Personalized Social Media Graphics for a Special Day
To help students celebrate their graduations, the university designed graduation-themed graphics for students to post on social media. This included Facebook profile frames, fun Instagram effects like animated mortarboards and Giphy stickers of 2020 tassels and Truman the Tiger, the university’s mascot.
Using a cloud aggregation tool, the university planned to capture all the tagged content before reposting it on the university’s commencement website, where it will be available for family members who may not be on social media.
To encourage virtual parties at home, the university created a “virtual party checklist” with instructions on how to schedule a Zoom or Facebook Live event. University staffers also designed downloadable, printable banners, posters and yard signs that read “Class of 2020” and “Proud Mizzou Grad.”
Other fun assets included recipes for beloved campus dining hall treats, such as Mizzou’s popular peanut butter pies.
Old Fashioned Mail: Say More with Less
As the university was planning the virtual celebrations, Smarr noticed that faculty enjoyed making videos to convey personalized messages for students. She advised staff in Mizzou’s colleges and schools that while using video is fine, technology is not always the most meaningful option.
For example, if faculty members wanted to send a special congratulatory message to a particular student—or even three or four students—they might want to consider writing old-fashioned letters to mail to students.
While technology plays a major role when it comes to helping higher ed institutions save money and increase efficiency, a simple handwritten note can sometimes convey more.
“In this day and age, someone reading a note will know that you took a lot of time to write it,” Smarr says.