Social Media playing bigger role on and off campus

The use of social media is becoming more relevant and useful to Central Michigan University in terms of reaching out to students and the community to inform and spread news about the school.

The university itself, various academic departments, sports teams and other functions of the school have all turned to the new, low cost way of distributing news and getting the word out on topics and ideas.  By setting up simple Facebook, Twitter and other social media site accounts, these CMU associated profiles are becoming useful to followers.  With a simple friend request on Facebook or follow on Twitter, students and fans can begin taking advantage of news, deals and information that they may not have previously been aware of.

Here are some accounts you may want to give a look at:

CMU Campus Dining has an account on Facebook called “Chow Down,” which is a profile that posts deals for restaurants and products.  Also on Twitter @CMU_foodcrew, these account often put up tweets and updates on where to locate the Food Crew who maybe passing out coupons or exclusive discounts to those who find them.  Extremely useful to students looking to save on campus, plus a good source of competitions to win free stuff.

CMU Athletics have both a Facebook and Twitter account set up covering the Athletic Department as a whole along with accounts for individual sports teams.  @CMUAthletics makes a Twitter presence who was just recently joined by Athletic Director Dave Heeke, @Dave_Heeke.  The basketball program has two accounts, @CMUMensBBall and @CMUWBall, which feature tweets that include news about the teams and CMU events.

“CM-Life” and “Grand Central” are two big news sources for CMU and you can incorporate them into your Facebook News Feed or Twitter Timeline to make sure you get updates as soon as they are posted.  Follow @CMLIFE and @CMLifeSports along with @gcmagcmu.

Others worth a follow:

@cmualumni – Set up by the Alumni Association and is useful for setting up reunions, spreading news and connecting alumni all over the world.

@FireUpChips – Run by Kyle Warber, a CMU graduate and blogger for MLive.com, he covers everything Chippewa sports related.  Not a CMU account but a good source for athletics related news.