2020 pandemonium: how do we form a community through social media?

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‍Instagram stories

According to the Preview App, 86.6% of users now post stories. Facebook recently confirmed that businesses now makeup one-third of the top-viewed stories on Instagram. By design, ephemeral content is fast-paced and non-disruptive. It blends in with users feeds and looks contextual. In other words, they don’t feel contrived. They don’t clog up your feed. It’s the sort of thing Generation Z will tolerate.

When the American elections were taking place (a joyous occasion), The New York Times used Instagram stories to share a range of voices. Each story reflected the hopes and dreams of individual voters. They featured Democrats and Republicans, city-dwellers and people from rural areas. Turns out they all wanted the same thing. To get along and focus on the future. A similar strategy using students would be a simple and straight forward way of engaging with them, whilst also developing an understanding of what they want. Instagram stories provide unlimited creative opportunities without being overly complicated. A marketer’s dream.

Video Content

Millennials and Generation Z have adopted video-based platforms like Snapchat and TikTok with ease. Video content is easier to consume on mobile devices and its more dynamic. I still watch old Vine compilation videos on YouTube all the time and I’m nearly 30. It’s the type of content I enjoy. Am I embarrassed by this? Kind of.

Further to this, there are additional video marketing statistics to consider:

Facebook gets 8 billion video views daily.
TikTok got 1 million views per day in its first year.
1 billion hours of YouTube videos are watched daily.
40% of millennials say that they trust videos

Be genuine, be snappy, please use video content. If you’re unsure of where to start, get in touch with us.

Media to watch:Twitch and House party

Twitch is a livestreaming platform, mainly relating to gaming and esports. This site garners nearly 40 million monthly active viewers, with 41% of that audience being aged between 16 -24. That means nearly half of Generation Z are on Twitch.

Another platform that’s popular with younger demographics is Houseparty. It’s a social networking site that allows eight users to hang out in a ‘room’. Multiple rooms can be set up and a user can move between these spaces. Houseparty’s user base skews towards Generation Z and Millennials, with 60%of users being younger than 24 years of age. It’s also recently been bought by Epic, the gaming company that owns Fortnite and the soul of anyone under the age of 15. This partnership will certainly open doors for Houseparty.

It’s important to recognise when a platform doesn’t align with a universities brand though. Currently advertising on Twitch and Houseparty is relatively uncharted territory and may feel intrusive for a user. These are ones to watch for now.

The truth is we will never know what it’s like to be an 18-year-old.

Especially right now. All we can do is ask questions and communicate in a way that they will understand. Being available through social media will help to facilitate this. As the New York Times discovered, most people simply want to get along and build a hopeful future together. So, with this in mind - let’s get recording so we can start building.

If you have any questions regarding the above (or want Vine video recommendations), please feel free to contact us at pennaeducation@penna.com.

Thank you for reading.

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