The Berkeley Beacon

Forget snowboarding, curling, and figure skating. Emerson takes home the gold for a different type of honor this Winter Olympic season: social media innovation.

In early February, Collegesurfing.com complied a list of the top social media trendsetters in their first ever Web 2.0 Olympics, and announced gold, silver, and bronze medals to the top 50 colleges and universities that competed.

They were judged in the categories of active Twitter accounts, inventive videos on YouTube, interesting blogs and the popularity of Facebook pages. Emerson came in eighth place among the ranks of other gold medalists Johns Hopkins University, Yale University, Tufts University, Ithaca College, Allegheny, Butler University, Gustavus Adolphus Colelge and Case Western University's Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing.

"Social media is becoming the way of the world," said Emerson spokesperson Allison Teixeira, in a telephone interview.

"Our audiences, prospective students, parents and current students, are all heavily involved. It's the way the communication industry is going and we need to be where the industry is going to be."

Collegesurfing.com wrote that Emerson was a social media innovator in a "big way" after two students, junior Laura Kinson and sophomore Matt Karolian, created the #Jackiessecret hashtag on Twitter. For several hours, the tag drew dozens of students to post their guesses until President Jaueline Libergott announced her retirement later in the afternoon.

The hashtag became an Internet phenomenon with people all over the country wondering what exactly Jackie's secret was. Karolain broadcasted Libergott's announcement at the Semel Theater through live online updates. That night alone, 306 users filed more than 1,400 tweets with the tag.

"I was taking the Social Media class at the time, and because we had been talking about Twitter so much I had been working with the platform a lot more than any other," Kinson said. "I didn't plan on #Jackiessecret becoming what it did, so the fact that Twitter is the most expedient and shareable platform was just a perk," Kinson said.

Emerson has Twitter accounts for alumni, the EVVYs , the marketing and journalism departments, the Iwasaki Library, the Cutler Majestic Theater, student government and more, with many interacting with each other. The Emerson College account alone has over 1,000 followers.

Freshman VMA major Mariel Wade said it's great schools are using social media because it creates a fun, and interactive way for students to learn more about the school they're applying to and attending.

"I really loved the Emerson Facebook group last year, and it was great to be able to meet and interact with your future classmates via the Internet . The videos on YouTube made me feel as though the school was trying to reach out to me and other prospective students in a way that none of the other colleges I applied to did," she said.

Teixeira said Emerson is making social media a major priority because of its status as communication and art school, but this award was made possible thanks to student participation.

"This is really about the students," she said. " It's a fun thing to see our students get recognized for all the work that they've done."

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