This year’s Social Learning Summit will take place at American University’s School of International Service. Day One of SLS13 will feature a faculty panel focused on social media and education, a keynote by Strategy Director of MXM Social, Joe Gizzi and an opening party/networking reception. The Summit continues on Saturday with two keynote speakers, 14 panels, networking breaks, free food, and stations where attendees can get advice on how to create/improve their online identities.

It is our hope that you will not only attend SLS13, but also be part of the discussion and join confirmed experts including:

• Gadi Ben-Yehuda, Innovation & Social Media Director, IBM
• Chris Geidner, Senior Political Reporter, Buzzfeed
• Bryant Avondoglio, Advance & Digital Production Manager Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH)
• Zoe Pagonis, Director of Digital Strategy, Office of Maryland Govenor Martin O’Malley

It’s time to get real. The world of networking has changed, thanks to social media and a greater emphasis on skills and talent over compliancy. AUPRSSA & AUSMC are co-hosting The Hyper Network again. We’re calling it The Hyper Network 2. This is an event where DC professionals, journalists, marketers, and students are invited to a panel that will break down contemporary networking and discuss how they use new forms of networking to get ahead in their industries. Then, tasty food, feel-good jams and a crowd filled with people you actually want to meet take over! Attendants are free to network to their heart’s delight.

Business casual dress is recommended, but not required. Attendees will not be admitted without a physical ticket in hand, even if they have acquired a free ticket. Please remember to print out the ticket from the email Eventbrite sends you. Follow along the conversation on Twitter! #HyperNetwork2

Click here to get your ticket.

AU Social Media Club is certainly excited for this year’s festival and you should be too! For this year’s schedule, visit digitalcapitalweek.org/schedule/.

Notable speakers this year include:

Robin Chase is the founder and CEO of Buzzcar, a peer-to-peer car sharing service. She is co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, an innovative car sharing service. She also started GoLoco.org, a venture combining online carpooling and social networking. 

Travis Kalanick is a successful entrepreneur in the areas of consumer internet, transportation, and enterprise content delivery. His most recent company, Uber, an on-demand black car service, seeks to be “Everyone’s Private Driver” by bringing disruptive technology and business innovation to urban transportation challenges.

Vincent C. Gray is the 6th elected Mayor of the District of Columbia, having garnered nearly 75% of the vote. While campaigning, he pledged to unite DC with job creation and economic development, collaboration on school reform, safer neighborhoods, and fiscal responsibility in city government.

Join the AU Social Media Club for a fun, informative workshop on Twitter terminology, essential features and fundamental usage techniques.

The event is Thursday, October 17 at 8:00 PM.

Learn how to refine your newsfeed content, use Twitter to land a job, manage a professional account and more.
Expert Panel featuring social media geniuses from Activ8social, RedPeg Marketing, DavidAllGroup, Social Media Club DC and AU faculty.

Free Dunkin’ Donuts donuts and coffee, so come curious and hungry!

What is StudyHall.com?

StudyHall.com is a platform that allows college students to do everything they need to do for college online in one place. It allows users to share documents, study together and collaborate in real time using video chat. Ben described StudyHall.com as “the one central location for everything you need in college.”

Where did the inspiration for StudyHall.com come from?

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ross Blankenship worked in education after graduating law school and would constantly hear his students complain about the lack of online tools catered directly to the needs of college students.

According to Ben and Ross, one of the largest unsolved problems on the Internet and in education is the ability for students to collaborate with their peers online. Social media tools and StudyHall.com are working to increase student collaboration, whether it’s sharing notes and videochatting on StudyHall.com or using Twitter to extend classroom discussions. Education needs to innovate to include the tools and sites that students use everyday.

Ben Winter joined Ross about three months into the development process in order to help build the website. He too recognized that there was no real place for peer-to-peer collaboration amongst college students.

How are you getting the word out to students about StudyHall.com?

The StudyHall.com team plans to engage students using word of mouth, one-to-one interactions, and through social media channels. Once students start using the platform they are confident that they will share it with their friends and a friend’s endorsement speaks volumes about a platform.

StudyHall.com aims to be the academic one-stop-shop for students online. “We don’t want students to feel forced into anything, unlike institutional school email addresses chosen by schools or academic platforms chosen by professors, such as Blackboard”, Ben explains, “StudyHall.com wants students to choose to use the site.”

Who is using StudyHall.com?

