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About the Episode
Jacqueline Rowe, Senior Enrollment Communications Coordinator at Stony Brook University, shares how her team increased views on their admissions social content with less effort. By hiring an admissions-focused intern to work with the university's MarComm team and post on the university's main channels, they achieved over 150,000 views from just five videos and 3 million views on a sponsored TikTok post.
Key Takeaways
- Maximizing Impact with Student Interns: Hiring a paid student intern dedicated to social media content creation brings authentic student perspectives and engages prospective students in ways central marketing may not.
- Cross-Department Collaboration: Partnering with central marketing allowed Stony Brook’s admissions team to leverage the university's main social media accounts, increasing reach and impressions.
- Content that Resonates: Content that is relatable and showcases authentic student experiences on campus generates high engagement, even without a call to action. A focus on campus life, rather than deadlines, connects with students on a personal level.
- Effective Engagement Strategies: Tactics such as Instagram AMAs, TikTok tours, and personalized video responses to prospective student questions drove engagement and impressions significantly.
Episode Summary
Why Stony Brook Chose a Social Media Intern for Admissions Content
Jacqueline explains that Stony Brook's admissions team wanted to engage prospective students in spaces they naturally occupy, like Instagram and TikTok, rather than driving them to separate admissions accounts. Surveys revealed that prospective students weren’t engaging with the institution’s standard platforms, and engagement on targeted admissions social channels had been steadily declining. Hiring a social media intern from within the student body allowed Stony Brook to reach students authentically. The intern, Justin, brought firsthand experience as a current student, which resonated with prospective students and allowed Stony Brook to provide an authentic view of campus life.
How the Role was Designed and Managed
Jacqueline emphasizes that selecting an intern was not about simply picking a Gen Z student, but finding someone with both social media know-how and the ability to present the unique qualities of Stony Brook. The team chose Justin, a journalism major, for his understanding of content creation and storytelling. His role involved producing short-form video content, often inspired by questions that prospective students would find useful. Justin's work was strategically divided: at first, he was assigned specific tasks, later allowed creative freedom, and ultimately encouraged to come up with his ideas based on analytics from prior posts. This approach helped him understand the audience and fine-tune content over time, generating videos like campus tours and day-in-the-life features that appealed to prospective students.
Results and Lessons Learned
The results of this strategy were impressive: Justin’s videos reached 150,000 impressions on Instagram and 40,000 on TikTok. With a nominal boost on one video, Stony Brook achieved nearly 3 million views, far surpassing typical reach for admissions content. Jacqueline also highlights the importance of partnering with central marketing, which meant content was posted on Stony Brook’s main accounts, exponentially increasing visibility. Additionally, Stony Brook repurposed these videos on platforms like YouTube Shorts, embedding them in emails and other digital communication to maximize reach and consistency across channels.
Advice for Implementing a Student-Driven Social Media Strategy
For institutions interested in replicating this success, Jacqueline suggests involving the social media intern in campus life and giving them flexibility in content creation. To streamline the hiring process for the next intern, Jacqueline requested video submissions from candidates answering prompts about their decision to attend Stony Brook, helping identify those with the strongest storytelling potential. This tactic not only streamlines the selection process but also ensures the chosen intern is comfortable with the format they’ll be working in. Finally, Jacqueline advises other institutions to collaborate with central marketing teams to ensure student-generated content receives maximum exposure and to incorporate interns into the broader marketing team, creating a sense of partnership and shared purpose.
This Episode is Sponsored by our friends at Element451:
Element451 is an advanced student engagement CRM, providing higher ed institutions with a competitive admissions advantage from recruitment to enrollment through the use of AI, student behavior data, and modern marketing automation.
Register for Element’s Engage Summit
About the Enrollify Podcast Network
Talking Tactics is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network. If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too!
Our podcast network is growing by the month and we’ve got a plethora of marketing, admissions, and higher ed technology shows that are jam packed with stories, ideas, and frameworks all designed to empower you to be a better higher ed professional. Our shows feature a selection of the industry’s best as your hosts. Learn from Mickey Baines, Zach Busekrus, Jaime Hunt, Eddie Francis, Jaime Gleason and many more.
Learn more about The Enrollify Podcast Network at podcasts.enrollify.org. Our shows help higher ed marketers and admissions professionals find their next big idea — come and find yours!
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