Recently, Her Campus had the opportunity to sit down and talk with Sarah Barnitt, a student in the Social Media concentration within the School of Information who also works for the University of Michigan’s social media team. Through her job, Sarah puts out content that hundreds of thousands of viewers see and react to. Lucky for us, she has a few spare moments to talk about what she does through her work, as well was what people like us can do to improve their social media presence!
Her Campus: Sarah, what is your job title, exactly?
Sarah Barnitt: My title is Senior Intern at UM Social, or the University of Michigan Department of Social Media.
HC: What does a normal day look like?
SB: We’re given a lot of agency at UM Social. I’ll often do things like respond to people who have emailed me about campaigns that they’re a part of. If I see one that I want to feature, I’ll ask for their permission and add it to our content schedule. Then essentially based on the to-do list I have for myself, I’ll work on stuff, and think “Ok, I’ll work on this until 1:30, after that I’m going to switch over to writing the script for the twitter panel”… Every day is different. Sometimes I’ll have to go somewhere to make a Snapchat story or an Instagram story, or do a strategy meeting with a group that wants that.
HC: What is one of your favorite things that UM Social has ever done?
SB: We always do really fun things in our Snapchat, we did social media vending machines where we brought vending machines on campus that were activated by tweets, and so we showed people how to do it and it was really cool. We also always do fun stuff around the holidays and homecoming… But my favorite thing that we’ve ever done is a Facebook live stream through our Facebook Umich chat with a cancer doctor and a cancer survivor who is now a Umich student, and works at Mott [Children’s Hospital]. I was really glad I could be there to hear her tell her story. That was one of my favorite things.
HC: What can normal people do to step up their social media game?
SB: Normal people, if you’re thinking about personal brand, and you care about your content reaching a lot of people, you want to know your audience. Know when they’re active, and when they’re most likely to be active on Instagram. Know what kinds of content people like based off of things that you’ve posted in the past that’s gotten a lot of likes. Also, be active yourself. Some people follow a norm of reciprocity of social media where if you’re liking and commenting on stuff, they’re more likely to be engaged.
HC: What should people not do on Social Media?
SB: One, do not overshare. There is a fine line between being dynamic on social media and adding white noise. So if you’re thinking about it from a personal brand perspective, you don’t need to add content if people have seen it a million times, or you aren’t really adding anything new or fun. If you’re just posting to post, it may not serve you. Also, social media never forgets, it’s like an elephant. So there’s always that rule that if you think something will be embarrassing in 6 months, or you wouldn’t want your grandma to see it, don’t post it on social media. Also, don’t use social media as your diary or anything like that, because there are other more authentic ways to express emotions and frustrations and I think that social media isn’t the right way to go about it. And also in your interactions, try not to be argumentative. Try not to be crass, and try to keep your interactions on social media civil.
You can follow University of Michigan and see what Sarah is posting on the following handles:
Instagram: uofmichigan
Snapchat: uofmichigan
Twitter: UMich
Facebook: University of Michigan
Youtube: University of Michigan
Image courtesy of Sarah Barnitt.