Ben made it very clear that the platform is starting as a student’s only platform. They are focused on making StudyHall.com a platform when students can congregate and collaborate before they open it up to professors. The platform was beta tested by over 300 students at 5 universities: Cornell, Harvard, Georgetown, Middlebury and Yale. Ben explained, “once they have officially launched and opened the platform up to those universities they plan to launch at other schools, such as American.” They’ve been working hard to get ready for a successful launch and will continue to add new-features and open at more schools, as they continue to grow.

What sets StudyHall.com apart from other tools out there like Twitter, Facebook, Blackboard or other education platforms?

StudyHall.com aims to be the central academic website for college students. Currently, students have tons of tools they are using simultaneously like Dropbox, Microsoft Word, Facebook, G-Chat, Gmail, and Twitter. StudyHall.com wants to be the academic hub for all of students’ needs without the noise of the other sites.

StudyHall.com is a robust suite of tools for students. Its the academic center for students to do everything they need to do online, including video chat, instant messaging, email, notes/documents sharing and group forums.

Ben believes that Facebook had the opportunity to enter the educational space, but chose to focus on social interactions, “a few years back Facebook had the choice to stay as they are or pivot to education, they chose to remain social. StudyHall.com is only focused on academics, its a place where students can be open and honest with their peers.” Ben sees StudyHall.com as a place where students can share notes, work together, and react to classes/classwork.

What do you see as the biggest challenges for StudyHall.com?

Ben believes that the robust tools and features of StudyHall.com present both an opportunity and a challenge. Ben worries that students might be drawn to a single features like file storage and think of StudyHall.com as, “an academic Dropbox” when it offers so much more than that. When students talk about the site they will likely highlight one feature that is important to them, but the StudyHall.com team wants to make sure that students are aware of all of their tools and features. Ben thinks that the “clean, user-friendly interface and fun videos” will help highlight the different features on the site. The StudyHall.com team will continue to listen to its student users and continue to add features and adapt current features to meet the needs of their users.

Why did StudyHall.com target college students as opposed to younger audiences?

StudyHall.com decided to target college students with their platform because they considered college students “more tech-savvy” and having academics more focused on computers and the Internet. Ben believes that the computer, specifically the laptop is a central part of the college experience. Students rely on their computers for note-taking, writing papers, researching, and communicating with classmates. “In general, college students spend more time studying than high school students, and StudyHall.com can help make studying and collaborating easier.”

Additionally, Ben felt that a void existed in how college students, especially freshmen and sophomores, use their computers, “freshmen and sophomores are more focused on their social lives and Facebook has helped fill that social need. Sometimes we forget but college is about the academics. StudyHall.com helps fill the opening in the acadmic space online and helps students promote their academic lives, rather than their social lives.”

Ben also made the interesting point about the network size and interactions of high school students versus college students. “In college, students have social friends and academic friends, in high school students are more connected in their day-to-day lives and the academic and social groups are often the same. Those networks overlap a lot less in college.”

If you have any questions for Ben feel free to reach out to him and the StudyHall.com team on Twitter @mystudyhall.

1)    Tell us a little about yourself. How did you end up working in social media for American University?

I came to AU from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, where I managed the main website and helped to coordinate online advocacy campaigns, which included using Facebook. When I arrived at SOC, one of my jobs was to help get the school up to speed on social media, and now we have a strong presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

2)    Why did you personally decide to join Twitter?

To follow news and issues I didn’t have the time to track down. I felt it was quicker and easier than

3)    What has been the best thing about managing the school’s social media account?

Learning so much about what our students and recent alums are doing. New jobs, bylines, awards, trailers, projects…

4)    Does the school give you any sort of guidelines for how to tweet? Like who to respond to or who to retweet?

Not really. Former Dean Larry Kirkman @Larrykirkman is a big Twitter proponent. Initially, he just asked that we use it as another way to showcase faculty, student and alumni achievements. Then he let it grow organically.

5)    What is the goal for your Twitter account? Is it to promote your school’s events, is it to engage students, or is it something else?

Engagement. Building a community, a network.

6)    What do you think is the most important thing to know when managing a professional twitter account?

I think that it’s important to spend a lot of time reading tweets from the people you’re following. Figure out who they are and what interests them. Meet them there. You wouldn’t walk into a group of people talking about the new Batman movie and start reading a lasagne recipe – you should follow them same sensibility online.

7) Do you think your school does a good job using social media in the classroom? How do you think they could better incorporate social media?

