Tweet #MSUM2014 
(View full social media report below courtesy of @TweetBinder at 5:59 p.m. on May 16)

MOORHEAD, Minn. While many colleges and universities were concerned with social media and selfies during this graduation season, Minnesota State University Moorhead embraced the opportunity to use social media to engage with its graduating class.
 
A "Tweet Your Dragon Pride" twitter campaign was built around the concept of introducing live tweeting into the graduation ceremony production using the high definition video board.  Dragon Sports Media created a snipe that popped into the production containing tweets coming from graduates, faculty, staff and family members. 
 
"When the conversation first started I was fired up when the question wasn't if MSUM was going to embrace social media during graduation, but "how" we were going to use it to enhance our students experience"; said Doug Peters, MSUM Athletic Director.
 
After the 9 a.m. ceremony, the hashtag #MSUM2014 was trending with a reach over 200,000 and an impact approaching one million. Reach is the number of unique users that could have seen the hashtag and impact is defined as the potential number of times the hashtag could have been seen.  Those numbers equated to #MSUM2014 out-trending a Justin Bieber hashtag within the region.
 
"MSUM faculty and staff really enjoy interacting with our students using social media and we felt it would be an extremely fun way to celebrate graduation with our students" said Denise Gorsline from MSUM academic affairs.  "And it was a blast!"

MSUM also allowed selfies, which had been banned by many institutions across the country like the University of South Florida.  MSUM even shows tweets from the crowd on the video board as students walk across the stage.  "We wanted people to share how much they love MSUM and the experience of graduating," said Digital Marketing Specialist Meghan Feir.  "This gives everyone a chance to feel like they're a participant rather than a spectator for the ceremony."
  By 4:10 p.m., the afternoon session of MSUM's Commencement reached nearly 400,000 people and was trending nationally.  Over 1.5M people could've seen the hashtag on Twitter, and over 470 links and pictures were created.  In all, #MSUM2014 was tweeted over 2,500 times in a period of eight hours.

#DragonPride also had nearly 500 tweets as well, reaching over 60,000 people and over 235,000 possible views.

"It was crazy!" said Assistant Athletics Director Jon Wepking. "Everyone was getting into it all day long, making it more than your average formal ceremony.  This is a moment worth celebrating, sharing and soaking in.  If a selfie makes it a little longer, so what?  The engagement and the outpouring of pride in themselves, our faculty and our institution is worth the wait."

Most of the tweets shown on the video board are from family and friends sending congratulations and thanks to each other.  Some came from Missouri, and some from Dubai. The hit of the day was Student Senate President Kevin Struxness (@KStruxness) taking a selfie after his speech to his peers.

Today, Minnesota State University Moorhead is honoring 930 graduating seniors during its commencement activities.  In fact, an amazing 97 percent of 2012-13 graduates who reported being available for employment have already found jobs.  It is safe to say that 100 percent  of the 2013-14 graduates welcomed the opportunity to show their Dragon Pride using social media!

 







WATCH THE MORNING AND AFTERNOON COMMENCEMENT SESSIONS HERE: