This column features the work of individuals currently enrolled in or recently graduated from educational programs in the field. Contributors examine how theories and concepts encountered in their classes can be applied to technical communication practices. To submit a column, email the editor at STAMANTK@ecu.edu.
By Elizabeth Oderkirk
As an undergraduate student working in the communications department at Michigan State University (MSU)’s Infrastructure Planning and Facilities (IPF), I observe many of the progressions MSU goes through to keep moving forward and to communicate with its campus “customers” to “keep campus running 24/7/365.” Part of my job at IPF is to alert these customers to maintenance and construction occurring on campus. I also provide individuals with information on the clear roads and paths they can take at times when maintenance work is occurring. Like many technical communication offices, the IPF communications department strives to reach a range of audiences by using several communication methods, including internal and external websites, newsletters, social media profiles, and more.
Within this context, social media is a major communication technology we now use to interact with students, faculty, and staff on a regular basis. Twitter, in particular, has become a key technology, for it allows us to engage quickly and effectively with our customers. Specifically, Twitter has become central to:
- Updating the MSU community on the status of problems they’ve reported; and
- Responding to comments and questions regarding construction, inclement weather, and building maintenance issues.
Though IPF is somewhat different from other companies and businesses, the communications department is not. Like many other communications, public relations, and marketing teams, we have a commitment to communicating clearly and efficiently with our campus customers about our products and services. Our experiences using Twitter can therefore be of benefit to individuals currently using or who are considering using Twitter to interact with others. To illustrate this idea, I will focus on a particular MSU-based Twitter feed.
Twitter Users Told Us “what to fix” through @wtfMSU
In the fall of 2013, MSU’s undergraduate student government association, the Associated Students of MSU (ASMSU), started a new Twitter feed called @wtfMSU (“what to fix MSU”). The purpose of this feed was to allow Twitter users to alert the MSU community to maintenance issues affecting their daily activities. The majority of these users were MSU students who already actively turned to Twitter as a place to have a voice and share opinions. The @wtfMSU feed, in turn, allowed for a two-way channel of communication and allowed individuals at MSU to quickly and directly contact the different departments associated with addressing certain issues. As such, this channel also allowed employees of those departments to respond quickly to questions and provide real-time updates on projects.
Who Was Involved
People tweeted to @wtfMSU for a variety of reasons, and ASMSU did its best to direct users to the MSU division best able to address a particular problem. For example, IT Services, MSU Police, and the MSU Residential and Hospitality Services unit (managing Eat at State and Live On) all have active Twitter accounts. They all regularly monitored tweets to @wtfMSU and #wtfmsu to make sure issues in their domain were addressed in a timely manner.
When @wtfMSU started, it became clear that many students did not know which university division to contact when they encountered issues or wanted to provide feedback on something. As a result, some tweets would be directed toward IPF’s Twitter account @MSUFacilities, but those messages really needed to be sent to Live On—MSU’s Residence Education and Housing Services.
To address this issue, representatives from various MSU divisions met monthly to clarify the division of services and provide insight on current events for cross-promotion. These discussions, in turn, informed how to best use @wtfMSU
as a resource for collecting and sharing information. This method is not unique to MSU. Many other organizations rely on cross-departmental meetings to discuss the most effective approaches to addressing various communication tasks. By bringing together a variety of people working in different positions, this approach helps provide fresh perspectives to what is an age-old problem—connecting to and communicating with an audience.
How It Works
The @wtfMSU feed has been used less in recent months, but many Twitter users continue to tweet issues directly to us at @MSUFacilities. For tweets that are within IPF’s domain, such as over-heated classrooms, the process works as follows: an IPF employee tweets back to the users to thank that person for the notice and to ask for the specific location where the problem occurs. Once IPF has collected more details about the tweeted issue, an employee will email IPF Dispatch Services so a worker will be sent to the location in order to address the problem. The process continues like a normal work request from there: dispatch opens a work order for the issue and notifies the correct department within IPF to send someone to the related location. Typically, IPF receives an update on the issue within 24 to 48 hours, and these updates include a summary of what caused the issue or an update on how a given problem was fixed. An IPF employee then tweets an update on the issue to the user(s) who first noted the problem.
What We Changed
Before @wtfMSU, most IPF work requests were called into Dispatch by on-campus employees or submitted via online service request forms. These methods worked well, but they also limited who on campus could notify IPF of problems or request service for an issue. For example, students and non-employees could call IPF dispatch if they knew where to find the number or where to go to access an online form. However, if someone wanted to complete and submit an online service request form, that individual needed to also provide departmental billing information. These factors created limitations, and IPF had to adjust its business process to accommodate requests originating from Twitter by creating a new general “requester” identity in our billing system.
Twitter Best Practices
From my experiences managing the IPF Twitter account, connecting with an audience means connecting with individuals in a meaningful way. The catch—you only get 140 characters to get the message across! Here’s a list of recommended best practices on Twitter use in large, organizational contexts:
- Tweet as often as possible—Users need to know you are there!
- Interact quickly—Users who tweet to your organization are looking for a rapid response. They may want help with a product or to say thanks for great service, but they always deserve a response for reaching out.
- Engage meaningfully—Ask questions, post did-you-knows, share interesting ideas, and ask for some in return! Letting customers know their voices are heard keeps them engaged and shows them they are important.
- Keep it positive—People who find your tweets amusing or uplifting are likely to respond positively toward your organization. I like to cross-promote successes from around campus (e.g., student organizations that won a competition or hosted an event).
- Make it personal—Show customers your organization is made up of real people by tweeting about them (with their permission). Tell users what these folks are working on and what have they done recently.
Social media, like Twitter, has affected professional interactions as well as social interactions. Not only does it allow a large population to report issues directly, but it also gives people the opportunity to learn about the folks who work for your organization and to interact with them directly. Before, people might have had to wade through countless forms before they could get an issue resolved; now, 140 characters or less are all that’s needed to get the process rolling.
A junior at Michigan State University, ELIZABETH ODERKIRK is busy studying for her two Bachelor’s degrees in professional communication and user experience, coordinating social media and the website for IPF, and conducting research on using proto-personas to develop a study abroad app. To contact her, find her on Twitter at @CorgiGirl24 or email her at oderkirk24@gmail.com.