Several of our professors are real rock stars when it comes to using social media in the classroom. Caty Chattoo @catybc, Pallvi Kumar @pdkdc and Scott Talan @talan are few who are particularly innovative.

8)    What has been the most controversial tweet you’ve sent from the school account? How did your followers and students in particular respond?

For better or for worse, I can’t think of anything controversial we’ve tweeted.

9) Does each school / twitter account have a specific content strategy? What types of tweets get the most engagement?

Our strategy is to engage the SOC community and to help build connections between community members. Generally, that’s students, faculty, alumni, staff, and prospective students. Announcements about awards or accomplishments – broadly defined – tend to do best. We follow new folks – mostly students – all the time, and we do a lot of retweeting, to both build our network and make it more interconnected.

10) What advantages, or disadvantages, do you believe Twitter has over other social media sites, such as Facebook, in regards to professional account management?

I actually started using Hootsuite to manage the account, so that I could schedule tweets in advance and there were a few other features – like a built in link shortener – that made it more user friendly for what I was trying to do. Actually, I also managed the Facebook account through it for a while. But at this point, Twitter has added many of these features – as has Facebook. I think overall that Twitter has been more flexible and willing to adapt to serve the various populations that are using it.

1)    Tell us a little about yourself. How did you end up working in social media for American University?

I started at Kogod in April 2011. I’ve always worked in the communications field in some capacity and had watched with interest as social media developed into yet another way to share information. I was in the midst of working on my master’s in interactive journalism at the School of Communication here at AU, so aside from a personal interest, I was learning a great deal about emerging platforms. It became clear that Twitter was more than just a means of communicating; it had the potential to foster engagement. A channel that offered two-way communication — an exchange of ideas and knowledge — was really appealing and something that I wanted to be involved in.

2)    Why did you personally decide to join Twitter?

I joined Twitter in July 2009. It hadn’t really taken off at that point, but I was curious and thought why not. I had fun with it in the beginning, not taking it very seriously or checking it very often. In the last couple years, it has become a source of breaking news as well as a way to share photos and personal interests. I now have it up on my computer during the day and use an app on my phone. I can hardly go without anymore! I learned about Michael Jackson’s death, Gabrielle Gifford’s getting shot, and the Japan earthquake and tsunami via Twitter.

3)    What has been the best thing about managing the school’s social media account?

It’s been great to interact with students virtually. I’m the one retweeting, replying, etc., so I’m at the front lines. I really enjoy learning from them — they point to some great articles and goings-on in D.C. — and being able to share with Kogod followers at large what they’re up to. They often have more or better information than I do, so I’m thrilled to be an intermediary of sorts!

4)    Does the school give you any sort of guidelines for how to tweet? Like who to respond to or who to retweet?

We’re working on refining our social media strategy at the moment, but we don’t have specific guidelines about who to respond to or retweet. I try to include #Kogod or Kogod’s handle in tweets and I try to retweet students, particularly student achievements. I include links to direct readers to more information. Making tweets as relevant to our constituents as possible is my guide.

5)    What is the goal for your Twitter account? Is it to promote your school’s events, is it to engage students, or is it something else?

At Kogod, we’re trying to build community. We want our students to feel engaged with the school and with each other. Twitter provides a platform that allows students to share with us as much as we share with them. That’s what we’re focused on now: trying to encourage that two-way communication. We want to see their photos, read the articles they suggest, and know about campus activities they’re participating in.

6)    What do you think is the most important thing to know when managing a professional twitter account?

First thing is etiquette. You have to be aware of what’s appropriate and what’s not, which can vary from organization to organization. Learn the boundaries and try not to push them unless you have a compelling reason. Second, is your audience. Aside from demographics, what does your audience care about? What do they find relevant to their day-to-day lives? There is a lot of information floating around on Twitter, but most of it is extraneous to a particular audience. For example, I ride the Metro to and from the office, so knowing about track work, service interruptions, etc., is important to me. To AU students, probably not so much.

7)    Do you think your school does a good job using social media in the classroom? How do you think they could better incorporate social media?

I’m not sure the extent to which social media is used in Kogod classrooms. I think it’s an important tool that could be leveraged further.

8)    What has been the most controversial tweet you’ve sent from the school account? How did your followers and students in particular respond?

I can’t think of anything that I’ve sent that’s been controversial. I try to stick with news stories/informational updates rather than op-eds or analysis on highly charged topics. I don’t want to come off as favoring a side or particular opinion.

