Launching a TikTok account for The University of Kansas
The University of Kansas's primary target audience consists of prospective domestic, first-year college students. These prospective students use university websites to gather information about the school, and then they turn to university social media accounts to help make that final decision. With 41% of TikTok’s userbase consisting of people between the ages of 16-24, TikTok was a strong strategic fit for KU’s integrated marketing plan. In 2021, we launched a TikTok account with the objective of using the platform to increase brand awareness among key audiences by creating engaging, relevant content. Within the first year months of publishing, the university’s TikTok content has generated more than 2.5 million views and earned more than 183,000 engagements.
Increasing brand awareness and engagement on Instagram
In 2021, 51% of KU’s Instagram audience was comprised of people between the ages of 18-34, making the platform an essential part of the university’s social strategy. We knew we wanted to be able to consistently create quality content, so I developed and implemented a strategic content plan built on a foundation of key content themes that supported our brand awareness and engagement objectives. During that time, we:
Increased net followers by 50%, bringing in over 25,000 new followers to the profile
Launched Instagram reels, generating 1.2 million video views
Facilitated 47.2 million impressions
Generated 1.1 million engagements
Cementing social as an integral part of crisis comms
In March of 2020, The University of Kansas made an unprecedented announcement: due to rising concern about COVID-19, students would not be allowed to return to campus after spring break. Because information about the virus was continuously forthcoming, students and their parents, staff, and faculty needed frequent updates to help them figure out what to do in this situation. The university’s social media inboxes filled with questions, and we knew we needed to be there to help. I developed a strategy that allowed us to deliver key information to our audiences across multiple social media platforms.
Over the course of the campaign, we were able to deliver content that was informative, and content that was inspirational – delivering each at a time when our audience needed it the most. In doing so, our social media channels were able to meet people where they were, and provide opportunities to get all the information they needed. Web analytics confirmed that in the first few weeks following the March announcement, social channels drove 63% of all web traffic to the university’s COVID-19 online information hub.
