Posted on: 18 December 2017
Trinity held its first Social Media day for staff on Friday, 1st December. The event, ‘#TrinityisSocial – The value of Social Media in Higher Education’, was attended by over 100 academic, professional and administration staff from across the University. The sessions gave insights into social media best practice for higher education aiming to support staff in developing their social media skills and knowledge.
Opened by the Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, the full-day event featured sessions on a wide range of topics including engaging with generation Z and millennials, social media use for academics, case studies from public sector organisations and workshops on the importance of video, social media measurement and social advertising with speakers from the Irish Second-Level Students' Union, Zeminar, Trinity’s Students’ Union, Dublin Airport, Irish Rail, Dublin Fire Brigade and Trinity itself as well as social media and digital training experts.
The event’s keynote speaker, University of Glasgow’s Social Media and Digital Manager, Emma Gilmartin, spoke in depth about the value and impact that social media has on their University, outlining among other things, how their social media team use platforms such as Snapchat to engage with current and prospective students and to spread the word about research achievements and university new audiences.
Organised by the Trinity’s Public Affairs and Communications Office, the #TrinityIsSocial event was not just for those actively currently working with social media, it was also open to staff looking to gain more knowledge and understanding about the constantly changing world of social media.
“Social Media is now an integral part of our communications at Trinity. It’s no longer a choice to be in this space. It’s a necessity as this is where our audiences are,” stated Provost Patrick Prendergast at the opening of the event. “When it comes to spreading the word about the great work we do here and our research of impact, we have to use social media to the hilt. Let’s all learn to use this remarkable new medium so that it works for us personally, for Trinity and for a better world.”
“I'm thrilled with the success of the day, the engagement from the wide range of staff and the positive feedback we’ve had on the event,” stated Deputy Head of Communications, Sharon Campbell. ‘It's great encouragement to us all in the Public Affairs and Communications Office, and communications colleagues we work with across the University, to continue our work on developing Trinity's social media activities and the all-important support for the university’s growing social media community. An added bonus to the success of the event was having #TrinityIsSocial trend on Twitter across Ireland for 15 hours that day.”
