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In a quest to connect and engage with prospective students, college and university marketing teams are turning to student social media takeovers of official social media accounts. These first-person, student produced narratives help schools to tell stories from new angles, to present an authentic, unmoderated perspective, and to grow their audiences.

Three experts on the topic shared their experiences and processes for letting students take the reigns during a panel at the annual CCA conference:

The panelists articulated their strategies and approaches to running effective student Snapchat and Instagram takeovers.

3 Reasons For Colleges to Try Student Social Media Takeovers

A more authentic experience. Social media removes the "institution" and allows prospective students to hear directly from current students. While all platforms offer a more transparent experience, panelists noted: "Snapchat is better for showing an authentic experience" while "Instagram is more polished" and better for a more curated experience.

Extend and grow your social media audience. Providing authentic stories and cross-promoting those stories on other social media platforms increases social follows across the board. Plus, it engages both prospective students and current students.

Tell stories that would be hard - or impossible - for a marketing team to produce. Stories about international students, unique performance opportunities, or research projects out of the country are compelling, exciting, and brand-building opportunities, but they are hard to source and produce from within the marketing department. Allowing students to tell these stories via social media ensures that they are getting out.

4 Steps to Running a Successful Student Social Media Takeover

All schools worry about students promoting or posting content that is risky, illegal, or simply paints the school in bad light. These four steps will help you successfully minimize the risk and demonstrate the impact of student social media take overs.
Step 1: Find the Right Students
Seek out students that are already engaged with your campus and are having a great experience with your college or university, such as:

Campus ambassadors and admissions tour guides

Student government members

Honor society members

Program rock stars

Savvy social media ambassadors - look for students with their own blogs or large social media following

Ask faculty or staff for student referrals - this helps to increase accountability and share the risk

Step 2: Meet With Your Snapchatters and Social Media Ambassadors
An in-person meeting to plan out the day is important. The planning meeting is not about developing a strict script, but more a brainstorming session to think through the student's day and identify opportunities to share content.

It's also a chance to share some general guidelines:

Follow the behaviors and values outlined in the student handbook

Avoid posting about religious views

Don't post anything illegal

If you have a medical school - no pictures of rooms or people to avoid violating patient confidentiality rules

Let students take the reigns - trust them to let them show the campus to prospective students

All three panelists recommended running take-overs during business hours - between 9:00 to 5:00 - when activities are generally academic and activity, club, or sports focused.

The planning meeting is also a good opportunity to share results about what's been popular in the past and some tactical information:

Overall, encourage them to be themselves and bring as much personality as possible to the day.
Step 3: Promote student takeovers on other social media channels
Cross promotion is crucial to success - especially for Snapchat takeovers. Schools should use the institutional Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts to promote what's happening over on Snapchat. Also, encourage the student to promote the story as well from their personal social media accounts. And remember, if you can find a student with a pre-existing social media following, your efforts will be amplified.
Step 4: Document social media takeovers
Throughout the day, monitor the story, take screen shots to document, and record the outcomes. A few metrics to include:

Example Student Social Media Takeovers
More than just a pretty picture
Beyond "around campus" Snapchat takeovers, George Washington University uses Snapchat takeovers to tell stories that would otherwise be too costly or they simply can't tell. For example, a student group when to Brazil to conduct research and another student music group appeared on Samantha Bee's Full Frontal.
This is My Real
Virginia Commonwealth launched a successful student campaign on Instagram called "This is my real." The social media team asked students to show a real day as a student seeking out behind-the-scenes situations, and encouraged the students to avoid just pretty pictures and focus on clever stories with a wow-factor.

Get Going!

With these four steps, you can expand your social media reach, build your audience, and expand a communication channel with prospects. If you need more inspiration to get started, be sure to check out "Tuesday Takeovers" from West Virginia University (WVU) on Snapchat.

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How to Run a Successful and Safe Student Social Media Takeover

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In a quest to connect and engage with prospective students, college and university marketing teams are turning to student social media takeovers of official social media accounts. These first-person, student produced narratives help schools to tell stories from new angles, to present an authentic, unmoderated perspective, and to grow their audiences.