Nikki Sunstrum (standing) works to stay ahead of the news as U-M’s social media director. (Roger Hart, U-M)
Social media have changed how colleges interact and communicate with the world. Every post paints a picture of what a college is like, who makes up its community, and what’s important to them. It’s a 24/7 job that didn’t even exist a few years ago. For Nikki Sunstrum, U-M’s director of social media, that means constant monitoring of what’s happening inside the university, as well as what’s being said about it by others. Sunstrum leads a seven-member social media team that oversees the daily content management of central social platforms and disseminates messaging that promotes university-related initiatives. For example, when U-M announced its free tuition program in June, her social media team helped package and promote it in the #GoBlueGuarantee campaign. “I always want to make sure that we’re breaking our news rather than trying to reactively correct any sort of factual errors that might have been told by another storytelling unit,” Sunstrum says.
