Melissa Woo, the University of Oregon’s chief information officer and vice provost for information services, has been ranked among the top 10 most social media-savvy CIOs in higher education.  

Woo ranked number eight out of the top 10 for social media in a recent survey by "The Huffington Post" technology blogger Vala Afshar, who also serves as chief marketing officer at networking company Enterasys Secure Networks.

Afshar’s research reviewed the social media activities of CIOs in higher education in the U.S. and Canada, and was conducted in conjunction with the nonprofit EDUCAUSE.

Philip Komarny of Seton Hill University in Pennsylvania topped the list of 50 social media-savvy CIOs.

“Social media provides the opportunity to engage campus in a way that invites input and feedback,” Woo said. “It’s a great way to encourage dialog through a participatory community approach.”

As chief information officer at the UO, Woo oversees Information Services – the university’s central IT department – and the UO's IT strategy and policies. She uses social media extensively, with Twitter and Google+ (G+) being her two primary channels.

Woo said she uses G+ to post job listings for the UO and to share articles on technology, leadership and management. She also uses G+ to share conference and meeting notes with her staff and colleagues. She recently used G+ to share her thoughts on EDUCAUSE 2013, where she gave a talk.

The EDUCAUSE conference – which was held last month in Anaheim, Calif. – is an annual higher education brainstorming event put on by the nonprofit of the same name. Its mission is to “advance higher education through the use of information technology.”

Woo also used the image and video hosting website Flickr to share photos from her time at EDUCAUSE 2013.   

Woo last year received the EDUCAUSE Rising Star Award, which recognizes information technology professionals early in their careers who have shown exceptional achievements connecting information technology and higher education.

Woo, who has worked at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, started at UO in September 2012. She can be found on G+ under her name or on Twitter at @mzyw.

She has simple advice for campus leaders looking to increase their use of social media.

“Be genuine,” Woo said. “Over the long haul, the community will know if you’re not being your genuine self and speaking from your core values.”

- by Nathan Gilles, UO Information Services