Social Media keeps NYU students connected

A new interactive media coalition, hashtagNYU, aims to unite students campus-wide. Through the use of various social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and YouTube, hashtagNYU keeps students updated on activities around campus.

“HashtagNYU is an exciting vehicle that will allow students to communicate directly,” said Mark Wais, vice president for Student Affairs.

“By students, for the students,” said Erin Callihan, the director of Interactive Media Communications.

This summer, incoming freshmen were able to participate in the “One Word. One World.” photo and video competition, where students were given the opportunity to introduce themselves to the NYU community by creating photos and videos.

“I am so impressed by all of the

talent that went into the contest,” said Nora Rickey, a Tisch freshman and competition finalist.

The competition had more than 200 submissions, and finalists’ work was played in a video during the Welcome Week Presidential Welcome and Reality Show.

“The amount of ingenuity and talent in the submissions was overwhelming in the best way, but I think one of the most exciting parts of ‘One Word. One World.’ was each student’s fearless effort to be an active part of our community before setting foot on campus,” said Guido Ditto, creative strategist for hashtagNYU.

In addition, NYU New York finalists attended the Rubin Residence Hall Penthouse for a reception honoring their competition submissions.

This year, hashtagNYU plans to have more students involved with NYU social media by launching Community 2.0, an initiative that aims to further enrich the NYU social media community. Community 2.0 will host various activities oriented to get students connected through social media.

By creating a Community 2.0 team, hashtagNYU will also allow more students to participate in the social media movement. NYU is giving students more opportunities to interact with social media through job opportunities.

Wednesday, Sept. 12, is the final day NYU students can apply for a social media internship with the hashtagNYU department. More than 300 applications have already been submitted.

Nick Jensen, manager of Marketing of Communications and Web-Based Technologies, said he is excited for Community 2.0 and the department’s future interns.

“There are a lot of applications,” Jensen said. “We are looking for new people to be the face of the office of interactive media, created to establish digital community,”

Jensen communicated with NYU students throughout the summer to inform them of the social media opportunities the university has to offer.

According to Jensen, hashtagNYU plans to shrink the psychological size and humanize the NYU population.

Callihan hopes the students will transform hashtagNYU into something long-term.
“The future of hashtagNYU will be dictated by students and interns,” Callihan said. “It’s about what they want, not what we want. So we just have to wait and see.”

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Sept. 11 print edition. Terri Burns is a contributing writer. Email her at university@nyunews.com.