9) Does each school / twitter account have a specific content strategy? What types of tweets get the most engagement?

Tweets that pertain to students are often the most retweeted, mentioned, and replied to. Students enjoy engaging with other students and knowing and supporting the activities of their peers.

10) What advantages, or disadvantages, do you believe Twitter has over other social media sites, such as Facebook, in regards to professional account management?

Twitter is a broader network of loosely connected entities, whereas Facebook is a bit more personal. You follow individuals or organizations that offer information that you find useful, humorous, enlightening, etc., you don’t necessarily have to have a personal affiliation. You have access to information that you’d probably never find on your own (or at least take the time to find on your own). You can go far beyond your network here in D.C. and even the U.S. It’s a way to learn about and share topics of interest and goings-on in the world at large. It’s a great complement to what our students are learning in the classroom.

1) Tell us a little about yourself. How did you end up working in social media for American University?

I am the marketing and communications manager for the College of Arts and Sciences. Social networking falls into my job description.

2) Why did you personally decide to join Twitter?

I personally decided to join twitter to receive news and updates from organizations that I follow. Many organizations post information that would not necessarily be included in an e-newsletter, so it is a great way to keep up to date with recent news.

3) What has been the best thing about managing the school’s social media account?

Having another outlet to share College news and events easily.

4) Does the school give you any sort of guidelines for how to tweet? Like who to respond to or who to retweet?

I’m the only one working with the College social media accounts right now and I was not given specific guidelines. If College departments or programs create social media accounts, I ask that they like/follow the College account and I do the same with their pages. I also try to cross post or mention other College associated accounts as much as possible.

5) What is the goal for your Twitter account? Is it to promote your school’s events, is it to engage students, or is it something else?

We have two goals:

1. Gain visibility for College news, events, and achievements
2. Grow the College community

6) What do you think is the most important thing to know when managing a professional twitter account?

For the College account, it is really important to post a balanced mix of information from the cluster areas (arts, education, humanities, social sciences, and sciences). All of the content areas need to be represented.

7) Do you think your school does a good job using social media in the classroom? How do you think they could better incorporate social media?

Specific professors use social media more than others. American Studies professor Stef Woods received an award for her use of social media in the classroom – http://www.american.edu/cas/news/stef-woods-technology-award.cfm

8) What has been the most controversial tweet you’ve sent from the school account? How did your followers and students in particular respond?

There has not been a need to send out any controversial tweets.

9) Does each school / twitter account have a specific content strategy? What types of tweets get the most engagement?

Usually tweets that involve news and achievements receive the most engagement.

10) What advantages, or disadvantages, do you believe Twitter has over other social media sites, such as Facebook, in regards to professional account management? (In other words, do you think that Twitter or Facebook does a better job at fulfilling the goals and expectations outlined by your particular school.)

While each organization has a different view on how often to post on facebook and twitter, it seems like everyone agrees that you have to be careful to not post too often on Facebook. Twitter is a great outlet for us to post additional event listings that I might not post on facebook because I already posted something else.

1)    Tell us a little about yourself. How did you end up working in social media for American University?

American University’s main accounts are managed by two social media and web enthusiasts in the office of University Communications and Marketing: Barbara Emshwiller, Director of Web Communications, and Lisa Leone, Manager of Web Communications. Barbara joined the staff in Summer 2011 and Lisa recently joined in Spring 2012. Barbara comes from a strong web management and strategy background, overseeing the website for a large association and running her own web consulting firm. Lisa worked in a range of communications positions as a writer/editor for print and online publications and then moved into the role of managing web content and social media accounts.

2)    Why did you personally decide to join Twitter?

Lisa: I timidly joined to be part of what I saw as an exciting “movement,” but I rarely posted and still use my personal account very minimally. After joining, I was impressed by the power of Twitter as a promotional and engagement tool. It’s much more exciting for me to engage as an organizational representative than as an individual.

Barbara: I found it to be an outlet that was more appropriate than Facebook or LinkedIn for sharing knowledge and congregating around topics and issues of concern to me personally. Twitter’s strength is it’s “real time – right now” nature and as an organizational owner we use it to engage with our audiences in an immediate way around issues of concern to the students, faculty, and staff.

3)    What has been the best thing about managing the school’s social media account?

