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.
A guest post by Christopher Ankney, Social Media Specialist at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
This week, 500 MBA students from the Ross School of Business have one, straightforward, no-big-deal task: Innovate Detroit.
Working in teams with one of six non-profit organizations, the students will have six days to fully develop a “pitch” for a new for-profit venture that creates both economic and social value in Detroit. See? Easy.
Oh. And they have to tweet about it.
It’s all part of the Ross Impact Challenge: Innovating Detroit, a week-long leadership orientation program for new full-time MBA students from the Ross Leadership Initiative.
