Overheard at HashtagNYU

Our team highlights life at NYU around the world by sharing the student experience one gif, video, and tweet at a time. We run this and that — and lead a few other initiatives coming out of Student Affairs.

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Essential Strategies for a Student-Staffed Social Team

Managing social media accounts isn't a part-time job; it seeks your attention any time of day or night, any day of the week. You never know what you might have to handle at any moment.

Much like social media, colleges students are communicating late into the night via text, Snapchat, or Facebook Message; their schedules are unpredictable, dependent mostly on schoolwork and events. They are "on" 24/7, between academics, extracurriculars, and robust social lives.

But we are not. (Well, for the most part.)

That said, managing students who work on your social content team can be a little tricky. But after doing it over eight iterations, we have some suggestions (and warnings) to share on how to not just make it work, but how to make it into an effective and collaborative team that produces unique, engaging, and authentic content.

Our office, Interactive Media, manages many projects — from addressing sexual misconduct to showcasing experiences from students around the world. Of these many projects is HashtagNYU: our public brand and digital community built around engaging and relatable content about the NYU story. This particular project is our student interns' focus; our students are the ones who write the tips, take the photos, craft the tweets, create the articles, and execute the videos. It is a narrative shaped by students, for students.

So, let's first get on the same page about why you should have a student-staffed social team. It’s about using students to communicate to students effectively. Because impressive places like Radius Global discovered that...

Millennials are influenced more by word of mouth than they are by advertising

... we can only infer that students are more responsive and engaged with what their peers are saying than generic brand messaging.

After all, students know how to talk to their peers better than we do (even if we do like to consider ourselves young *flips hair*), and that's why we hire about a dozen NYU students every semester. Students are the experts on how to talk to their peers and make our messages accessible. Simply put, peer to peer is paramount. So, why wouldn't you apply their ideas, perspectives, and experiences when talking to the larger student body? Which brings us to our first strategy:

Let students be creative agents

Students are full of amazing ideas just waiting to be hatched. By allowing them the space and time to share suggestions and contribute ideas, your social content will truly stand out by being relatable and authentic. It's coming straight from the students themselves. Give them a little control — but not necessarily all of it. They'll still need guidance, direction, and clear tasks, which we'll get to in a little more detail later on.

Grow and learn together

Hiring students to work on a social team is not about them doing administrative work. They are developing and applying marketable skills, meaning that their experience on your team has professional value for them. Explore their professional skills and interests, and see where and how they can grow on the team.

Let them be leaders among their peers, whether it's by leading meetings or taking point on a project

Offer outlets for feedback like one-on-one chats during the semester or a "call for suggestions" submission process

Use mistakes as learning opportunities for peers and future teams rather than shaming or guilting individuals. It's for the team, it's not personal

Create an internal community by making every student feel like they have value and truly belong on the team. Social events and a Facebook group are simple ways to start building such a community

Be flexible and open to change

Students have a lot of "other stuff" going on. That "stuff" is academics, part-time jobs and internships, social lives, club activities, community service, the list goes on... A whopping 91% of NYU students work one part-time job or internship during the academic semester; 16% work two, and 4% work three. They're busy. Like, really busy.

Students are humans first, students second, "everything else" third. In other words, their health and wellness is their first priority, followed by their academic commitments. We need to be flexible to accommodate their mental health and other priorities.

Find ways to redistribute weight if need be, and prepare for it in advance. For instance, if they're overwhelmed with work during midterms, give them a short break and see if someone else can make up the work or whether the deadline can be negotiated.

When adding on the complexity of multiple students' priorities, even scheduling weekly meetings, for example, may prove to be difficult. We've had to meet at 7AM for several semesters because of how diverse everyone's class schedules were, and it's rare that we ever have a semester with intern meetings during traditional workday hours. Determine what you're willing to be flexible on, and what those boundaries are. Can't do meetings before 9AM? Consider evenings or less frequency. Taking time off during the semester? Prepare your students in advance on what they need to get done before you leave and once you return.

