Graduation season is upon us. Families are gathering and students are getting ready to move into the next phase of their journeys. It’s an important day, a shared day that explodes across social media. We’ve worked with colleges and universities for years to bring this shared experience to an even larger audience. Across the country, schools incorporate social media in their commencement ceremonies, allowing graduates and families to showcase their experience and share with the experiences of their friends and classmates.
But graduation isn’t the only shared experience across campus. Keep reading for ways you can keep your students, families, and alumni involved all year long.
Giving Day and Other Fundraisers
Beyond graduation, another great use of social content comes on Giving Day. Whether you’re raising money for a specific college, the university as a whole, or a good cause, give your audience a reason to share their experience and contribution. Seeing how others are contributing will inspire many more to do the same.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison, brought posts from supporters, students, and donors into the experience on their website generating over 578.1K embed impressions, which in turn helped inspire over 5,000 gifts and raised $1.8 million.
Large Events or Festivals
My university was host to the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival every year. It’s the largest jazz festival in Idaho and one of the largest education jazz fests in the world. Students, teachers and jazz-lovers come from all over the United States to be a part of the experience.
As a student, we always saw the festival as an excuse for our campus to be overrun with children. It wasn’t until much later that I discovered world-class musicians were a regular fixture at concerts that had been available all week. Had the excitement of my classmates, teachers, music-lovers from around the world, and folks from around town been front and center, it would have inspired me to participate.
Alumni Outreach
Alumni are almost as important to campus culture as current students. Often students graduate and maintain loose ties at best back to their alma mater. Imagine if each graduating class had their own website were classmates could keep up easily with one another without having to clutter their own social media feeds. It would also be a great way to highlight opportunities open to current students after graduation by seeing what actual graduates are doing.
Pledge Week and Student Body Elections
One of the largest internal organizations for many universities is the greek system. Sororities and fraternities currently use social media to show what life at the house is really like; helping to eliminate stigma and encourage students who might otherwise not have known what is involved.
Another large organization is the student council. With more universities having access to large screens in common areas, using social media allows for an open dialogue among the student body about who they feel will best represent their interests. Students already spend hours a day on social platforms, putting specific social feeds in front of them ensures they miss nothing important.
Freshman Orientation
Starting at a new school is scary under the best circumstances, but starting college is a very different experience. Promoting welcome hashtags at these events encourages students to post about activities going on, share their experiences, and ultimately connect with other students doing the same. It empowers your student ambassadors to highlight more without having to run all over campus and helps as an icebreaker to incoming newbies to see people having shared moments. College students want to connect with each other, so give them a medium through Tagboard to do so.
Promoting Campus Programs
Finally, think about ongoing events that are constantly taking place all over campus. Do you want to encourage more students to live in the dorms? Create a dorm life hashtag to showcase what you’re missing living off campus.
Want to highlight the study abroad program? The content practically makes itself when you have your current students share photos with your hashtag.
What about professional development and test prep? Have alumni share photos from their daily lives using hashtags to showcase how your career center can help students earn their dream jobs. All that studying can often lead to stress, so you can also encourage students during test prep or finals week events by sharing tips, behind the scenes photos and success stories.
While graduation is likely the most visible event each year for universities, it’s not always the most important. Tap into your student body and larger alumni audience year round for specific events; keep an ongoing student life hashtag; encourage greek houses to showcase what really happens inside fraternities and sororities; and highlight all the extracurricular activities the school has to offer. This might seem like an overwhelming amount of work for your small team, but Tagboard makes it easy to gather, curate and display hashtags, feeds and specific users from your school. All from one easy dashboard. Reach out today to start telling your story.