By Melissa Dickson
Emma Dorman is the University of Montana’s first social media manager under the umbrella of Creative Services for UM’s Marketing Communications, Experience and Engagement office. Dorman is originally from Stevensville, MT and graduated the University of Montana with a bachelor’s in communications, and a minor in media arts. She has overseen all the social media accounts for the university since May 2022, managing a Facebook account with 134,000 followers and an Instagram account with over 45,000 followers.
UM Journalism student Melissa Dickson recently interviewed Dorman about her work on social media and below is a transcript of their conversation, edited for clarity and accuracy.
Q: How do you build trust with your audience in terms of keeping their attention and engagement?
A: We build trust through authenticity and encouraging user generated content. UM’s brand voice is playful, and my interns regularly assist with ensuring that captions will resonate with college students. I’m always encouraging our community to tag us in their UM adventures on social so we can share to our stories. When people share on social media about their experiences within the community – that builds more engagement and reinforces strength within the community. We also engage our audiences by focusing on content that appeals to each platform. For example, on Facebook our largest audience is alumni. So, we use more photo content and might use a longer and informational caption. While on Instagram, it’s mostly current students and young alumni so we user shorter captions and lean more into trends for content ideas.
Q: What are some strategies that you have used in order to tell a story about what you are marketing? Do you think they are working?
A: We look at who could find value within a story package (alumni, potential students, donors, student families, current students, MT community and more)! Then we decide how it should be disseminated and which platforms to utilize to reach our desired audience. Often that’s a news tip inviting the public to an event, that’s then shared to social with a link to the full story. Then we have promotional graphics created that are shared with campus partners to post on their own channels. Next, we discuss how the event will be covered day of. Bigger events might have a reel, a photo “dump” and multiple stories to accompany it. I try to have 1 reel for every 3 photo posts but totally depends on the bandwidth of our team. Lastly, we consider which accounts are posting which content. If President Bodnar played a large part in this story, then we save a few photos for his social. Or if it’s an admissions event, maybe it becomes a collab post between that account and UM’s. Social media plans are constantly changing and not every packaged story performs well. We can spend months creating an in-depth content package with a high-quality reel, creative captions and a campus event and it still doesn’t perform well. Totally depends on the topic but for the most part, our audience wants to see campus vibrancy, sports and events. Anything else can fall a little flat. Sometimes that means we don’t post about that topic again but usually we consider how we can change the narrative for next time.
Q: How do you gauge what content is most appealing for your audience, making it relevant?
A: I pay attention to our engagement rates. Calculated by all interactions (likes, comments, shares, saves, etc.) divided by total number of people that post reached. Our highest-performing content is always evergreen campus vibrancy like reels of the M trail, football wins (especially when we beat the Cats), and UM events/traditions like Homecoming, Foresters Ball, graduation and the pumpkin on main hall. I’m constantly watching our analytics to see how different content performs. Recently we noticed that our reels with 1 video clip performed significantly better than reels with a montage of clips. So, we’re currently experimenting with that! Social media is constantly changing so it’s important to stay on top of what’s trending as well as new platform features – like the ability to post 20 photos on IG.
Q: What would you describe is the “product” that are trying to sell your audience through posts or ads online?
A: I feel like I’m selling an amazing college experience, a quality education and a community you have access to for the rest of your life! One thing I’ve heard over and over again is that prospective students aren’t looking for degree programs on social media, that’s what umt.edu is for. If they’re looking at our profiles, it’s purely to understand our vibe and culture, which is why most of our content on social media is event focused. Having attended UM, I love seeing how far we’ve grown as a campus. UM is definitely in its glow up era. It’s an exciting and fun time to be a student here, so sharing it on social media is very rewarding.
Q: What techniques do you use to foster a strong community around the brand?
A: Highlighting the events around Missoula that foster a strong community like Paint Missoula Maroon – now locals look forward to the new sign design and welcoming students back to town so we always share that campaign on social. A few times a year I ask our followers to send in their own photos for various post ideas and that organic and genuine content makes the brand feel more authentic and solidifies community buy in. Content that celebrates UM is a great opportunity for people to show their support by sharing and commenting, and people love to flex when their community is succeeding. I love using a call to action question in our captions to engage our community to comment. Showing that we still have so many people willing to comment positive things about UM or share a fond memory proves to our current students how strong our community is and reinforces them to comment as well. A few examples I have used recently:
- “Comment your favorite Homecoming memory!”
- “What advice do you have for the incoming class of 2028?”
- “What student group would you recommend to a friend?”
This Q&A is part of a series created by students in Courtney Cowgill’s Social Media and Audience Engagement course at the University of Montana School of Journalism. Students sought out creatives who are doing using media for good to offer tips and insights into the ever-evolving landscape of social media.
Montana Journalism 