Andrew Smyk, Program Coordinator at Sheridan College, is one of the 12 higher ed professionals who presented at the 1st Higher Ed Social Media Conference in December 2013.
Andrew teaches at his institution and uses social media with prospective and current students.
In this 3-question interview from November 2013, Andrew tells us about one of his great social media moments, is favorite social tool and shares some advice.
1) Can you share one of your great social media moments with us?
Some of the great social media moments are when incoming students share their excitement about joining the program. Tweeting students often capture the humor of the moment during labs or lectures that can be used to create future interactions with incoming students. Sample tweets:
Incoming students tweet: “T Minus 12 hours to the start of the school year! #IMM” can’t wait!”
or
an Alumni tweet: “I would be lying if I said I don’t miss @SheridanIMM lab. Best of luck to this year’s class; y’all are in for a real treat, for real #IMM”
2) What is your favorite social media tool of all time?
Initially, I was using a combination of Hootsuite and Crowdbooster. Hootsuite allowed scheduling of content and allowed you to see multiple columns and also used Crowdbooster for its great visualization tools.
My main social media tool now is Tweetdeck because it allows me to follow and interact with lists and specific mentions. Also use A printable Social Media Monthly Planner rather than scheduling tweets.
3) What advice would you give to somebody who is just starting in social media?
My best advice is to pick one social media platform that suits your (target) audience and look at you communication goals and think about how often you can post/interact with your audience. Pick the right content to post and retweet. In my case, it was news about the program, the work of current students and program alumni.
When starting out, don’t (over) subscribe to every social media site. Only pick the one’s you will actually have time to manage.
