COMMUNITY BUILDING
#IAMUNMC
Amazing discoveries happen everyday at UNMC, but our community wasn’t often sharing about it on social media. For the content that was shared, there was no consistency, making it difficult to monitor and listen to the social conversation about our institution. Adding to the confusion, an unaffiliated university with the same UNMC acronym exists overseas, further complicating monitoring efforts of our social content.
We knew there was a significant opportunity on social media to highlight our community’s pride for the institution, if we established the appropriate avenues. By introducing #IamUNMC as a community hashtag, we sought to achieve a stronger sense of unity on social media, and give our community an outlet to share about their experience at UNMC.
Community Hashtag Launch
- #IamUNMC photo collages as header images on main website, Facebook, and Twitter
- Launched UNMC Instagram account, @iamunmc
- Life-size #IamUNMC photo booth frame for campus events to encourage UGC
- #IamUNMC BBQ to kick off the new academic year for students, staff, and faculty
- Distributed #IamUNMC stickers and magnets as giveaways
- Curated social stream linked from main website: unmc.edu/iamunmc
Launching the UNMC Instagram account (@iamunmc) while beginning the #IamUNMC campaign helped to further promote the hashtag. By awarding UNMC swag items to students who used #IamUNMC and posting weekly collages of user-generated content, we grew our following and effectively spread the word about our new community hashtag.
#IamUNMC was warmly received by the UNMC community upon its introduction and has continued to be successful in its third year. The impact is best seen in the volume of #IamUNMC content: over 1,500 Instagram posts from Sept. 2015 - Jan. 2018, with photos shared from Hawaii to NYC. #IamUNMC also provides prospective students with a peek at campus life, while giving current students on five campuses a sense of unity, recognizing they are part of something greater.
Testimonials:
“With #IamUNMC, it’s encouraging to relate via day-to-day activities with students who, like you, are pursuing their dreams in the medical field.” – Taylor, UNMC student
“#IamUNMC adds so much more liveliness to the UNMC image. It shows that UNMC is much more than just medicine and school. There are so many other things happening here on a daily basis.” – Lauren, UNMC student
“I've bounced around many schools obtaining pre-requisite courses, so I've never had the feeling of belonging anywhere. UNMC and this campaign make me feel like I finally belong to something!” – Lyndsay, UNMC student
