Cat memes have their place, but being Emily Phillips, social media coordinator for William & Mary, is far more complex.

Since becoming the university’s first full-time social media staff member in late 2017, the savvy Phillips has greatly increased William & Mary’s transparency and accessibility and worked to ensure that the William & Mary community remains connected, throughout the course of their lives.

As a result, the community was able to track the process of finding a new president in Katherine A. Rowe, and in getting to know her through videos, Facebook Live events and Twitter chats. William & Mary has also expanded its capacity to livestream beyond the traditional ceremonial outreach of Yule Log, Convocation, Charter Day and Commencement. In addition, Phillips has increased the production of Instagram stories and provided an increased intentionality and focus on strategy with social media communications.

Social media played a critical role in President Rowe’s strategic listening initiative, Thinking Forward, which generated more than 800 data points in community opinion — many of them coming from social media platforms Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”

“There are a lot of warm and fuzzy moments,” she says. “Especially early- and regular-decision nights, when students are posting that they’ve been accepted to William & Mary and they’re so excited about this new step. It’s very contagious, and we try to respond to them individually and welcome them. It’s a great night, and it hardly feels like work at all.”

On the flip side, Phillips is also ready at a moment’s notice to alert and guide the community through any number of crises that could affect campus.

“It’s hard to be like Wendy’s and be sassy, and then be able to, when something bad happens, address people calmly and present the information they need. I try to strike a balance between listening to the community and providing the information they want and making sure they have the information they need.”