UNIVERSITY NEWS | LMU President Timothy Law Snyder, Ph.D., was a Twitter neophyte in September 2016, finding his way on the platform and occasionally blurring the lines between the real and social media worlds, as seen here:
A little more than a year later, with more than 1,100 tweets under his belt and the largest following of any college president in Los Angeles, @LMUSnyder has officially established himself as a presence in the Twittersphere. From sharing mission-centric LMU position statements, to stunning sunsets from U-Hall to wooing prospective Lions, @LMUSnyder has enabled the university’s 16th president to engage with both internal and external audiences in real time.
President Snyder launched his social media presence in earnest on Sept. 1, 2016, with a multi-channel promotional campaign – led by LMU Marketing and Communications – that included the above video, digital and print advertising and a sweepstakes to incentivize new followers. Those collective efforts gained @LMUSnyder more than 1,200 followers within two weeks, and his following has since grown to nearly 3,800, fourth-most among all presidents at AJCU institutions. MarComm earned a PR Week Social Media Awards honorable mention nod for its campaign.
Among @LMUSnyder’s followers are local and national journalists, Silicon Beach executives, professional athletes, and accomplished LMU alumni, some of whom have been featured in his weekly #LMUAlumniSpotlight series.
What does the 2017-18 academic year hold for @LMUSnyder? For starters, the president has turned Monday’s #SnyderSuccessTips over to his 4-month-old vanilla retriever puppy Jackson, who’s a near-viral sensation with #JacksonsLaws. Beyond that, followers can expect updates on happenings around campus, including LMU’s Playa Vista Campus, opening in August 2018.
