CASE Social Media explores trends and best practices in the use of social media in educational advancement. Contributors come from a variety of backgrounds and include social media experts at member institutions, CASE staff and independent consultants. The opinions of guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of CASE.
If you work at a CASE member institution and are interested in contributing to the blog, contact Janna Crabb, director of online communications, at crabb@case.org.
Current Contributors
Elizabeth Allen (@LizAllen) is the director of online communications and alumni relations at the American School in London. For Elizabeth, communications is about much more than tools and technology, it's about building relationships. Elizabeth writes about social media and engagement on her blog Adaptivate.
Ken Budd is editor-in-chief of CURRENTS. He was recently named one of the top 20 people to follow on Twitter about volunteering abroad by GoOverseas.com.
Janna Crabb (@jcrabb) is the director of online communications at CASE. In this role, she oversees CASE's social media strategy, initiatives and the CASE website. Janna has managed CASE's social media presence since its launch, employing usage statistics to make decisions about content and future growth. She feels very strongly about usability and providing content in social-media-friendly styles.
Jennifer Doak (@jpdoak) is the online communications specialist at CASE. In this capacity, she creates content for and helps manage CASE’s online presence—you’ve probably seen her on LinkedIn and Facebook in addition to the CASE blog. After successfully establishing social networks and a staff training program for her previous employer, Jen is working with CASE to expand and enrich its virtual communities.
Cassie Dull (@cassdull) is the online communications specialist at Park Tudor School, an independent school in Indianapolis, Indiana. She maintains the school's website, leads the charge with their social media and blogging adventures and enjoys capturing candid moments on video.
Hannah Ellsworth (@hmellsworth) works at Harvard University in alumni affairs and development communications. A former social media manager for Bentley University's alumni community, Hannah specializes in content development and social media strategy. She loves investigating emerging trends in social media and finding new ways to connect alumni communities.
Keith Hannon ( @KeithHannon) is the associate director for social media at Cornell University's alumni affairs and development office. He spends his days producing video, experimenting with gamification and knocking down the walls dividing social media and development.
Matthew Herek (@mherek) currently serves as the interim director of career services, students, and young alumni in the office of alumni relations and development at Northwestern University. He works to integrate social media in ways that increase engagement and participation in the alumni community.
Sarah Hyde (@SeattleU) is the social media coordinator for Seattle University, maintaining the school's online presence across various platforms (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and providing research, strategy and best practices for the Seattle University community. She believes social media has emerged as the most powerful medium in communications.
Aaron Jaco (@aaron_jaco) is digital media specialist at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. In this role, he serves as social media strategist and the primary voice of Drake on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr and other social platforms. He graduated from Drake’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication in 2007.
David Moltz (@admoltz) is writer/editor at CASE. In this role, he produces content for CASE publications Advancement Weekly, BriefCASE, Community College Advancement News, as well as CASE podcast Advancement Talk. Before coming to CASE, he was a national higher education reporter focusing primarily on community colleges, career/technical education and intercollegiate athletics.
Robyn Neeley (@CASEASAP) is the program manager for CASE Affiliated Student Advancement Programs, the student advancement arm of CASE. She works with hundreds of student leaders and advisers, providing products and services to enhance their organizations. She is constantly learning new ways to leverage social media to share best practices from her students. She’s pretty sure there’s a YouTube video out there somewhere of her doing the Wobble at a CASE ASAP District Conference.
Teresa Valerio Parrot (@tvparrot) is principal of TVP Communications, a boutique public relations agency focused on issues specific to higher education. She loves coming to work each day to assist colleges and universities find their voice, tell their story, amplify their brand and connect with their audiences.
Cameron Pegg (@ghostwhowrites) is executive officer for the deputy vice chancellor and provost at Griffith University in Australia. A former alumni magazine editor, he is also a feature writer for The Australian newspaper and teaches creative writing at the University of Queensland. Cameron is passionate about leveraging traditional and emerging platforms to better communicate with alumni.
Ma'ayan Plaut (@plautmaayan) is a recent graduate of Oberlin College and is tickled pink to be working for her alma mater as the social media coordinator in the office of communications. She maintains Oberlin's web presences in many places and encourages writing on the Oberlin blogs and for the Oberlin Stories Project. She loves visual communication, conversation, her camera, and cooking.
