National Marketing Institute

Closing Guest Speakers

During his over 19 years on the Missouri S&T staff, Andrew Careaga has served as manager of public relations, news and features editor for the university's alumni magazine, and the university’s first webmaster, before moving into his current role as Director of Communications. A veteran blogger and social media junkie, he contributes to Missouri S&T's research blog, Visions (visions.mst.edu), and blogs frequently on his personal site, Higher Ed Marketing (highered.prblogs.org). He also is involved in coordinating the university's social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In 2007, Careaga managed the Name Change Communications blog (namechange.mst.edu), which the university established to encourage communication with alumni, students and other constituents about the university's proposed and ultimately successful name change from UMR to Missouri S&T. The blog won the Best Institutional Blog award from eduStyle and CollegeWebEditor.com in 2008. Careaga’s professional involvement includes service with CASE (the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education).

Valerio Parrot draws on extensive experience designing and implementing strategic media and marketing efforts aimed at enhancing institutions' image, reputation and brand. She has conducted numerous communications analyses for colleges and universities, developed and launched multi-audience research projects and is experienced in communicating the tactics and techniques that drive effective media and marketing outreach efforts. Previously, Valerio Parrot was Vice President of Media Relations and Crisis Communications for SimpsonScarborough, a higher education consulting firm.  She provided media, communications and marketing assistance to institutions such as Augustana College, Baylor University, California Western School of Law, The College of the Holy Cross, Loyola College in Maryland, New Jersey City University, School of Visual Arts, St. Bonaventure University and Youngstown State University.

Session Topic:
Social Media: Planning and Policies

Our campuses are abuzz with social media users. They tweet, they Facebook, they check in, and yes, they even Farmville. How do you, as a communications professional, help guide your faculty, staff and students in the social media sphere so that they don’t harm your institution’s online image in their official and unofficial communications roles? In this session, two social media experts will provide tips for creating social media policies designed to protect our institutions without stifling your communications and marketing efforts.