UL Lafayette has a gift for bringing people together. Just take a look at its growing presence in social media.
Facebook and other social media accounts, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram, make it easy for students and prospective students, faculty and staff, alumni, sports fans and supporters to connect with each other and the University.
Three years ago, the University鈥檚 Facebook account had just 4,000 followers. Since UL Lafayette began encouraging more interactions between the University and Facebook users, the number of followers has increased to more than 80,000.
Through the coordinated use of hashtags, audiences can communicate with a common word or phrase that relates to a topic. Incoming freshmen, for example, are sharing their experiences as they prepare for college life. They鈥檙e using the hashtag #Cajunsof2018 to do that.
Interest in conversations generated by designated hashtags is growing. So the University has begun using hashtag aggregators during some events, such as Commencement. Aggregators pull together mentions of selected hashtags onto a single Web page, which makes it easy for anyone to follow.
鈥淥ur #RaginGrads14 hashtag campaign for spring Commencement was such a success that the hashtag trended nationally on Twitter during the ceremonies. That鈥檚 a difficult feat for any university to accomplish,鈥 noted Amy Windsor, the University鈥檚 social media strategist.
The University also uses social media to broaden the reach of some of its other communication efforts. News stories and announcements are examples of traditional communication tools that take on new life through social media sharing and interactions. UL Lafayette also uses social media to send emergency notifications required by the federal Clery Act.
For a list of official UL Lafayette social media accounts and hashtags, visit .
Then have some fun keeping up with the latest topics.