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Another year over, a new one just begun…
It seems everywhere we look over the past few weeks people have been busy reflecting on the high and low points of the past 12 months. So, before it becomes but a distant hazy memory, we wanted to share our personal favourite higher education social media and digital campaigns of 2015 with all our readers.
This is our second time posting about the stars of higher education in digital marketing (you can find our 2014 roundups here and here). Just like last year, some of these campaigns have already featured on the TERMINALFOUR blog and some we just didn’t get time to!
This really is just the tiniest of glimpses into an incredibly creative and inventive year for universities and colleges so please don’t hate us if you haven’t made the list! We’re breaking this up into two posts and we’ll reveal the second half this Thursday.
So, what were our favourites? The results are in and in no particular order the first five are as follows:
1. Keele University’s lecturers read Yaks
We loved this unsubtle nod to Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Mean Tweets’ video series featuring Keele Universities lecturers reading funny and uplifting posts shared by students on the anonymous Yik Yak app. Keele University consistently get it right when it comes to clever campaigns with just the right amount of quirky humour!
2. 52 faces of Bristol
The ’52 faces of Bristol’ campaign was a yearlong campaign that the University of Bristol embarked on, inspired by the very famous Humans of New York photo blog which features candid street photos and interviews with people on the streets of New York. The premise for the campaign was simple; each week for 52 weeks, a person linked to the university was shared on the university’s Facebook page and the #bristol52faces hashtag on twitter. This campaign was a fantastic way to give faces to the hustle and bustle of campus life and celebrate the individuals that make the university unique.
3. University of Florida’s Snap-happy story
The University of Florida has shown it knows where its audience lives by joining the incredibly popular photo messaging app, Snapchat. The university has been using the app to create more personal, individualized relationships with students by talking directly to them and measure the success of a post on how many views and screenshots it receives. Snapchat is a powerful way to capture what’s happening on campus, right now. It’s always up to date and students can readily engage with it.
4. University of Huddersfield Perfect Day App
The University of Huddersfield team definitely managed to achieve something quite brilliant when they created an interactive app in conjunction with Lonely Planet. The app allows students and prospective students to create their very own personalized film of their perfect day in Huddersfield by selecting attractions from a map.
The video then shows students their perfect day in Huddersfield based on what elements they selected. This app is such an effective tool for the university when it comes to showing students from out of town what the university and its surrounding areas has to offer.
5. University of Michigan #Dormspiration Pinterest Content
We’re huge fans of everything the University of Michigan post on their social media accounts but we especially loved their Dormspiration Pinterest Contest which they ran back last August. Participants were asked to share their decoration inspiration for their apartment, form or house on their Pinterest account with a board titled “My UofMichigan #Dormspiration”. We love that this contest is not only a clever way to gather followers but it’s also a great way to help incoming students feel a part of the university community!
We will be posting the second and concluding part of this blog this Thursday so don’t forget to stop back and check out the remaining 5 of our favorite digital marketing higher education campaigns of 2015.