Social Media Use: Good or Bad?

This past weekend, was Homecoming Weekend at Ohio Northern and as part of a class assignment, we live tweeted one of the events that occurred during the weekend. Part of this assignment included comparing Ohio Northern's Twitter and Facebook activity for the weekend. While looking looking at both social media platforms, Ohio Northern had very small number of posts about Homecoming and the events occurring throughout the weekend. I live tweeted the Homecoming Parade and you can view this story at https://storify.com/tiffck19/homecoming-2015

First, I took a look at the Ohio Northern University Facebook page where there was a total of three posts for the entire weekend. Their first post was about the Homecoming 2015 schedule of events and it included a list of what was going on throughout the weekend.  The next post was a video of the Stars of Northwest Ohio and the ONU Alumni Band doing the ONU fight song. The last post of the weekend was a post of all the photos taken throughout the weekend. ONU’s Facebook page didn’t do anything to promote their events for their alumni this past weekend. A majority of alumni are on Facebook, and ONU should have been posting events that were happening, when they were happening and where. They also should have been posting photos of the specific event when the event was taking place. The one good thing they did correctly is post all the photos taken at the end of the weekend, with a wrap-up of the events.

Next, I took a look at the ONU Twitter page where they also had a very limited amount of tweets from the weekend, three to be exact. The first tweet of the weekend was about the schedule of the events for the weekend. They’re next tweet wasn’t actually an original tweet, it was retweet from an alumni. The last tweet of the weekend was a link containing all the photos for the weekend. Twitter is a microblogging site and ONU definitely should have been utilizing this social media platform throughout the events. With Twitter, ONU should have been doing constant updates about the events and tweeting not just when the event was starting and finishing, but also during it, so individuals would know what was going on. ONU had the right idea when they retweeted an alumni and they should have done this throughout the weekend with alumni and current students. 

Overall Ohio Northern didn't do the greatest job in keeping up with their social media and could have been much more engaged with their followers. The main improvement ONU could have made to their social media is just posting regularly throughout the weekend about the events that were going on and where they were located. They had a positive on both Facebook and Twitter, but they could have expanded off these positives much more. Hopefully the social media for next year's Homecoming will be a bit more engaging and actually tell both alumni and current students when something is going on and where.