Social Media Ambassadors Give Student Perspective to Student Affairs' Twitter and Instagram Accounts​

The Division of Student Affairs social media accounts are getting some extra help this semester with student Social Media Ambassadors.

Breanna Tidwell, social media graduate assistant for the Division of Student Affairs, said the division's first priority is helping University of Arkansas students succeed, and she wanted to bring on social media ambassadors for that reason. By allowing students to get involved with the Student Affairs' social media platforms, Tidwell said the Division could be even more connected with the student body.

"We are really all about students first, and I just wanted to show the Division's events from a student's perspective," Tidwell said. "I wanted other students to see their fellow students actually going to events and having a great time every time."

Tidwell has three ambassadors for Twitter and three for Instagram. She will be pulling tweets and photos from these students for @ua4student, the official Student Affairs' Twitter and Instagram accounts. 

Tidwell won't be sending the student ambassadors on assignments but instead lets them know what events are happening in Student Affairs that week. Tidwell then watches their feeds so she can retweet and repost content from the ambassador's personal accounts. 

"Each ambassador is going to focus on different things," Tidwell said. "Somebody's going to be more focused on Greek life and somebody's going to be more focused on University Programs or ASG or the Volunteer Action Center based off of their own personal interests."

This diversity, Tidwell said, will enable the division to really show off all aspects of what students are involved in across campus.

Tidwell said Twitter and Instagram are two social media platforms that not only reach a large amount of the student body but enable the division to reach students in different ways.

Nick Stauffer, a sophomore Instagram ambassador, wanted to help out on the photo based platform to share his campus experience with others through images.

"I have been involved with various offices and departments within Student Affairs since I was a freshman. I thought it would be a natural fit to help the Division by taking some great shots of students doing awesome things on campus to showcase our various programs and initiatives," Stauffer said. "I knew it would motivate me to try out different events and programs that I typically wouldn't attend so I could contribute to the Social Media Ambassador program."

Stauffer said social media can make a large campus like the University of Arkansas seem smaller and interconnected.

"I'm hoping to bring a unique perspective to the Student Affairs Instagram account that showcases some of the incredible opportunities available to students," Stauffer said. "Often times, students are unaware of all the various options we have on campus because it can be overwhelming. Through Instagram posts, I'm hoping to create more awareness of the hard work that our student leaders and staff exert in making sure students thoroughly enjoy their time at the University of Arkansas."

Cori McCleskey, a sophomore Twitter ambassador, is excited to have @ua4students using her content on Twitter so that she can connect with students in their everyday life. 

"You can tell a lot about a person by what they tweet and re-tweet. I think that people share more of a realistic view of their life on Twitter," McCleskey said. "I wanted to be an ambassador because I want to show current and future students my experiences at the University of Arkansas."

Whether it's a witty tweet or a perfectly filtered photo, @ua4students is there to inform and serve students, Tidwell said.

"I think it's important for us to be involved on social media because that's where the students are," Tidwell said. "We want to showcase what they're doing because that's important."

Maddie Williams, a freshman Twitter ambassador, said she believes that social media is an important aspect of communication, especially on a college campus.

"Social media is vital, especially with this generation," Williams said. "You can reach more people with a tweet that gets retweeted numerous times than sending a letter to one person or simply telling them something. Many people find out breaking news and stories because they were posted about on a social media platform. Social media is an outlet for fun, yes, but it is also way to get out information."

With the addition of the social media ambassadors, the Student Affairs' social media team will be giving the student body even more coverage than before. Follow all of the Division of Student Affairs' social media platforms and look out for the Social Media Ambassadors at the next campus event.