Increase Student Engagement and Retention through Social Media Collaboration
General description of the project
In the Fall 2023 semester, the Office of Student Engagement And Retention started a social media initiative to effectively distribute marketing materials from many different offices. Through collaboration from the different departments and initiatives, as well as strategic content creation, and marketing plans, the social media account had a positive effect on the algorithm which gained over 20,000 impressions and over 3,000 accounts reached in the first 3 months. Many of our student events and programs shared a massive increase of student attendance and participation. By having consistent content being posted, the algorithm within our social media featured the majority of our content which effectively informed many students within our campus as well as many neighboring CUNY schools. By attending this presentation, you can learn more about our initiative and how our strategies in bringing collaboration between departments can increase student engagement and retention.
Technologies
Social media requires many technologies to successfully accomplish certain goals. First and foremost is the audio/visual aspect for each post, whether it will be a main post for the social media account or a 24 hour temporary ‘story’ post. Strategizing the timing and the aesthetics are the key to have a successful social media initiative. The bare minimum would include just a smart phone that has video and photo capabilities which most contemporary phones have. But to be able to meet the standard of majority of professional organization, professional equipment is essential if one has the resources to have them.
Explain project results
With the success of our social media initiative, our social media account have increased 80% of our Instagram followers with steady engagements for every posts. There was a 49% increase in student sign ups in our last Spring showcase event. The ePortfolio showcase website featured 93 students participants and accumulated over 2,000 site visits within just one week. In addition, the first ever hybrid presentation with the Twitch livestream generated 117 in-person attendee.
Why it should be considered best practice?
Majority of college students have social media accounts. From Instagram to Tik Tok, studies showed that many students consume many information from several social media platforms rather than traditional media. Utilizing contemporary practices like social media that students use daily will benefit higher education institutions and organizations in engaging with them and giving helpful information for student success.
Highlights of your proposed presentation
One of the highlights in our presentation are getting information on successfully launching a social media initiative from scratch. The attendees will learn how to create engaging posts and study analytics to better strategize based on their programs and departments.
The Evaluation Committee will evaluate submitted proposals based on the following criteria. Each area will be rated on a scale from 1 to 5 (1= non-satisfactory; 5 =outstanding), for a maximum of 45 points.