Sarah Raezler (@sraezler) is an information resource specialist for CASE. In this role, she primarily researches advancement topics for CASE members and staff, focusing on the alumni relations beat. She also creates and maintains collections of samples and other resources on the CASE website.
Becca Ramspott (@beccaramspott) is a writer and social media specialist at Frostburg State University and leads FSU’s social media group. Her past projects include organizing a social media scavenger hunt for alumni, crowdsourcing YouTube video contests and creating a “graduation gift” of resources for Frostburg’s Class of 2012 on Pinterest. She also writes features stories, Web content and select communications for FSU’s president, Dr. Jonathan Gibralter.
Adrian Salmon (@AdrianSalmon) is the Footsteps Fund manager at the University of Leeds in the UK. He is in charge of telephone, direct mail and online appeals to the University's 190,000 strong alumni community. Previously head of client services at The Phone Room Ltd, where he ran successful campaigns for organisations including The Royal Opera House, Guide Dogs for the Blind, and the Royal Festival Hall, Adrian is now enjoying his 15th year as a direct marketing fundraiser.
Julie Schorfheide is director of books publishing at CASE and is always on the lookout for new, relevant and well-written books that will help CASE members in their professional lives. She deeply appreciates the vast amount of information and viewpoints available through social media; but being a shy Midwestern girl at heart, she tends to be more of a lurker than a participant.
Michael Stoner (@mstonerblog) is president of mStoner Inc., a communications consulting firm based in Chicago; St. Louis; and Woodstock, Vt. He has been blogging (since 2003) at mStoner blog.
Chris Syme (@cksyme) is principal at CKSyme.org, a consulting firm in Bozeman, Mont. Her agency specializes in real-time communication strategies, including reputation and crisis, social media and media training. She blogs regularly on higher education issues at www.cksyme.org.
Theresa Walker is a senior editor at CURRENTS. She covers the communications and marketing beat for the magazine and is in charge of the Office Space column and Odds and Ends, the Q-and-A format interview that closes out each issue. Her use of and feelings about social media vary, depending on the day. She finds Twitter very useful in her professional life, although she's more of a lurker than an avid tweeter. Personally, she likes Facebook and Google+ (though she's more of a Facebook user) and is interested in seeing how the battle between the two shakes out.
Dinah Winnick (@dinahwinnick) is communications manager in the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) office of institutional advancement. She promotes visibility of the university's social science programs and related campus-wide projects, such as the BreakingGround civic engagement initiative (#digUMBC). This work includes producing videos, writing for web and the UMBC Magazine and media relations. She also coordinates UMBC's social media strategy and tweets for @UMBC.
Past Contributors
Pamela Agar is the head of digital media at Imperial College London in the United Kingdom. In her current role, Pamela is responsible for Imperial's online presence and video production capabilities, experimenting with new styles and approaches to tell College research and education stories in a compelling way.
Gayle Bennett is former deputy editor of CURRENTS.
Karine Joly has chronicled the rise and adoption of social media in higher education on her blog www.collegewebeditor.com since February 2005. She also shares her expertise and insights about social media and web marketing in her column about Internet Technologies for University Business. She has developed and will soon start teaching a course on social media campaigns for Sourthern New Hampshire University's MBA in Social Media.
Joel Pattison formerly lead a team of professional designers, photographers and project managers at William & Mary as Associate Director for Creative Services.
Tracy Playle is founder of Pickle Jar Communications and specialises in strategy and training for the use of social media in education. She also founded and manages www.he-comms.com, the social network for higher education communications professionals. She is based in the UK where she previously worked for the University of Warwick and as Head of Research-TV.
Patrick Powers is an interactive media manager at Webster University. In this role, he is responsible for developing and executing the university’s social media communications strategy across multiple platforms. Patrick regularly speaks on issues of social media in higher education and writes about the topic on his personal blog at http://www.patrickpowers.net.
Tony Burgess-Webb is the co-founder of Sociagility ( sociagility.com), a consultancy focused on improving organizational competitive advantage by helping clients build their own in-house social media capability. Tony was previously CMO and head of digital for WPP communications consultancy Hill & Knowlton.
