Social media is a growing market that now seems like a necessity for businesses, organizations, schools and other groups. It is a powerful tool that allows them to expand their reach and engage with their current followers. In addition to increasing reach, social media can be a helpful tool for places to share their mission and story.
The School of Theology and Christian Ministry (SOTCM) at AU recognizes this and has recently increased its efforts on social media platforms.
Dr. Kimberly Majeski, associate professor of biblical studies and head of the SOTCM social media, explained that the goal of its social media is to create, “a place to share our stories and interact with church and community more directly.”
The SOTCM is currently using Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to get its message to its target audience. With this revamp in its social media, the SOTCM team hopes to better engage with potential students, interested parties and alumni across each of its accounts.
To reach these different audiences, the department is starting to utilize the idea of series across each of its three accounts. Currently, the department is focusing on its Newell Lectures in Biblical Studies. This is its 40th year of doing these lectures and Majeski hopes to use media, such as an interview with the speaker, in the series to create excitement around the event. After this series, Majeski hopes to start introducing the faculty of the department and doing more introductory posts so that people can get to know what makes the SOTCM so special.
Learning how to generate this type of interactive and exciting content has been a learning experience for Majeski. As a professor and someone who is used to engaging on social media for personal use, Majeski is taking on the role of being the “poster” of the department’s social media.
Majeski explained that “communications are certainly not my whole job or expertise, but at least we’ve been able to forge some partnerships and the marketing department has been able to help us develop a plan.”
With the help of the marketing department, she can ensure the content being produced will help them achieve their goals while the marketing department helps with more of the technical and creative aspects of having social media accounts.
“I am leaning on the marketing department for direction on a strategic plan in terms of posting,” Majeski said. “I try to post several times a week to Instagram and a few times per week to Facebook. Dean Willowby typically manages posting to our twitter feed. We hope bringing our student workers on board will help with creating some content and template pieces so our posts can be more frequent and creative.”
Although the SOTCM is new to social media, Majeski and the marketing department are continuing to learn and work together in order to create fresh content that will help this department achieve its goals. This partnership with the marketing department will be an asset for Majeski and the SOTCM, providing an opportunity to grow an online presence faster.