MIT Social Media Hub

January 14, 2019

In January 2019 we unveiled the MIT Social Media Hub, which is a refresh of MIT Connect. We renamed the site for better searchability — Looking for MIT social media? You got it! We also wanted it to be more reflective of what you’ll find on the site: MIT social media content, channels, and best practices.

When MIT Connect was launched in 2012, it was one of the leading social media aggregate sites of its kind. However, since its launch, social media platforms kept evolving by offering new options, changing security settings, and updating APIs. With every change and update, the social content wall kept breaking, and Google Analytics showed us there were many pages that were not getting visits. In a medium where trending topics usually last an average of eleven minutes, it was time for an update.

MIT Connect social wall prior to the refresh

The most noticeable change is to the social content wall. We are using a third-party solution, Stackla, to aggregate the wall. We chose Stackla over other programs for three main reasons. We liked the look and feel of the layouts it offers, the large number of accounts it can potentially pull content from, and its search function. I invite you to try the social wall search function!

We do curate the wall, but it pulls from almost 240 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube accounts that belong to MIT department, labs, and centers.

New MIT Social Media Hub wall

We also streamlined the directory by eliminating the landing pages for every directory entry and just keeping it to a list, since we learned through Google Analytics that the landing pages were not getting any visits. We also added a video submission form, where MIT social media managers can suggest video content for consideration for the main MIT social media channels.

With the Social Media Hub, we aim to reveal MIT’s culture, share the latest news and events, showcase academic programs, and welcome a global community.