Looking Back on 2011- 2012

By: Julie Tereshchuk, 2011-2012 AWC Austin president. Find Julie on Twitter @JTWordATX

We knew that the bar was high going into the 2011-2012 board year. After all, last year’s Social Media Chair Emily Fraser (@pastelmagick) received the Creative Initiative Award for the work she did in the inaugural year for the position. That said, Andrea Michnik (@AndreaGenevieve) has built on Emily’s fabulous foundation, helped by her super social team. This past year they’ve blogged, tweeted, and most recently pinned. On Linked In we’ve promoted chapter events, answered questions and hosted discussions. We’ve been honored to have chapter member and Huffington Post contributor Ann Daly be our Linked In Queen Bee. Thanks, @anndaly!

As for Facebook, we’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve answered polls, and we’ve celebrated—everything from new jobs to old friends, from babies to Banner Brunch. (Thanks to that photo from the stage at Banner brunch we were retweeted by, among others, the Hyatt; and Facebook let us gently know that we can only tag 50 of our BFFs on one photo!)

The blog has featured outstanding professional communicators like Evan Smith (no wonder he won that award at Banner Brunch), the online Silent Auction allowed us to give extra oomph to all our sponsors and donors on Twitter, and Pinterest was not only the subject of a lively discussion at Careers Over Coffee, but also entered our social media sphere with two boards created specifically for the event.

Speaking of Banner Brunch, co-chairs Erica Hess (@ericaplume) and Jenifer Sarver (@utsarver) and their committee broke barriers this year by encouraging attendees to tweet, share, and post during the event. “Turn ON your phones, ladies!” And one of our award winners—Blogathon founder Ilene Haddad (@IleenieWeenie)—even joined us virtually to deliver her acceptance speech. Also let’s not forget that award winner Sheila Scarborough was the social media juggernaut behind launching AWC national’s weekly #AWCchat earlier this year. (By the way, @SheilaS, “juggernaut” is meant as a term of affection!)

What’s ahead for the new year, as the board transitions this June? Stay tuned: you can be sure we’ll be letting you know!