The Communicator of the Year Award goes to a team who played an integral role in extending the Illinois brand into the social media world of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube known simply as The Almas.
Acting on their own initiative, the Almas created the Alma Mater Twitter account, and began sending tweets on topics such as news, events, and research accomplishments that served the marketing, fundraising, alumni and student relations missions. The team created a unique personality and voice for Alma as part of a series of social media management guidelines that later served as the model used to create the Best Practices for Social Media guidelines for the campus.
When Public Affairs claimed the campus Facebook page as its intellectual property, the Almas volunteered to take on management of that social media outlet, and when the Illinois YouTube EDU channel was created, the consistent personality is family.