Just as schedules and priorities change every semester, your team will change, causing your team structure and workflow to inevitably change, too. Adapt and evolve as your team does. You can figure out how to adjust in several ways:

Apply their feedback. Ask students what they'd want to improve or modify and consider what suggestions make realistic applications.

Track data. Which projects or tasks have the smallest and greatest ROI in terms of hours spent? What type of content is doing terribly or wonderfully?

Observe trends. Social media platforms continue to emerge, as do changes to others. Optimize your platforms' changes and growth.

Experiment and take some risks. There will be changes with many potential results, but you won't know how it turns out unless you try. Trial and error sometimes is the best option.

Obviously, don't go changing everything about your team structure and workflow every semester. Consistency is important, too, particularly for students who are working on your team for more than one iteration. But those students also need to be flexible; prepare them for those new changes as soon as they're finalized.

Build an intuitive workflow

Workflow depends on effective and constant communication among the team. Make communication channels convenient. 

When it comes time to get everyone together in-person, give purpose to the meetings. Our social team's meetings are dedicated to reviewing and scheduling content for the upcoming week. Our video team's meetings provide a space to share videos that inspire them and pitch new projects. Assign tasks that need to be completed by or presented at each meeting, which then become the basis for discussion and brainstorms, whether they're one-off assignments or recurring.

Outside of meetings, schedule time for each of them to be in the office, or some sort of workspace where a supervisor can be present. It's the perfect opportunity to check in about individual work. Because of how crazy and various student schedules can be, students may mostly work remotely. The question then becomes: how do students remain accountable to their work when you don't see it happening? Seek out an easy-to-learn and convenient communication process and project management system. We use several tools, all of which have different purposes, that have smartphone counterparts, notification capabilities, and individual user accounts:

Trello — project management, tasks, assignments, and our content calendar; where all projects, due dates, and assignments live

Google Drive — content drafts (videos, articles, etc.), resources, and content libraries (photos, music, etc.)

Google+ Hangouts — meetings held remotely

Facebook Group — sharing articles and videos, asking questions, making conversation, having discussions

Email — general announcements and reminders

Phone (text or call) — immediate attention, timely notification or question

Students, and social media, are 24/7 and constantly mobile. Sometimes, that means replying to questions via text at 11PM on a Thursday. Tell them what's appropriate at the start — for example, that you may not respond immediately during a weekend — which leads goes into the next point...

Lay down the rules from day one

If the rules aren't explicitly reviewed and understood from the start, there's nothing to fall back on if something goes wrong. Putting together guidelines and documents can be daunting and take longer than you'd expect — but it's worth it.

Some documents that our team has put together to set these standards are:

Our Culture Code. A manifesto of our worth ethic and values, as well as expectations for those we work with — students and otherwise. We ask students to read the code in preparation for their interview, and review it in more depth during orientation.

Ultimate Intern Guide. An extensive document outlining intern roles, tasks, meetings, expectations, and opportunities. The guide is read out loud at orientation, is digitally accessible, and includes an internship agreement that everyone is required to sign.

Style Guide. A detailed look at our visual and verbal standards when representing our brand, HashtagNYU. Also digitally available to the team, this document is mainly used as a reference.

Essentially, all of this should be made clear from the beginning so everyone can be on the same page about their responsibilities, expectations, appropriate behavior, and actions. This makes it easier to "release people to the market" if need be, although we would rather not have to do that at all.

Be selective with your team

We all want to work with creative, skilled, and innovative students. Duh. But there are a lot of qualified applicants, so it can often be difficult to narrow down the applications. Ask very pointed and specific questions in the application to test their creativity, industry knowledge, and collaborative nature:

You have five hours and are working with a small group. Pitch an idea that shares the NYU story and detail your role within the group dynamic.

List five things you would implement or change regarding social media at NYU.

But teams work well not just because everyone's skills mesh well together; it's also about fit. In fact, we think that fit is more important than skill in many cases, since many skills can be learned or developed on-the-job. Our interviews are primarily about determining a candidate's fit, so we ask questions like What's the strangest thing about you?

