Using Social Media to Create Community

By Tierra Booth

Over the last two years, we have solely relied on technology to keep us updated during these unprecedented times. Every time our phone buzzes, we are welcomed to new notifications that either make or break our day.

Here at California State University, Dominguez Hills, one of our top priorities is to spread important information to our students, faculty, staff, and alumni family.

Throughout the different academic departments, the spread of news is a good source to have for people directly involved in these departments to stay updated.

After spending time figuring out what would work best for the department, members of the Communications Department Social and Outreach Committee, including chair Dr. Brant Burkey, Internship Program Coordinator Lisa Mastramico, Assistant Professor Fernando Severino, Department Coordinator Nancy Perry, and instructors Paul Fornelli and Komal Kapoor, came up with the idea to launch a social outreach internship targeted specifically to Communications students focusing on advertising and public relations majors.

With the launch of this internship program, the selected AD/PR students worked directly on social media platforms enhancing content so that members of this department will be able to experience better. The main idea of this internship is to promote community among the the Communications Department faculty, students, alumni, and indus- try partners.

“Our AD/PR students are able to practice engagement and advertising skills but are also able to practice building community through this the Communications Department,” said Dr. Burkey. He also explains how this simple effort of broadening the social media presence of the department will also foster engagement not only among the department and its students but beyond. unique program,” Internship Coordinator Lisa Mastramico said. In addition to develop a sense of community, the idea is also to increase to engagement with the department’s social media presence.

The first AD/PR majors selected for this inaugural internship program in the Spring 2022 semester were April Reynaga and Parker Actkinson, both graduating seniors. Though they worked together as a team, they each brought their own unique creative strategies to implement and both showed a great deal of dedication and enthusiasm.

In its initial stages, Reynaga and Actkinson were tasked with updating and maintaining content primarily on the Instagram platform, where most of the COM students tend to frequent. Eventually, the plan is to also expand the Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts for the department. The overall social media strategy is to provide regularly updated content that is specific to each platform.

“ This is an ideal way to let people know what we’re about here in

Since Instagram is undoubtedly one of the biggest platforms for our current students, the priority was to expand its presence and generate more visits, likes, and shares among students, while providing useful and engaging content.

“Students will be able to be informed while also giving them insights of what they can look forward to within the COM Department,” said Actkinson.

On the other hand, using a platform such as Facebook, will be more targeted to alumni as it has grown to be a popular platform for older users. On their Facebook platform, they will be reaching out to alumni for advice and updates for them to stay directly connected in the Communications Department.

The Twitter platform will be used as a faster way to update students and alumni on upcoming events and any current announcements. Being able to get these updates via push notifications will make it easier to stay connected without any effort.

Finally, the YouTube platform will focus more on visual content used as a way to reel in prospective students, alumni, students, etc. This will be a way to connect with information visually making it automatically more appealing.

Reynaga and Actkinson worked closely together to develop specific strategies to keep these platforms updated, interesting and informative.

One specific strategy is weekly “student spotlights.” These are questionnaires put out to students that aim for direct engagement. There will be questions that ask students if they are enjoying their major, what are their plans after graduation, how do they enjoy their time on campus etc.

Alumni can also participate in their own versions of these questionnaires that will be targeted more towards them. Their questions would be where they are currently and what advice would they extend to current communication major students.

“It’s important for our students to know that we care about each other and we’re here,” Reynaga said. She also indicates the importance of being able to remind students that they still have a solid support system after graduation as a form of unity. Other weekly posts included interviews with faculty; congratulations for any student recognitions, scholarships, or awards; highlighting Bulletin newspaper stories written by Journalism majors; and other department news, updates, and deadlines.

While the internship program is still new, the desire to promote community stands as the primary goal amongst for what is hoped to be accomplished by the administrators and interns themselves.

“The hope is that we can keep everyone connected to the COM Department, whether they are current students or have already moved on to their prospective fields after graduation. Using social media to keep everyone aware of any new developments in the department is a great way to do just that,” said Dr. Burkey.

“It’s also a great way to showcase our students’ skills by allowing them to develop social media strategies, produce content, and analyze the analytics of user engagement, skills they will also need to show off when they get out into the job market as media professionals,” he concluded.

It is hoped for the near future that the department will continue to expand the program to other Communications majors, where their specific skill set can also play a role in the internship. For now, though, the main agenda is to grow the audience for the department’s social media presence, a plan which Reynaga and Actkinson worked hard to accomplish. In the spring semester, they noted a 200 percent increase in user activity for their Instagram content as well as an increase in followers.

Dr. Burkey and Professor Mastramico also plan on growing the Social Outreach Internship through reaching out to more members of the department to develop new ideas that will lead to the programs’ success.

So go ahead and follow us on Instagram to see for yourself: @csudh_com_dept.