For UNLV's social media strategist Katy Griffin, Oct. 19th was the D-Day of tweets and posts. Students, journalists, and campus visitors swarmed the university's various social media channels. And Griffin's job was to capture the small moments along with the big ones for UNLV's social media channels.
Along with Deana Waddell and Isabelle Johnson in the University Communications unit, Griffin led a working group for the debate’s campus planning committee. Their work started months before the big day. They were tasked with promoting the many events and lectures leading up to the debate as well as volunteer opportunities and special courses UNLV developed. And, as is the nature of social media, everyone had a lot of great ideas for the small team.
The group, which included several representatives from student life and undergraduate recruitment offices, developed an events promotion guide over the summer. Griffin also reached out to her counterpart Carley Weinstein at Hofstra University to get some tips. And then she set about recruiting a network of student contributors for the big day and beyond. With Griffin's direction, students helped create the university’s first podcast, did Snapchat takeovers, and crafted content for Instagram, Twitter, and Storify throughout debate week.
“Generally, I try to craft my posts to appeal to students, to notify students of what's going on on campus so they can have memorable experiences,” she said. But the debate was about much more than promoting an event.
Griffin's goal is to showcase the moments that Rebels create themselves. “Seeing posts from students who got to meet journalists, interact notable people, build their resumes as volunteers, or just simply be part of this historic moment — all because of UNLV — is the best part of managing social media,” Griffin said. “We do all this so they will carry these experiences with them for the rest of their lives. And we do this to help show the world what makes this campus really special.”
In this piece for UNLV's Storify, Griffin shares her top social moments from the debate.