It's also a good idea to, if possible, invite a past or current intern to the interviews; they'll have a better sense of what personalities would work well on the team. As Drew Houston, Dropbox's CEO, once said:

You become the average of the five people you hang out with.

Since the team works so collaboratively, this is a good way make sure new hires are vetted, so-to-speak, by other team members.

So, here's a recap:

Let students be creative agents

Grow and learn together

Be flexible and open to change

Build an intuitive workflow

Lay down the rules from day one

Be selective with your team

It'll take some time to get the hang of things, as social media and student culture are both changing constantly. But being ready to act and adapt is key to managing an effective social team. Good luck!

- Caro

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Hiring our Spring 2015 intern team... We can't stop dancing 'cause we so excited!

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Power to the Post: Optimizing Your Social Media Content

We've identified our social media strategy, and we've offered a new perspective on how to approach social media analytics. But that's all big picture stuff. Your everyday content is the most important piece of the pie. We take more pride in the quality of our content than we do from unexplainable spikes in growth. After all, it's our content that drives our platforms and our team.

While strategies and best practices are for the most part universally shared, content is your value proposition.

But sometimes we ask ourselves what makes some content attract more attention. Do lists get more likes than photos? Are posts about the weather more engaging than our TBTs? Do posts do better Tuesday nights or Friday mornings?

We've been tracking our post engagement on some of our most-followed platforms since December, looking not just at engagement stats — such as likes, shares, comments, favorites, reblogs — but also topic categories, post types, and frequency or timing. These kinds of questions led us to some interesting data scouring, and even more fascinating insights.

FACEBOOK

Situational (e.g., weather, exams, spring break), celebrity, and current event posts were most successful, and were also posted about the most

Posts about NYC were third most published, but received low engagement overall

Links to our Tumblr posts received the largest reach and most shares

Our top five posts are links to articles about college rankings that include NYU, and photos from across campus

TL;DR — Post more photos and link to Tumblr posts. Link to more positive news stories about NYU. Share fewer posts about events and news exclusive to NYC.

TWITTER

Photos boosted retweets significantly and were our highest performing type of tweet

Tweets about the weather, celebrity news, and university events received consistently high engagement

We used an average of 1.85 hashtags per tweet

Tweets about Abu Dhabi and sustainability, or green initiatives, were engaged with the least

TL;DR — Tweet more photos and links about celebrities. Strategize how to write about sustainability and Abu Dhabi in a more engaging way.

TUMBLR

Posts about technology, music, and the arts received the most engagement

Although not the most engagement, content about academics, alumni, and current events received good engagement as well

We published original lists and articles the most, which received consistently high engagement

Video links and reblogs get the lowest engagement

TL;DR — Post more about tech, celebrities, and the arts. Post fewer videos and content about current events. Reblog less.

All that said, how do we go about making some changes? Sure, some of these insights will contribute to how we develop and write content in the future, but they will not completely overhaul everything we do. For example, we are committed to covering happenings in Abu Dhabi, and believe engagement on those stories will grow as we develop closer ties to that community — particularly with our intern in Abu Dhabi.

So, although we'll keep tracking our content to spot similar trends, we'll always take this kind of data with a grain of salt. After all, we ♥ data, but we let our work speak for itself.

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Why Social Media Analytics Mean Nothing Without Context

If you've talked data with us, you probably know that we often say social media analytics mean nothing without context.

And we stand by it.

Sure, it's great to be able to tell everyone exactly how many followers you have, but people are often misled by that information. Having more or fewer followers than others doesn't always mean your content or strategy is better or worse. In fact, it's difficult to find such correlation. Maybe your page is specific to a smaller population — and you want fewer followers with greater engagement.

For our team, the more important piece of data here is the percentage of growth over time. It's also the easiest data to track regularly. We track our growth weekly — every Tuesday — to see how we're doing. When the percent is lower or higher than average, then we can start making some connections as to what may have happened.

