When a crisis happens on campus, Dana Howard feels a substantial weight on her shoulders.

Howard, social media and marketing manager, is responsible for informing students faster than any other communications position at Murray State. She is the mastermind behind the Twitter and Facebook pages tied to the University.

“It really is a job that you have to be okay with randomly sitting down and spending a few hours on it at night,” Howard said. “I feel like I never turn off anything.”

Howard said the first time she realized the importance of her role as social media manager was when a student committed suicide on campus in the spring of 2012. She was in Louisville, Ky., and began to see messages flood her Twitter account, asking for prayers at Murray State.

She said she initially thought there had been a school shooting.

“I was trying to figure out what happened,” Howard said. “I felt like the responsibility was all on me. That’s the first time we really put together a crisis management strategy.”

Catherine Sivills, assistant vice president of University Communications, said many universities do not have social media managers on staff. She said public relations officers at Western Kentucky University recently asked for the job description of a social media manager.

Sivills said social media at the University has had an overall positive impact. She said before social media, it would take at least 30 minutes to put together a new release and disperse information.

“Now, it takes a split second,” Sivills said. “Many times, we’ll have 300 retweets in 30 minutes on important issues. Time is not your friend in a time of crisis, especially if it involves safety.”

Crisis management is not the only area of focus in Howard’s position. She also runs the day-to-day operations of the social media accounts and helps other groups on campus with their accounts. Many times, she helps enforce Murray State’s social media policy, which was created at the beginning of the fall semester.

This year, the University Communications Office asked all University-affiliated social media accounts to register with the office.

“We started the registrations to make sure everyone was aware we have resources in the area,” Howard said.

There are currently 205 platforms registered with the office from various organizations and offices on campus. Howard said the College of Education is active on its Twitter account and consistently communicates with students.

Lyndy Hill, senior from Greenville, Ky., and education student, said she does not utilize the College of Education account, but does utilize the University’s. Hill thinks the social media platforms could be useful to students living off campus.

However, Hill does not think the accounts are entirely effective right now.

“I live on campus and I still don’t know about everything that’s going on,” she said. “So I can’t imagine what it’s like for commuters. (The accounts) could definitely be utilized more than they are.”

Here are a few screenshots of tweets sent out by Murray State and Dana Howard:

Story by Lexy Gross, Editor-in-Chief 

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