Being part of the larger conversation is the best perk. We have a whole community of accounts — the schools, offices, and student groups. Sharing in the excitement about university events and building each other up is very motivating. We recently had an outsider post a tweet about how well we support one another:

4)    Does the school give you any sort of guidelines for how to tweet? Like who to respond to or who to retweet?

American University does have general social media guidelines about posting responsibly, but we do not dictate specific actions, such as what to retweet or whom to retweet. The many social media accounts across the university have a symbiotic relationship. We actively try to publicize the schools’ and departments’ content by retweeting whenever that content has a more general audience appeal. This gives greater exposure to the concerns and issues of the university.  We feel that we are “partners” with the schools and departments in their social media strategies.

5)    What is the goal for your Twitter account? Is it to promote your school’s events, is it to engage students, or is it something else?

The @AmericanU account is in place to interact with students, prospective students, faculty, staff, and the greater community and to share important university events and news. We also use it to communicate one-on-one with our followers. After all, social media allows us to move from just a projection of news to a conversation with those in our community.

6)    What do you think is the most important thing to know when managing a professional twitter account?

Look alive. It’s important to post often and consistently to keep followers engaged. Also, it is a lot easier to keep on top of the ongoing conversation if you are constantly tuned in.

7)    What has been the most controversial tweet you’ve sent from the school account? How did your followers and students in particular respond?

We have not had “controversy” but rather some tweets that sparked lots of interaction, such as the surprise marriage proposal during the SPA Commencement ceremony. Commencement is such an exciting time because it marks a new beginning, and the proposal really added to that excitement. That simple tweet went viral and generated television, web, and other digital content.

8) Does each school / twitter account have a specific content strategy? What types of tweets get the most engagement?

Each school is encouraged to tweet in its own voice and talk to its specific audience. The types of tweets that get the most engagement vary by school. For the AmericanU account, followers respond most frequently to top rankings earned by the university and personal stories that hit home. Photos are also a big hit — but we have found Facebook to be a better forum for that.

9) What advantages, or disadvantages, do you believe Twitter has over other social media sites, such as Facebook, in regards to professional account management?

Twitter has an amazing search function, and there are great tools available to monitor the conversation surrounding a topic or event. This increases the opportunity to interact and get involved. For a university, Twitter is a great communication medium because we know we can reach a lot of members of our university community — because this is where they spend their time!

The theme was “envision, engage and execute,” and it was threaded throughout the day. Princess Yasmine Pahlavi, Founder of the Foundation for the Children of Iran, gave the opening keynote speech with the theme of “envision.” Her discussion of her career, her family and how she has carved out her path perfectly fit the bill. Her advice was straightforward and her candid stories made the speech really fun.

I attended the Technology panel and was thrilled to see such a robust, talented lineup. Leslie Bradshaw, President, COO and co-founder of JESS3, led a thought-provoking conversation; the panelists weren’t afraid to be upfront about what it takes to succeed in tech. They emphasized the importance of learning hard skills like HTML and CSS but also stressed that strong writing skills are invaluable.

Other panelists included Nisha Chittal of Discovery Channel, Svetlana Legetic of BYT, Danielle Kurtzleben of U.S. News and World Report, and Jenn Gustetic of NASA. Every single one had meaningful advice, compelling career stories and a unique perspective on the industry.

After lunch, I had the pleasure of speaking on the social media panel with two experts whom I admire, Alex Priest of Uber DC and Hastie Afkhami of Social@Ogilvy. We each covered a case study and then had a great discussion about trends and best practices of social media.

The day ended with a closing keynote from Alexis Maybank, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Gilt Groupe. Being a huge fan of the site, I was excited to hear from her. Her speech totally exceeded my high expectations and I loved her discussion of strategy, dealing with chaos and expecting the unexpected. It was fascinating to hear about Gilt’s beginnings, how quickly it has grown and how it has revolutionized ecommerce.

From the speakers to the gift bags to the food, the women of GWWIB did a phenomenal job with their annual conference. I left feeling excited and inspired to take action in my own life and put the insights I learned into practice. I look forward to attending the event in the future and I hope they all got some sleep afterwards.

Ben Loeb, AU SMC Vice President; Alex Priest, AU SMC Founder and Uber DC Community Manager; Kayden Horwitz, Product and Marketing at Womply and Chloë Troia, AU SMC President.

Melanie Loff-Bird, rising AU SMC Vice President; Alexis Maybank, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Gilt Groupe; Chloë Troia, AU SMC President