On a week-to-week basis, documenting growth over time provides insight on what you may be doing differently, and how your accounts are affected by it. It's important to keep in mind, however, that we can only make assumptions and not direct associations. Losing a follower, for example, could mean your content has become a little stale; though it could also mean that individual deleted her account or transferred to another school. Maybe you didn't do anything wrong after all.

From June 2013 to August 2014, our four most-followed accounts had the following growth:

Facebook: 193%

Twitter: 181%

Instagram: 204%

Tumblr: 1,361%

We see that last one and we go...

Like, seriously, what is that huge spike all about?!

Why did our Tumblr followers increase so much over a few weeks? We'd love to think that it was because of our content — but, in reality, we can't pinpoint exactly what happened. But we can make assumptions: Did separation anxiety over winter break cause more students to search for stories about NYU? Was a HashtagNYU post featured somewhere huge, like on Tumblr's homepage? Did our move toward creating more original content make our Tumblr posts five times more interesting? (Some on our team like to think the latter one is it...)

This provides a lot more insight than just stating that we currently have over 6,000 Tumblr followers. Rather than hiding behind numbers, ask yourself this: what's the story there?

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About to hire our Fall 2014 interns — and we're SO EXCITED!

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GUESS WHAT?! Fall intern applications are up! We'll be anxiously waiting to read your spectacular responses...

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Planning Your Social Media Strategy

A lot of people jump on social media without much foresight. It's understandable — you don't want to be the last one to jump on the bandwagon. But having social media accounts for the sake of having them doesn't make a lot of sense. To achieve your goals and provide value to your followers, it's important to have a game plan.

This semester, we conducted social media trainings for students who represent any NYU social media account — from their club or organization, to an office or department. Upon completing the session, they received a social media strategy worksheet to help them create a thought-out plan, whether they were hoping to start a new account or looking for ways to improve their current game plan.

In that same vein, we thought we'd share ours.

1. What does your office do? What are your goals?

The Office of Interactive Media is here to delight students by fostering community and pride about the University. More specifically, you can learn more about our office goals here and our culture here.

While we achieve our goals through different projects — HashtagNYU, THIS IS NYU, Real Talk, etc. — HashtagNYU is, by an large, our biggest and most extensive one. Simply put, HashtagNYU's goal is to share the NYU story across the web.

2. How will social media help achieve your goals, if at all?

HashtagNYU meets students where they are — in their space and on their terms — and creates opportunities for students to find, share, and engage with delightful content about NYU, our incredible student body, and our inspiring alumni. In order to achieve this, HashtagNYU must be present and engaged in conversations happening across social media platforms.

3. Who is your primary audience?

Current students are our primary audience. Naturally, we've noticed that our content also engages prospective and incoming students, as well as recent alumni; but our focus is students who are currently attending NYU.

4. If any, which social media platforms will help achieve your goals? Describe how.

We make all of our content public, and produce content in various media — from photos and written posts, to GIFs and short videos. To optimize each kind of content, we must leverage different platforms.

For example, we visually represent the NYU student experience on YouTube, Pinterest, and Instagram and geographically on Foursquare. We share the NYU story with engaging articles on Tumblr and through music on Spotify. These six platforms house all of our original content created by our student intern team. We share such content with a larger audience on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, three popular platforms that are great for sharing and key to optimizing our reach.

5. Describe your desired tone or "brand personality."

HashtagNYU's tone is more tongue-in-cheek and "buttoned-down" than an "official" or more formal University voice. Current students are our primary audience, so we adopt the student voice; in fact, our content is written and produced by students. Most importantly, our tone is always undeniably positive.

6. What content will you share? Where will it come from? Who will create it?

We share two types of content. The first is original content that our student interns create, whether it be a video of John Sexton on YouTube, a pinboard of campus views on Pinterest, a list of cheap eats around campus on Foursquare, a stunning photo of Bobst on Instagram, or a blog post about NYU roommates on Tumblr.

