Jan. 25 we got into a twitter war with UALR. Ah, not really, but the very fact that two university social feeds decided to go back and forth on the gameday of a pair of rivals drew attention.
Got the media's comment and student's attention. "Did you see that?" one asked me. Grinning, why yes, yes I did. An incredulous look from another administrative functionary. "Why I've never seen that before, you know, between two university accounts."
Good-natured ribbing over who was going to win the first meeting of the two basketball teams. Why not? It was great fun. It mobilized both fan groups who retweeted and added to the back and forth. We kept is civil (and so did the fans for the most part).
The goal of social media is interaction. When "institutions" are too concerned with being formal all the time, people will not relate.
What makes Old Main so important to Arkansas grads? The Columns a sentimental heart tug to Northwestern State alums? The Arch at A-State?
It's not the freaking architecture, people. It's like Soylent Green -- it's peeeeeople.
Betcha remember that line.
Thus my point. A helpful instructor. A mentoring adviser. A band of brothers or sisters who ran together. Sporting events. Social events. Milestone events. A catchy turn of a phrase.
These are the emotional connections we ascribe to our alma maters and then to the brick and mortar.
So let's act like people rather than architecture.
I want to give a shout out to our colleagues at UALR for making it fun, and showing us this new little weblette tool, replygif.net. Someone's GIF'd up movie clips, no sound. Let's hope the studios don't take them down soon (it's still in beta).
Sometime, no matter how cleaver you are, a picture tells the story better but video can evoke the motion best.
As we said back . . . .
Bring it.
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