Special to the Tribune-Star
TERRE HAUTE —
Mackenzie Mack is the face behind Indiana State University’s presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn.
As a communications and marketing graduate assistant, the Las Vegas native works as social media coordinator for the university’s web services team.
Through social media, she is able to connect with current and potential students on a personal level. Mack’s goal is to improve recruitment and build students’ enthusiasm for ISU by publicizing events, or sharing jokes, questions or facts that might interest them.
“I try to post a lot of videos and pictures of students. I encourage anyone to send in stuff I can post – pictures, videos, anything,” she said.
From encouraging students to check out the Donald W. Scott College of Business website to welcoming new Sycamores to campus, Mack varies the posts within and across the sites. Her Facebook posts include more pictures, while the Twitter tweets are short updates and bits of information about Indiana State.
“I want to make them different because they are different mediums,” she said.
Mack, who is pursuing a master of business administration degree at ISU, completed her bachelor’s degree in marketing in May. She sees her work with ISU’s social media sites as an extension of her classwork.
“The field of marketing is moving toward social media with less print, less broadcast and more Internet,” she said. So “this should be a very good experience.”
“‘Social media’ starts with ‘social’: It’s a conversation. The whole concept is to engage people in conversation,” said Bill Herndon, web services manager at Indiana State. “While you can use the forums to send out information, the reason social media has become so popular is the idea that people can comment and share thoughts and ideas. Mackenzie’s position is to facilitate that conversation for Indiana State and she is doing a marvelous job.”
Outside the classroom, Mack is a golfer who competed on the ISU golf team. She was named one of 10 finalists for the Arthur Ashe Jr. Sports Scholar Award by “Diverse: Issues in Higher Education” magazine.
The award honors students of color for outstanding athletic ability, academic excellence and community activism.
In 2008, Mack founded Tee It Up, a nonprofit organization designed to support children and young adults ages 6 to 18 in their efforts to become socially responsible, academically competitive and golf-savvy.
Like the work she does at ISU, Mack’s Tee It Up utilizes technology to communicate effectively with participants, including e-mails, texts, newsletters, Facebook and face-to-face contact. The website contains information and tips for golf as well as tips for taking multiple-choice tests and links to other websites.
In the fall, Mack and her golf teammates host annual clinics on Saturdays for children and young adults. During winter break last year, Mack held a Tee It Up clinic in Las Vegas, and through a grant, she hopes to take the program overseas. Her sister holds clinics at Hampton University.
“Golf has been a big part of my life – going to college, traveling all over the U.S. and meeting tons of people, great people – I wanted to give other kids that opportunity and teach them about the game of golf,” Mack said.
Not only did she represent Indiana State as a member of the women’s golf team, but she also participated in a variety of student organizations, including thee Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, the Financial Management Association and Beta Gamma Sigma, an honor society for business students.
She was named to the 2010 Indiana State All-Academic Team, as well as the 2010 Scholar-Athlete team for the third year. For the third year, Mack was named to the National Golf Coaches Association All-American Scholar-Athlete Team and the Sycamore Scholar-Athlete Team.