The other content we share is curated. Our student intern team searches the web for engaging and relevant stories that may be interesting to our audience. We share curated content in a variety of ways, but it is primarily seen on Twitter and is always related to the NYU student experience.

7. Could your activities on social media bring negative attention to the University? How would you respond?

Our content is always presented in a positive light; the only negative attention we can predict is a negative comment from someone with an ax to the grind who chooses to engage with our accounts. We would treat those situations on a case-by-case basis but they would rarely be left alone and ignored. Our Digital Respect campaign explicitly outlines how we expect our followers to engage with our brand.

8. Identify who will manage platforms and engage with your followers.

Our student intern team manages Spotify, Instagram, Foursquare, and Pinterest. They also contribute all of the content that is on the remaining five platforms, which are managed by our social media manager. The entire team engages with our followers on all platforms, and key team members are assigned to respond to inquiries on specific platforms.

9. How will you respond or reach out to your followers? What would you do if someone posted inappropriate content on your page?

We reach out to our audience on Instagram, Tumblr, and Twitter by searching relevant hashtags and keywords, then liking or responding to their posts. We always respond to comments if they are directed at us or regarding our original content.

If someone posted something inappropriate on one of our platforms, we would reach out to them directly, respond publicly, or remove the comment — depending on the platform and content, and contingent upon whether it follows our digital respect guidelines.

10. How sustainable is your social media presence? What happens if you leave?

We have developed an extensive and ever-changing style guide that makes certain our tone, language, and style remains consistent over time — regardless of who is writing for and managing our platforms. We've also created an intern guide that carries over every semester and helps make the transition to new intern teams smooth. Because our social media presence does not rely upon one person — but rather upon a whole team — one person's departure would not affect the brand's image and strong presence.

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Devoting More Time to One-on-One Feedback

Through our internship program, we invest in the development of each of our student interns, providing opportunities for them to learn, grow, and mature both professionally and personally.

One way we do this is with Mid-Semester Reviews, which recently I conducted with each of our 17 interns. The goals of these one-on-one 30-minute sessions, which were outlined at the start of each, is to:

See how they're doing — both with the internship and beyond it

Offer feedback on their work

Receive feedback on the internship and position

Set goals for the remainder of the semester

Feedback is an extremely important aspect of not just our internship program but also our work in general. We don't believe in anonymous feedback; we aim to be as transparent and constructive as possible with our critique.

While these sessions take up a significant amount of time, I found them to be worthwhile for the following reasons:

1. You don't know everything that's happening. Who does?! These sessions allowed me to know what else is going on in their lives with academics, part-time jobs, other internships, social life, or extracurricular activities.

2. Face time is invaluable. Our clear investment of time in their internship experience shows them how much we value them. They notice that, too.

3. Not everyone is on the same page about something. Miscommunication happens. This is a great opportunity to make sure everyone knows the whole story.

4. In-person feedback is more effective. Written feedback sometimes loses its tone and context. When it's face-to-face, you can describe a behavior to improve, suggestion how to improve it, and gauge their reception of the feedback more accurately.

5. You can get a more holistic perspective. We highlight behaviors to continue doing and behaviors that need to be improved upon. Looking at the first half of the semester allows for more well-rounded feedback rather than only addressing a specific behavior.

6. They are reminded that you're there. More than before, you become a person they can come to because you've heard their concerns and received their feedback. Spending the time talking to them and hearing them out builds a stronger relationship.

7. You get their personal perspective. We are constantly searching for ways to improve our internship program. Who would know it better than the interns themselves?

— Caroline

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7 Twesume Tips & Tricks

During our internship application process, we ask our social media applicants to write a tweet explaining why we should hire them. It's a challenge to write a 140-character cover letter, so to speak. The trend has become popular for employers, which has now been referenced as the "twesume."

Here are some tips and what we thought were great examples on how to make your twesume stand out.

1. Highlight your traits essential to the job. Think about the common adjectives that other applicants might use and avoid them; find a way to inject your own personal flair.

