Nicola and her team devised and implemented an innovative approach to social media to engage their student communities. West London Guru moved from a student recruitment tool to responding/reacting to enquiries from enrolling/current students as part of an online community. The 'Guru' persona offers live conversation with students to solve their problems and provide helpful information. With management support from the Communications team, student ambassadors offer authentic, relevant advice and information as the Guru. Despite limited resources to constantly monitor and respond to queries the number of fans/followers dramatically increased and the West London Guru has filled an information gap for students in a timely and accessible manner. The project won Best Social Media Strategy, Institute of Internal Communication Awards 2011.

1. (Or how the University of West London wised up to student engagement through social media) Nicola Miller Head of Communications University of West London West London Guru

7. How are students using social media at UWL? Use of social media by UWL students*: Used: Used frequently: Facebook 91% 79% YouTube 70% 50% Blogs 19% 8% Twitter 18% 8% My Space 18% 10% Forums 16% 3% LinkedIn 6% 2% Flickr 7% 3% Vimeo 5% 1% *research carried out by UWL Careers & Employment Service

8. How are students using social media at UWL?

11. What we do (and try not to do...)

18. West London Guru has gradually become integrated into the University's corporate communications

21. Questions, comments, ideas? Nicola Miller Tel: 020 8231 2919 Head of Communications E-mail: [email_address] University of West London [email_address] twitter.com/WestLondonGuru Add ‘West London Guru’ facebook.com/universityofwestlondon