• Google+• Pinterest• LinkedIn• Foursquare

Get socially involved – but do it strategically!

Interested?Contact: Heather Travis,

Communications Officer (Engineering)

htravis2@uwo.caExt. 82272

Follow us on Twitter @WesternEng