Active and informed; dedicated and determined; passionate for making the unique well-known - I'm ready to take on @HashtagNYU!

— alyssa (@1smith_alyssa1)

August 13, 2013

2. Abbreviating can work if it's not excessive. Even tho u only hav 140 characters 2 work w/, 2 many abbrevs r 4 the most part unprofessional; looks like ur trying 2 msg me on AIM.

I live life & love. I try not to confuse perfection w/ excellence. I can strive for excellence, but perfection is God's business @HashtagNYU

— Andrew B. Choi (@AndyChoi26)

August 29, 2013

3. Be creative and clever with your sentence structure. Try something unique!

@HashtagNYU I'm AD-taught, brand-new NYU, fresh to the Square, back from Buenos Aires, here for the fall and ready to (be) enthrall(ed).

— Jamie Sutherland (@J_mieSutherl_nd)

August 29, 2013

4. Play on words. It could be a rhyme, alliteration, pun... or just plain witty!

@HashtagNYU I'd be great as a Social Media Writer because I'm the 3 Cs: concise,clear, and charismatic. I also know lots of other C words.

— Maria (@OhhMaria)

August 6, 2013

5. Try out a hashtag. Keep it relevant to the employer and the position.

@HashtagNYU I'd be an awesome Social Media Writer because I'm always in the know, am obsessed with NYU, and rock at social media! #NYUlove

— Billie Gallagher (@BillieGeen)

August 26, 2013

6. Have a clear and simple message. Be careful with statements that can be misinterpreted or make recruiters scratch their heads.

A fresh, quirky perspective of the #NYUexperience is exactly what @HashtagNYU needs, and I can deliver

— Kirby Pate (@kprulz)

August 6, 2013

7. Make references to your employer. Do a little research and see what tagline or motto you can apply (but don't copy word-for-word).

I plan on changing the world one tweet, one pin, and one post at the time. But with @hashtagnyu I know I'll be able to get it done faster.

— Miss Albino (@Laura_Lemonss)

August 9, 2013

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How We Got JSex on Instagram

Tuesday, October 1st was a milestone for HashtagNYU when NYU President John Sexton documented his day on our Instagram. Out of the 38 photos, several were selfies, a few were of Sexton himself, and many were from his own perspective.

One of our team's goals is to personalize the University — from students to administrators, from faculty to NYU's highest leadership. For about a year, our team dreamed of putting JSex in the hot seat, and only recently did this come to fruition. Here's how it all came about:

STEP ONE On Friday, we sat with JSex — after a quick filming session — to determine his interest in sharing a typical day on Instagram.

STEP TWO We confirmed the upcoming Tuesday as JSex's Instagram day. He had meetings with students, faculty members, administrators, and Trustees — a typically eventful day to share with the world!

STEP THREE Promotions began that Sunday through a tweet and Facebook post. Another tweet went out on Monday.

STEP FOUR On the day of, members of our team were lucky enough to tag along with JSex for parts of the day, witnessing his Instagram debut.

STEP FIVE Promotion on Twitter and Facebook continued to encourage the NYU community to tune-in to the exclusive glimpse into JSex's life.

STEP SIX Immediate reception and engagement was incredible. The following morning, October 2nd, we collected some social media analytics:

The 38 Instagram photos received a cumulative 2,426 likes and 22 comments

Between the 5 tweets, which had a potential reach of 23,300, there were 17 retweets, 11 Favorites, and 5 mentions

Of the 2 Facebook posts, we reached 9,426 people with a combined total of 93 Likes/Comments/Shares

THE AFTERMATH — MEASURING SUCCESS Our platforms saw significant growth from a single day.

Instagram grew 5.52% to 1,815 Followers

Twitter increased by 0.69% to 2,935 Followers

Facebook rose by 0.31% to 6,884 Likes

A more extensive look revealed that 86.24% of total likes on the Instagram photos were most likely NYU students. We even received a mid-day shout-out from NYU Local.

