The Proliferation of Social Media Platforms within the FCS department

From the birth of the centennial celebration to the emergence of Pinterest within classrooms, there has been a drastic change in the manner of communication to promote various ideas and content on and off campus.

Dr. Michelle (Mikki) Sherwood

“What I notice is that through our Pinterest post, a gateway is opened that allows people to explore Eastern Illinois University” says Dr. Michelle Sherwood, an Interim assistant chair and professor within the Family and Consumer Science department. Through the utilization of Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Linkedin, Dr. Sherwood has created a virtual community comprised of multiple groups: faculty, alumni, students, former professors, and residents of Charleston. With the help of these social media platforms, the FCS department has delved into a virtual world, which allows everyone to connect and observe what is taking place on campus.

From the Spring of 2014, the start of the centennial celebration for the FCS department, there emerged the beginning of the departments’ Facebook page.  Dr. Sherwood states, “One of our components was we wanted to do one hundred hours of community service for the university and the community; we wanted to celebrate one hundred years of FCS.  So, what happened was it really got people moving.“  Involvement grew from this movement within the community and with the students; many of the events held on campus would soon be showcased on Facebook along with an abundance of photos. 

The department’s utilization of social media platforms grew with hundreds of hits on Facebook; however, the FCS department did not start using social media platforms avidly until the fall of 2014. As activity of these accounts grew, so did the content; the FCS department expanded their pages from just events to postings from instructors, alumni postings, job openings, recognition of students, and a plethora of information concerning those within the FCS department. 

While the load can be heavy, everyone with a relation to the FCS department has a responsibility to a different task. Sherwood states, “We have an alumni in Chicago who runs our Linkedin page, our graduate coordinator runs our MS and FCS graduate page, and I do Pinterest. So we assign different responsibilities to different individuals according to their occupation and relation with the department.“

She has also mentioned that their motives for running the pages were based on the excitement of the students.  She goes on to say what makes the FCS department’s social media initiatives exclusive is their ability to feature the students; through the use of social media platforms, the department is able to pay recognition  to those who do great things within the school of Family and Consumer Sciences. 

Dr. Sherwood eagerly hopes to maintain a healthy involvement with the social media pages and anticipates stronger connections with current, former, and prospective students. 

For more information regarding this story, please contact: mlsherwood@eiu.edu