Social media video success story
Summer was marked by a remarkable social media success story at Green River College. Despite all the noise and the traditional low engagement months of summer, a short video we produced to target our international student audience had surprisingly good results.
Our video reached 44,417 people, was shared 40 times, liked 630 times and loved 17 times.
The motto of Green River College is, “You can go anywhere from here.” So, our goal with this video was to embody our motto while showcasing the following in two minutes:
- Diversity
- Transfer Success
- Personal Happiness
- Personal Connection
- Personal Growth
Making of a social media video success
Inspired by an article written by Lisa Miller from SUNY Oneonta, How to hold a Casting Call to find students to tell your higher ed story, we made the decision to capture and create content that could be used for multiple purposes.
How did we do it?
We held casting calls before graduation. The few weeks before graduation are always exciting. Students are making important decisions about where they will be transferring to, finishing up their finals, packing their things, and saying goodbye to friends, faculty and staff. It’s this energy and excitement that we get to capture when we select and film students for our testimonial videos.
We asked all our international students the same basic series of questions – name, country of origin, major, and which school they are transferring to.
They were also prompted to expound on some personal questions:
- What was their favorite memory at Green River?
- What will they miss?
- What will they take with them?
- What do they look forward to about their new school?
We shared the questions with them beforehand to help lessen their anxiety associated with being filmed in a language that wasn’t theirs, English. This simple tactic gave us a more natural, genuine testimonial without a thick filter of nerves obscuring the enthusiasm of students in front of the camera. Since we have captured this type of video interview for a few years, we have a budding library of footage of some of our most impressive, engaging, and energetic students – all answering the same questions.
As I learned in the course on social media marketing for higher ed I took with Higher Ed Experts, we were in a perfect situation to re-imagine this great content. Our growing collections of video testimonials could be re-imagined into a fresh video production by blending old and new student stories.
The resulting social media video incorporates student testimonials on camera from two different years.
Anatomy of a successful social media video: deeply human authenticity on message
By opening with the students’ names and home countries, we introduce and celebrate the diversity of our student body. Following that with their transfer school, highlights their success, and encourages students with high ambition. It shows them that their goals are within reach with the help of our programs.
In separating out the two categories of information, we benefit in two ways. First, we see all of the students very quickly, retaining attention and building momentum. We also invite investment in each student in the video before presenting their achievements. It’s a subtle way of putting the student first, and valuing the human connection, before driving home the impressive transfer schools, all while holding a prospective international student’s interest in a short period of time.
Weaving student narratives into one story drives the message home by personalizing it. Each individual’s choice of school was crucial to not only their academic success, but their personal happiness. In blending so many individual identities and accomplishments into one story, we assure the prospective student that they, too, will fulfill their goals and build personal connection through our school.
Finally, the video does a great job at conveying our motto (“you can go anywhere from here.”)
By drawing attention to the diverse origins of our students and the myriad places they have successfully transferred to, we strengthen our institutional paradigm of being a hub for international students to be welcome, to fulfill their goals, and to use our school as a stepping stone on their academic journey.
The ultimate social media accelerators: students as talent and social media influencers
Our goal with social media was to distribute this video and message far and wide in order to generate additional leads for our programs.
The digital marketing campaign used Facebook, WeChat, the College newsletter as well as top influencers
We initially posted the video on Facebook and tagged all the students in the video. We did this before boosting the post in order to get organic feedback and shares.
Students make great influencers. When we tag students in our posts, they share with their family and friends. It also reinforces authenticity.
After the initial organic buzz on Facebook, we boosted the post for two weeks with a budget of $35. We targeted our top 24 countries and people who like our page and their friends. We also added a “get more information” link in our boosted post to drive prospective students to our CRM.
The video reached 44,417 people, was shared 40 times, liked 630 times and loved 17 times at the time of this writing. We got 16 comments, 55 people clicked on the “Learn more” link and we generated 5 leads.
5 international leads for a $35 ad-buy: this is a pretty good return on investment – without even factoring in the increase in brand awareness.
In addition the video was published and shared on many social media platforms by one of our top Influencers, Study in the USA. We saw a substantial increase in lead generations from them as well. We received 30 inquiries, 18 click throughs to Green River page, and 706 pageviews.
Finally, we posted the video in our various newsletters sent to all prospective students and agents. A successful open rate for higher education according to Constant Contact is 16.15%. Our newsletter got a 24% open rate. The topic truly resonated with our audience.
All this publicity captured the attention of outside publications such as Share.America.gov that has recently published an article about our school.
Great content + Great Influencers = Success
The key to this success story was to keep the message short, relevant, and authentic so it could capture the attention of busy influencers. Influencers are the ones that can carry your message far and wide creating a ripple effect, in our case, throughout the world.
Meet the Authors: Lansing Bryan and Caitlin Obom
Lansing Bryan is the Web & Social Media Specialist and the Regional Contact for Western Europe at Green River College. She is also a graduate of 2 Higher Ed Experts’ professional certificate programs in Web Analytics and Social Media Marketing. Caitlin Obom is the videographer at Green River College.
Tags: Higher Ed Marketing Memos, Higher Ed News