Sven Alskog
News Editor
In response to the ever-growing rise in popularity of social media as an information outlet, Idaho State University has seen a campus-wide increase in its use.
Perhaps the most noticeable and effective example of the boosted emphasis on keeping with the social media trend is the Ultimate Bengal campaign.
With this campaign, students, family, alumni and everyone else who wants to participate can connect with ISU through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to be entered to win and become the Ultimate Bengal.
The winner will receive one year of in-state tuition, a one year meal plan, ISU housing, a reserved parking pass, an iPad, $1,000 to the university bookstore and a student union bowling and billiards card. The total value of the package is $13,990.
Students who are admitted or attending the university are eligible to receive the scholarship, although friends and family can win it for that student.
“The big push for social media at ISU this semester has been in the planning stages for about one year,” said Stuart Summers, the director of marketing and recruitment. “As a marketing team, we quickly realized that we needed to advance our efforts to more effectively promote the university through the realm where current and prospective students were spending their time. We’ve received tremendous support to build the image of ISU on social media, namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. As we’ve been actively engaged on social media, we’ve been able to connect with all of our constituents and build Bengal pride and campus community.”
It has also inspired other ISU related entities to become more active in their use of the mediums.
“We have had a lot of support from across campus in our social media push,” said Summers. “We’ve seen a huge increase in traffic on the ISU athletics channels and the Pond Student Union networks. Going into this major social media push (Ultimate Bengal), we all sat down as a committee and made realistic, achievable goals that we wanted to see happen.”
For ISU athletics, the new techniques to effectively market their product are led by Director of Marketing and Promotions KaLee Kopp.
One of the recent ideas was implemented during a basketball game, as fans had the opportunity to tweet their seat and win a prize. The event was put on with the help of a group of students from Dr. Karen Appleby’s sport marketing class.
The Associated Students of Idaho State University (ASISU) has also seen a boost to their usage of social media.
For ASISU, Sam Johnson, a current senator for the College of Arts and Letters, adopted the new “Instagram Takeover” idea from housing, which does something similar.
“We have gotten a big increase in the amount of followers we have as well as the amount of likes we get on our pictures when we do it,” said Johnson. “A good majority of our followers come from fellow ISU Instagrams but we have a lot of students follow us too.”
While Instagram is the focus, the effort also benefits other mediums that ASISU uses to better connect with students.
“The senator is previewed on the ASISU Facebook the day before they get on the Instagram so that people are aware it’s happening, so we get a lot of traffic that way too,” said Johnson.
With programs around campus becoming more involved with their own social media use, Summers hopes to continue the push going forward.
“Following the announcement of Ultimate Bengal, we have plans to do a few more follow-up contests and promotions,” he said. “We’re not going to call it quits at the end of the semester. We have worked hard to build up a loyal fan base and we’re ready to keep the excitement alive. We have some exciting things being planned for graduation and social media. Also, we are making plans for an alumni promotion using Facebook. ISU is committed to continuing to invest the time and resources necessary to keep our existing social media efforts active. We’ve only scratched the surface of what we want to accomplish.”
The key to success is to ensure that viewers are actively interacting with the content on the mediums.
“The key to making social media effective is promoting two-way conversations,” said Summers. “We want our followers to go on our photos and leave comments, like our statuses and provide us feedback.”
“We want to hear their stories and share in the excitement of being a part of the Bengal family,” he added. “In order to promote the conversations, you have to make sure your content is dynamic and engaging. Since we track the analytics closely, we know which posts will typically generate the most interest. We also work hard to ensure that the content is fresh and continuously updated. Social media is a 24-hour machine that has to be constantly monitored. We make sure we are posting stuff in the evenings and weekends to keep the engagement alive.”
To enter Ultimate Bengal, head to the ISU Facebook page where you will find an entry form to get involved.
