Syracuse University Digital Strategy 🍊
Project Overview
Fun fact: I worked in college admissions during all four years at Syracuse.
A more fun fact: ~65% of students choose to attend college based on their campus tours and visits.
A less fun fact: Students can't visit campus during a global pandemic.
How can Syracuse University simulate the experience of visiting campus when a global pandemic halts tours?
My Role
My team and I strategized new ways to connect with students, effective immediately. I created engaging Instagram posts and stories, responded to comments and messages, interviewed prospective studensts for admission, and moderated 3x weekly Zoom Q&A sessions with our clients: prospective SU undergraduate students.
The Solution
If students can't come to us, let's go to them on Instagram, TikTok, and Zoom. 💥
There is a ~feeling~ that comes with visiting campus and taking a tour that does not easily translate to other media. In person, visitors can observe interactions between students, on-campus activities and events, view facilities in-person, and get an overall sense of what it may be like to attend as a student. Visitors also get to meet and interact with a tour guide, that attends the school and candidly shares their experiences as a student on campus. These key factors make the visit to campus so vital in the decision. To simulate this connection online, I worked to keep the content I created as casual as possible, using photos taken by tour guides and featuring their favorite stories in the captions.
To build more authentic connections with my high-school-aged clients and their families, I needed to put myself in their shoes. I conducted ethnographic research by observing their online trends: reading blog posts, watching vlogs, and following hashtags, to name a few. I wanted to ensure my content was engaging and relevant, while also considering how difficult it was to navigate the college decision and the "lasts" of senior year while stuck at home.
I also utilized data analytics through Instagram to understand what our clients actually wanted to see. Using this invaluable feedback showed which posts and stories were the best received, and paved the way for how future content should be created.
Combining hard, data-driven skills with soft, user-based feelings allowed for a comprehensive and successful digital campaign.
✨ A peek at my curated Instagram content ✨
