Social Media at Open House

Image from the U of A website.

Tomorrow is a big day in student recruitment at the University of Alberta. It is the 2014 Open House, where over 7000 prospective undergraduate students and their families, will visit the U of A campus. As I am a recruiter, this is the single busiest day for me. I will be on campus for 9-10 hours, setting up our booth, taking it down at the end of the day and in between, speaking to thousands of people. We have two presentations on the program and thankfully they are not part of my duties!

Open House is a day to showcase our undergraduate program and make our pitch to prospective students. To this end, we have program staff and current students helping out at the booth, as the Student Recruiter and I cannot handle the volume alone. She and I will chronicle the day via our social media accounts, to promote the event and to hopefully connect with our students.

Open House is really a social media marketer's dream. There are ample photo opportunities, great sound bites from students, and the topic matter is exciting and engaging. I love posting throughout the day, from set-up to take down, showcasing what happens at OH. We showcase student interactions, what is happening at other OH booths, our university mascots, GUBA and Patches (here is a photo of Patches and I). Students can follow us all throughout the day on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts. I think it supports the students who visit us in person, as they may see themselves in posts and can connect with us using our #ualbertabcom hashtag. It also works for students who are unable to come to campus in-person, as they can follow our accounts and hopefully feel like part of the excitement.

Do I really need to have a blog?

Image from University of Tartu

The answer is yes! Welcome to my blog for Essential Social Media Communications, the course I am taking this Fall in the Faculty of Extension.

This is my first experience with blogging. I think I have been hesitant to blog in the past, as I spend a lot of my time writing in my role at the U of A. While I love having the opportunity to write at work, it has never been part of my personal life.

I have a sister-in-law who is an incredible writer. She gave up a very lucrative and promising career working in the environmental industry, to follow her dream of being what she calls, "a creative." It all began with two blogs, one focused on her passion of quilting and the other on her experiences as a new mother. She connected with like-minded people all over the world via her blog and became part of an online community of bloggers who support her and celebrate her accomplishments. Her humble blogs and her ability to connect with people online (both via her blogs and Twitter), have led her down a road that I don't think she even could have imagined in her wildest dreams. She has published two books, countless articles in print and online, taught courses in quilting and the creative process all over North America. She has created a career directly related to her passion of being a creative.

While I don't have any intention to quit my job, my sister-in-law has inspired me to constantly be open to new things and to take risks. While blogging may not seem all that risky to most people, putting my words out in the world is a big deal for me.

Orbit Media states that 80% of bloggers create content that is 1000 words or less on average. When you think about, that is not a lot. Maybe I can find time to blog in my personal life!