A new direction.
In the summer of 2016, I joined Columbia University as the Communications Officer for the Office of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid. It was my first time professionally working on an admissions team so I was intrigued at the chance to help shape the marketing and communications strategy for for more than 200,000 prospective students. In my role, ·I managed, developed and executed a year-round social media content calendar for platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat. To help grow our social media strategy, I instituted Instagram takeovers into our editorial calendar, and launched multiple video series such as residence hall room tours and student-generated content to increase viewership on the Columbia Admissions YouTube channel.
Beyond the digital space, another one of my primary responsibilities was managing all print projects including view books, brochures, flyers, and travel pieces. This allowed me to be the liaison for both internal and external print vendors, and lead the print production process for more than 50 pieces targeted at prospective students. Below are some of the specific projects that I worked on to enhance the communications strategy for Columbia Admissions and Financial Aid.
Into the Columbia Blue
The production of a centerpiece video about the university was a huge priority for our team. The goal was to create a new video about Columbia students, which would take place over the course of an entire school year. During that school year, the video switches its focus to showcase the differences between seasons at Columbia, and how that positively impacts the undergraduate experience.
Over the course of nearly two years, I was involved in every step of production, from crafting a Request for proposal to external video production companies, to interviewing and selecting student talent, to scheduling all of the days where filming would occur. It was an immense undertaking, but well worth the final product. The centerpiece video has gained more than 215,000 views on YouTube, and has become regularly integrated into the recruitment strategy for the university. Additionally, a series of short-form, ancillary videos gained an additional 36,000 views on YouTube.
Choosing Columbia
Another significant video project that I lead was a collaboration with a Columbia student who was also an influencer on YouTube. Our goal was to produce a series of videos featuring Columbia students discussing their reasons for choosing to apply and attend Columbia University. The series was to be distributed to prospective students around the time of important application deadlines as a final push to encourage them to apply. The series proved successful as it gained more than 41,000 video views on YouTube.
First-Year Residence Hall Tours
One of the most popular forms of videos for prospective students to search for during their college application journey are dorm tours. To capitalize off of this trend, I managed the production process of another series of videos dedicated to showcasing Columbia’s first-year residence halls. We wanted to own the narrative of what the university’s residence halls were like, and feature students that we regularly collaborated with in other areas such as events or campus tours. The series was very successful, as it gained more than 114,000 YouTube views across six different videos.
Potential realized.
Many of my regular responsibilities had a significant impact on Columbia’s brand image. During my time, we increased our focus and attention on the social media strategy for the office, invested significant resources into producing more videos, and incorporated more student-generated content into our editorial calendar. All of these intentional moves proved to be successful, as the following and engagement for Columbia Admissions has shown significant increases over the past few years.
