Social Media Center Hosts Equity, Housing and Digital Communication Conversation

The United Way of the Dutchess-Orange Region held a community conversation on housing equity followed by a discussion on Digital Communication in the Wake of COVID-19 from the Marist College Center for Social Media. 

The Center for Social Media at Marist College. Source: Greta Stuckey, ‘23

“We are talking about a crisis that if we don’t get to the solution phase of it, we will speak forever about what the problems are,” Executive Director of the Newburgh Ministry Colin Jarvis said. “It has to be collaborative between public and private partnerships, we have to develop more subsidized housing and then we have to look at our economic infrastructure to see how we can shift the movement of that to be able to support an economy in a poor neighborhood that is healthy.” 

Many of the 100 participants –– from developers to attorneys to non-profit staff –– spoke during the first section of the panel. Many of the speakers said that the housing issue was prevalent before COVID-19, but it has been exacerbated during this uncertain time. 

“We were in a housing crisis before COVID-19 and we already don’t have a lot of available affordable housing,” United Way staff member Javier Gomez said. “I think we have a lot of experts in this area that know how to deal with the challenge that we are in –– it’s just about recognizing the urgency.”

For possible solutions, participants went beyond the need for people to simply afford housing in the Dutchess County region in their discussion. The issue of housing is complex and requires significant funding and communication between organizations to successfully place low-income individuals in healthy housing units. 

“Beside the long wait for affordable housing the homes themselves are poorly kept by the landlords,” Yadira Sims, a United Way staff member, said. “They expect individuals and families to pay rent on time but take their time in fixing and handling home-related issues.”

After the conversation about affordable housing and equity came to an end, the panel discussion turned over to Amanda Damiano, director of the Social Media Center. 

“Our Center for Social Media was established in 2017, and the whole purpose was to turn young people into strategic users of social media,” Damiano said. “We often assume that young people know everything about social media and we don’t know how to do it, and the whole idea is that we need to work with the students to all become strategic on social media.”

In addition to Dr. Damiano, five Marist public relations students who are currently interning for the Social Media Center spoke to the audience about the strategies they can take to effectively convey messages on emerging platforms. 

“Instagram is a great way to get exposure for your organization,” Taylor Hannibal ‘20 said. “It is super fast and easy to make an account and can help gain attention and collect followers.”

With many nonprofit organizations in attendance, the interns conveyed the importance of a social media presence, especially during COVID-19. The students suggested that the organizations begin using hashtags on posts, creating a content calendar and using live streams to attract an audience.  

“By putting a hashtag in front of a phrase or word, you make it a clickable link that can bring you to other topics, posts and businesses,” Georgia Woodcock ‘23 said. “Hashtags are the easiest ways to grow your business on social media and connect with other businesses. Posts with one or more hashtags receive 12.6% more engagement than those without.”

While going through the different sections for social media exposure, participants in the audience were messaging in the chat box and asking further questions of the interns. Many participants asked how long their videos should be to keep people engaged on social media platforms. 

“Use two hands when recording and try holding your arms to your side to stabilize your camera,” Chidera Udeh ‘20 said. “It depends on what you are taking video of, but the ideal amount of time for promotional videos is around 30 seconds to one minute. If you do videos longer than one minute, you want to make sure they are engaging all the way through.” 

The conversation wrapped up as the interns made their final suggestions and the United Way staff thanked Marist for taking the time to go over such a critical topic during COVID-19.