Buzz settled after a week and we saw a jump in the average change in weekly Followers:

On Facebook, growth increased five times the average

On Instagram, growth increased three times the average

THE TAKEAWAY Strive to make the traditionally inaccessible accessible. NYU students want to see the faces of the people behind-the-scenes at the University.

*Analytics and immediate platform growth were measured the following day, Oct. 2, at 8:00AM. Platform growth indicated in (9) was measured on Oct. 8, a week afterward.

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6 Reasons Why We Aren't on Vine (Yet)

When Vine emerged as a unique social media platform, our team considered adding it to our arsenal by making it our tenth platform. Even recently, we asked Social Media Writer applicants “Should we be on Vine?” during interviews — both for curiosity’s sake and to gauge their knowledge of current social media trends.

Answers varied, and while many thought that we should adopt the budding platform, HashtagNYU is still not on Vine. Why?

1. Instagram Video. Has Vine become obsolete with the rise of Instagram Video? We don’t necessarily think so, but Vine as a video-sharing platform closely resembles Instagram Video — and we already have a large, engaged following on Instagram.

2. Content. What would we share in seven seconds? We love Vines from Oreo and Lowe’s. But HashtagNYU aims to share the NYU story — so, where does that fit in?

3. Frequency. What would our 5-7 Vines be every week? We aim to post nearly every day of the week on our main platforms. That’s a lot of stop-motion to think about.

4. Accessibility. Where will our Vine videos live? While we can embed Vines in Tumblr and post them to Twitter, there has yet to be one central, easily-accessible resource that collects them all, outside of a mobile profile.

5. Genuine Interest. Who on our team has the most experience and interest using Vine for a brand? None of us are passionate enough about Vine to use it. And that’s coming from a social media-savvy team…

6. Reach. Is it worth reaching out to NYU students, our main audience, on a niche platform? As we grow, our team thought it’d be best to focus on our bigger platforms, like Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram.

But as Vine itself continues to grow, we will keep debating its utility for HashtagNYU. Can you convince us otherwise? Share some ideas for Vines that would make the platform an asset to our brand.

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Following a record number of applications for the internship program this year, we are about to hire our Fall 2013 interns!

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OWOW Honorable Mentions (2013)

There were so many amazing "One Word. One World." entries this year that choosing finalists proved to be difficult. Here are some videos that our team felt deserved an honorable mention.

1. Because we all remember watching the Disney Channel.

2. We wish that everyone introduced themselves with a song. (Get excited — it's at the credits.)

3. Plus, everyone wants to know someone who can bake.

4. And we all need that friend that knows how to pump it up.

5. Naturally, we love it when someone brightens our day...

6. ... and makes us feel alive!

Congrats to all of the OWOW Finalists & Honorable Mentions. Get excited to see the winners at Presidential Welcome!

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Our Secret Sauce

At HashtagNYU, it’s about more than just sitting at a desk. It’s about that buzz of excitement when getting to the office. It’s about leaving meetings with tears from laughter. It’s about staying late when something needs to get done, without complaints. It’s about grabbing lunch with each other on a whim.

And we want to be intentional about what it’s all about.

We had a lot of inspiration from other places to create a proclamation of sorts, a confirmation declaring our beliefs and aspirations as a workplace and as a team. And so, we introduce HashtagNYU’s Culture Code.

Just as we are constantly improving our work, and ourselves, we improve our culture. This is a living, breathing document that we’ve worked on for months and, like us, will continue to evolve.

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Bored? Check out our team's favorite YouTube videos! http://bit.ly/11NtAec 

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Inspired by Becky Cooper’s “Mapping Manhattan” we share our New York, made up of memorable locations around Washington Square and gems all over town.

Some people on our team didn’t even know where to begin — so they never did — and others shared great glimpses of how personal experiences can shape our perceptions of this wonderful city.

Here are the awesome maps, as drawn by a large part of the HashtagNYU team.

We’d love to see what you come up with. Download the map, then send us your New York here.

