Meet the Learning Support Services Social Media Interns

November 17th 2010 Simon Kuran
Students
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The L&S Learning Support Services Social Media Interns.

Have you ever wondered who is behind the snappy updates and useful links sent out through the L&S Learning Support Services Twitter account and Facebook page?

Wonder no more! It's Lauren Kruse and Meena Zia, our creative and prolific Social Media Interns.

In their first few months on the job, Lauren and Meena have been instrumental in helping LSS build a more social and interactive web presence. They've launched a new Facebook page, created and marketed anew "Staff Picks" movie board for the L&S Learning Lab, collected some hilarious technology haiku, and kept us all up to date with a steady diet of tweets and updates.

Here's the LSS debut interview featuring Lauren and Meena's thoughts on their new role at LSS and the potential for social media in higher education.

LSS (@uwlss): What's the best thing about being a social media intern at LSS?

Lauren (@kruseypie): Being a social media intern allows me to put real-life skills into practice! It's fun to come to work and learn about this new form of media, while improving LSS for our customers. We have tons of resources, so it's great to find ways to communicate this to our UW-Madison community!

Meena (@meenazia): I think the best thing about being a social media intern at LSS is having more freedom to think of creative and exciting ways to increase interest in LSS resources. This internship allows us to really be proactive and and take our own initiative.

@uwlss: Have there been any surprises along the way?

@kruseypie: Absolutely! Before I was a social media intern, I questioned whether or not this new type of media was for real- or if it had a legitimate purpose outside of sharing personal updates. I love social media now, and I believe it absolutely does serve a purpose in communications. LSS has an amazing staff who works hard to get on board with these new forms of media. Also, it has been great to learn about all of the resources we offer here at LSS!

@meenazia: Loads! I had no idea how much the LSS staff does for LSS, or how many resources LSS has for students and instructors! It was most surprising to me because I’ve been working at LSS for 2 years! If I didn’t know, I’m guessing a lot of UW didn’t either. I think that was my biggest motivation to market LSS resources to the College of L&S.

@uwlss: As students, would you like to see the campus do more with social media?

@kruseypie: What I love about social media, is that it has the means to connect issues, themes, and people all at once! I believe that knowing how to use social media will be crucial in our future job market, so it is important for students to learn! Fortunately, I think UW is working hard to mainstream this here on campus, but both students and faculty should get acquainted with it all! What if we eventually abandoned email to connect students with outside sources or current issues and used social media instead?

@meenazia: Our society is being hurdled at an alarming rate into the world of social media. In my opinion it’s almost more difficult NOT to be involved in social media and I think on the whole, social media is a positive thing. It makes information much easier to access and allows us to save tons of time getting information out there. The UW has shrunk so much with the introduction of social media in different departments, and as a student I’d like to see a lot more of it!

News via our partners in LSS