

You may have read online this week that Pinterest has officially launched their analytics for business accounts. This is a free service for any Pinterest user with a business account, which means your account must be verified by a web URL (you can do this simply by pasting a code onto your homepage or blog, and it displays a small checkmark next to your name), and “registered.” If you have an existing verified Pinterest account that is NOT a business account, never fear! You can simply convert your existing account and then will be able to access the analytics.
Risk Bites creator Andrew Maynard, director of the U-M Risk Science Center and professor of environmental health sciences is flexing his social media muscle by creating short YouTube videos on a dry erase board covering issues from gun control, asbestos, BPA, and more provocative titles such as “poop on cell phones.”

A guest post by William Foreman, the global communication manager at U-M’s News Service. He prefers Cantonese dim sum and peppery Hunanese dishes.
Does Ann Arbor have any decent Chinese restaurants? It’s a common question asked by students from China thinking about studying at the University of Michigan. I could share my opinion with them, but as a non-Chinese PR guy, they probably wouldn’t think of me as the most credible source. It’s best to go straight to the experts: the Chinese students who are already here. And that’s what we did by using Weibo.
Want to win friends and influence people? That, and also create great one-on-one relationships, increase awareness of your presence, and engage in a global dialogue?
Spreading information and getting followers isn’t easy, but it also isn’t hard. We’ll break down what’s been successful for @umich and what we’ve learned.
Some of the most common questions (and debates) that come across my desk involve Twitter hashtags. What is a hashtag? Should I create one for my event? How do I use it? What should my hashtag be?
I’m going to attempt to give a fairly comprehensive guide to hashtags, and how to use them at the University of Michigan.
WHAT IS A HASHTAG?
According to the Twitter Help Center (support.twitter.com), the definition of a hashtag is:
The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.
- People use the hashtag symbol # before a relevant keyword or phrase (no spaces) in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to help them show more easily in Twitter search.
- Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all the other Tweets marked with that hashtag.
- Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet.
Using hashtags correctly:
- If you Tweet with a hashtag on a public account, anyone who does a search for that hashtag may find your Tweet.
- Don’t #spam with #hashtags. Don’t over-tag a single Tweet — Twitter best practices recommend using no more than two hashtags per Tweet.
- Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.