Stephanie Hatch Leishman
Former MIT Social Media Strategist
Periscope: What We've Learned So Far
July 30, 2015
We recently launched MIT on Periscope, which is a new social network for live video streaming. We have done a few scopes (shorthand for a Periscope video), so let us share our learnings with those of you who are also just getting started. 1. Periscope is super new, so experimentation with the platform is expected. ...
Read the PostMIT Commencement 2015
July 28, 2015
I took what I learned from the past few years and applied the learnings to our social media efforts for this year's Commencement week. We received great engagement on MIT's social channels. The hashtag At MIT, we used the hashtag #MIT2015, which followed our usual pattern: MIT and the year of the graduating class. I...
Read the Post#alwaysMIT
June 30, 2015
In May, some members of MIT's Commencement committee wanted to gather memories from graduating seniors and asked me if we could use social media to do so. The original hashtag that was proposed was #MITmemories. It seemed like a straightforward choice, but “memory” was a word overused in alumni and graduation...
Read the PostInterview with Nicole Morell
March 9, 2015
Nicole Morell is the MIT Alumni Association’s social media community manager. She manages day-to-day social media and writes for the Slice of MIT blog. Nicole shares her insights into her favorite social network, as well as the challenges and successes she’s had on the job. What is your favorite social network and...
Read the PostInterview with Zach Church
February 6, 2015
As associate director of news, Zach Church manages news and content for the MIT Sloan School of Management. He also oversees social media management and strategy, so I asked him about his experiences with social media, how he reports on analytics, and how he has changed the way he manages content. What is your...
Read the PostYoutility
January 15, 2015
This past fall, I attended a presentation by Jay Baer in which he talked about “Youtility.” Marketing and customer service are colliding, and less than half of the public trusts advertising, according to Baer. As I listened to him describe the state of advertising, one statement stuck out. He said, “Stop trying to be...
Read the PostThe New MIT Connect
September 3, 2014
MIT Connect allows the world to explore MIT through social media. It was first launched in 2012 (read the MIT news article), with two main pages: the home page and the blog. The home page featured a header of recent social media posts, a “discover” section featuring suggested profiles of MIT departments on social...
Read the PostMIT + SXSW
August 28, 2014
South by Southwest, usually referred to as SXSW, is an annual music, film, and interactive conference and festival held in Austin, Texas. The “interactive” portion usually goes by the hashtag #SXSWi on Twitter, and while music and film are a big part of the event, the interactive part features the creativity of gaming...
Read the PostMIT Commencement 2014
June 24, 2014
Thanks to the departments that actively participated in Commencement via social media. Many departments saw a growth in followers and engagement as a benefit of their activity surrounding the event. At MIT, we used the hashtag #MIT2014, which followed the pattern set in earlier years (e.g., #MIT2013, #MIT2012). We...
Read the PostRemove "Check Out" From Your Social Media Vocabulary
June 2, 2014
Yes, it’s my pet peeve. It’s the use of the phrase “check out.” The phrase isn’t inherently good or bad; what really stands out is its overuse as a sign of vocabulary laziness. In the past 30 days, 10 million tweets used the phrase “check out.” I’ve included some examples below, with the number of times each phrase...
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