In today’s day and age, it has become a norm for college organizations and clubs to have a social media account. Whether it’s the Pre-Med Club, the Learning Center or the Department of Public Safety, they all have a social media presence in common. What they utilize their platforms for varies across organizations depending on what they wish to convey to their audience.
The Learning Center, for example, primarily posts about the academic events and opportunities being offered at the school. This includes SI sessions, Research Day, tutoring sessions and more.
Lily Packard is a senior mass communication major. She helps run the Learning Center Instagram account along with Rebecca Cofer, assistant director of the Learning Center.
“I think it’s good that so many on-campus organizations have social media accounts because I think the main way students are getting their information is through Instagram,” Packard said.
Many organizations, like the Learning Center, on campus have turned to student employees to handle and run the social media accounts. It is a time-consuming job that oftentimes requires the help and collaboration of two or more people. Until Packard came along, Cofer was in charge of running the socials on her own.
“It’s just a lot for me to handle, so I was looking for someone who could make things look clean and who knew social media really well because it really is a full-time job,” Cofer said.
The actual process of creating and running these social media accounts varies across organizations. The Academic Advising Center’s Instagram is run by their advisor and junior mass communication practicum student Mary Hotcaveg.
“A lot of students don’t know that it’s required for them to meet with their advisor prior to registration,” Hotcaveg said. “We’re enticing these students that don’t know about these kinds of things while simultaneously getting out the information we need to. ”
Oftentimes, these social media accounts just get passed down across generations of students as the years go on. Student Government Association, or SGA, has been active on Instagram for over 10 years now.
Sydney Harris, a senior history major, was appointed by the SGA president, Connor Hilly, to run the organization’s Instagram account this year.
“I do typically run my posts by the entire executive board, but, I mean, I pretty much have free reign of kind of deciding what it’ll all look like, and then, typically, they’ll ask me what specific things to post,” Harris said.
While it may seem overwhelming at times to see so many accounts roaming the Instagram feeds, without them, students and faculty would not be informed of the important events happening across campus.
Nowadays, just about every organization or club has a social media presence, making it easier for students to pick and choose to follow what they are interested in. The way Instagram works, an individual must first follow the account before they start to see their posts on their feed.
“I like the fact that everyone on campus has an Instagram page because that way, whatever my interests are, I can just follow them specificly rather than just following the main page in hopes that I find something I’m interested in,” said Wesley Hardin, GC’s chief of police.
The Department of Public Safety social media account is one of the newer ones. It was started in mid-March by Hardin and has been active ever since.
“What we really want to use the account for is information,” Hardin said.
“We want it to be another avenue for us to get information out to the faculty, staff and campus community as a whole.”
According to Hardin, the only thing he had to do before he was able to create the account was undergo a training seminar from the school showing him what he can and cannot post. As long as the department follows the general rules and guidelines and makes sure everything is in line with the college’s mission, they are given the creative freedom to run the account.
With the rise of technology underway, it can be assumed that the influx of social media platforms and accounts are here to stay. Each account is different and is able to write their own narrative on who they are and what they want the community to know. Whether it is music, athletics or academics, there truly is something out there for everyone.
