Stephanie Hatch Leishman
Former MIT Social Media Strategist
Q&A with Liz Woodward
May 2, 2014
Liz Woodward manages social media for MIT’s Office of the Arts, more fondly known as Arts at MIT. MIT is a very creative place, and Liz manages social media content that highlights the Institute's juxtaposition of science and art. I asked Liz a few questions about her job. How long have you been managing your...
Read the PostQ&A with Kellen Manning
April 29, 2014
I approached Kellen Manning a week ago to see if he’d be willing to answer some questions about his work. Kellen manages social media for MIT’s Division of Student Life. Kellen, what’s the hardest part of managing social media for your department? Probably the fact that before I got here social media in my department...
Read the PostValidation as Part of Social Media Customer Service
March 24, 2014
While many universities and their departments jump right into broadcasting their message via social, many pause before starting to use social networks for customer service. They know it will be much more difficult to use social in this way. Why? Because producing one-way content is easier than dealing with a two-way...
Read the PostThe Obsession with Best Practices
January 29, 2014
One of the best blog posts I’ve read this month is "Digital labor ou digital volunteer? Marx à l’heure du web 2.0” by Sylvain Léauthier. He argues that the world of personal and professional marketing on the social web has become obsessed with best practices. In this article, Léauthier says (translated from French): "...
Read the PostWhat Is “Dark Social”?
December 20, 2013
You might have noticed an increase in direct referral traffic to pages on your website. This traffic can come from visits that result in bookmarked URLs or typing a URL directly in the browser, but much of this traffic also comes from “dark social." In the past, the term “dark social” sometimes referred to the “dark...
Read the PostWhere to Start with Facebook Insights
October 28, 2013
Last week I gave a presentation called Introduction to Facebook Insights. Insights can sometimes be overwhelming when you're first learning to use it, so I explained how to start in a few steps: Understand metrics terms. Learn what "Reach" and "Engaged" mean. Learn to tell the difference between Page metrics and Post...
Read the PostGoogle+ for Higher Ed
September 17, 2013
MIT has a large Google+ following, to its main page as well as its many departments, e.g.,: Alumni Association, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Center for Civic Media, MIT Energy Initiative, and Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences. Earlier this month, those of us who manage Google+...
Read the PostQuora: How Ashton Kutcher, Joi Ito, and Drew Houston Respond
August 16, 2013
Ashton Kutcher and Joi Ito Jobs, the movie about Steve Jobs, hits theaters today. People are wondering how well Ashton Kutcher plays the lead role, and this question showed up on Quora: "How did Ashton Kutcher prepare for his role as Steve Jobs in the new movie Jobs?" Although the question was asked in the third...
Read the PostA Tour of the New Facebook Insights
July 26, 2013
Facebook is rolling out new Insights. The improvements are apparent in the new design and layout. Insights now includes a dashboard with the following tabs: Overview, Page, Posts, People. Overview In the overview, you can view how your page is doing in likes, general reach, and engagement. Under this, Insights shows...
Read the PostHow Colleges and Universities Use Instagram
July 1, 2013
Universities and colleges around the nation are using Instagram. They've found a few ways to take advantage of this every-growing platform, so I thought I'd give you a tour of higher education instagramming. These methods are not only for main university accounts, but can be used by specific departments, labs,...
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