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Getting 'Social' With Employees, Students

Getting 'Social' With Employees, Students

Cara Rousseau helps chart the course of social media use at Duke

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Cara Rousseau, social media manager for the Office of News and Communications and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, poses with friend Maddy McKinney at Myrtle Beach's Xcon comic convention. Photo courtesy of Cara Rousseau.

Durham, NC - Name: Cara Rousseau
Position: Social media manager, Office of News and Communications and the Office of Undergraduate Admissions
Years at Duke: 1 year

What I do at Duke: As social media manger, my role is split between three different areas. At the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, we use social media to market to prospective students and their parents. At the Office of News and Communication, I use social media tools for outreach like tweeting live events like Office Hours, target news toward journalists and media, work to get faculty placed in the media, and work with our rapid response team to produce news tips. A third part of my job is consulting with Duke departments, staff, faculty and students on using social media effectively.

If I had $5 million, I would: Travel more. South America would be first on my list because it's one of the continents I haven't been to. I'd like to go to the Galapagos Islands because I'm a fan of big turtles. I'd probably have some of my biz school classmates invest it because I'm really bad at finance.

My first ever job: A gymnastics coach. I was a competitive gymnast and started coaching at 12 and coached for 13 years. It was at a place now called Bull City Gymnastics in Durham. I really liked building relationships with the kids and their families and helping them do things they never thought they could do.

My dream job: I think my current job is the coolest one ever and the best job at Duke. But if I had to pick something else, I'd still want to be doing something similar to what I'm doing now - consulting in social media, marketing and digital media technologies.

If someone wanted to start a conversation with me they should ask me about: Nerd stuff. Things like digital technologies, devices or the latest news on Mashable. If you ask me about those things, I'll go off on a tangent, and you'll wish you never asked me about it.

What I love about Duke: Students are a huge piece. I love connecting with the students, building relationships and acting as a mentor for some of them. They're all amazing kids. I also like being surrounded by a group of peers whom I can learn from and call on to have them as resources.

If I could have one superpower, it would be: I have this argument with my husband all the time. I'd like to be invisible because I like to know everything and would want to know what everyone is saying and thinking and doing. My husband thinks that flying would be the best superpower

Something most people don't know about me: I go to comic conventions every year. I go to HeroesCon which is the Charlotte comic convention and there are a lot of smaller comic cons in the Triangle every year. I have friends who draw and write for comic books so I go out to support them and their art.

A Movie I like: It'd be between National Velvet, Love Actually and Empire Records. Those are definitely my top three. I really like Empire Records because the soundtrack was kind of the background music for my entire high school experience.

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