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OUR TEAM ON: '12 Notable Things Since Moving to New York'

For the first in a monthly series of staff reactions to noteworthy articles — or developments, current events, and trends — our team reacts to Thought Catalog's "12 Notable Things Since Moving to New York" and shares tips, wisdom, and observations gathered during their own time in the city.

JORDAN

Very few strangers are as receptive to a smile or wave in this city as they were back home. I think it gives them the impression you are creepy. Just don't do it.

As big as one may think this city is, don't be fooled. If there is that one person you met at the most random of places here that you could absolutely go on the rest of your life without ever seeing again, chances are that he/she will be standing next to you in a crowded subway car soon enough.

Give back. Even if you're sure he is going to use that money for something very different than "a bus ticket back home," spare him a dollar, some change even. You have good intentions, and karma means that someone will hopefully help you out when you most need it.

KAT

Unless you have a trust fund or are an up-and-coming banker, you probably won't have your own apartment until you're ~67. Even then, it will be a 7th floor walk up in a far flung borough, with a view of an air shaft, a shower in your kitchen and a major centipede problem. Welcome to NYC.

Actively using Craigslist is not weird here. Have at it.

Carrie Bradshaw is a fictional character. Don't be that person who moves here expecting to be her. By the way, Magnolia Bakery is way overrated.

CHEYENNE

If you're on the sidewalk and have to pee, you are out of luck. Pretty much nowhere just lets you waltz right in and find sweet relief without a purchase, and then they give you a key to the bathroom like it's a vault in Gringott's or something.

It's actually really easy to have fun while being really broke in NYC. I've had countless meals, attended concerts, movie premieres, exhibits, and even the Westminster Dog Show in MSG on $0. The internet is there, exploit it.

IAN

This city is full of career opportunities if you are qualified and push hard enough. There are approximately 6 trillion companies in any given industry that are based in NYC, and they all need interns and/or employees. Knocking on a bunch of doors asking for a job may be frightening, but at least in NYC there are plenty of doors to knock on.

If you have a big, burly friend, and know someone with a camera, there is something fun you can do. Pick a populated area of NYC and go there with your photographer friend and your burly friend. Now, simply walk around the area while the photographer friend takes pictures of you, and the burly friend yells at him to stop. Have you ever signed an autograph? You will now. Tons of people will come up to you and ask you for a picture or an autograph. Everybody talks about how fun it is to see a celebrity in NYC, but it’s much more fun to be one.

CAROLINE

There's always a new place to try. The landscape of NYC is dynamic and fluid: constantly you see places closing and places opening. Within a year, streets of your neighborhood transform. You can't limit yourself to the same places: get out of your comfort zone and try somewhere new because you will be pleasantly surprised by what unique places NYC has to offer.

House parties are apartment parties are don't-stay-long-here parties. Residences are small, so you meet people out rather than gathering in. Apartment parties get hot and crowded and loud; plus, your neighbors hate them.

BEN

Jersey will feel like a million miles away. You probably will never venture to Staten Island, Bronx, or Queens. However, it is important to try new things and travel to these places. They each can offer unique experiences that help enhance your time in the city.

You will see weird and messed up things happen on the subway. Just take deep breaths and pretend like you're on the beach in Malibu.

KIRBY

Some street performers (musicians, artists, etc.) are very talented and can prove to be worthwhile distractions in an otherwise hectic environment. Stop and listen once in a while, and tip if moved to do so.

Try to make at least one Knicks game while they are still good. Who knows when that will happen again.

GUIDO

That first glimpse of the city from your airplane window when you're flying back in from out of town will never get old.

Speaking of views: Take a ride on a Brooklyn-bound Q when you're feeling like a small fish in a big pond. Make sure you have a good view out the windows to catch that quick glimpse of the Manhattan skyline. As the train makes its way across the bridge, remind yourself that much of what you're seeing was designed and built by men and women who were once like you and me: dreamers in this concrete jungle where dreams are made. Yeah. How's that for putting things into perspective.