Picture this: it’s October 2023. The air is crisp with the scent of autumn leaves; the library is a buzz with students working on projects, and a new social media team is set to take on the challenge of bringing Library and Learning Services information to the Georgian community.
The question was and still is, “How do we share information, and also make it fun and engaging”? Fortunately, there is no shortage of inspiration constantly churning out of Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and the like, and our monthly team meetings often turn into fun, laughter-filled brainstorming sessions.
Following trends is something we’ve learned to do very well, but it wasn’t without experimentation. By playing around with different media formats, editing software and tools, and watching what content performed well, we continuously improved our content strategy and increased account engagement by 100% last year. We also realized that we enjoy working together with other teams to show that at Georgian, we are all connected and here to support students in their journeys.
Our first collaborative post was with the First Year Experience team in June 2024. They reached out to partner and together, we created the Man in Finance video which explored ours services paired with a catchy, viral tune. We’ve since enjoyed collaborating with many different Georgian departments including Marketing, Communications and Recruitment (MCR), Peer Mentors, Co-op and Career Services, Georgian Hospitality, Tourism and Recreation and more. We are energized by finding fun and creative ways to advertise services together to connect with a greater number of students.
This Spring, we took part in a video celebrating the last day of classes. Dreamt up by MCR, this included multiple Georgian departments dancing, waving goodbye to Winter semester, and wishing students well on their final exams. Currently, our posts receive an average of 30 likes. This video was posted to six Georgian accounts and amassed 481 likes which is our most popular reel to date. This illuminates the power of collaboration!
We love people focused content and we are always looking for volunteers to be in videos and pictures. We are fortunate to have some amazing colleagues who participate no matter how wild the idea is. The Gen Z Marketing video is a perfect example. Linda, User Services Lead at the Barrie Campus, was just the right person for this role. We wrote a ridiculous script filled with Gen Z slang and Linda executed it without a hitch. It was lit.
Even our Library Student Assistants (LSAs) participate in creating social media. We know that students resonate with their peers, and we wanted to give LSAs an opportunity to learn about video production and marketing. We created a Social Media Guide that includes Georgian College’s Brand Identity Guidelines, best practices, and Terms of Reference that must be followed while creating and editing videos. The LSAs were responsible for imagining and creating videos then submitting them to us for approval to post on Instagram and TikTok. The LSAs did a fantastic job coming up with video concepts and organizing the filming process – their Friends style video garnered a lot of admiration from their peers.
We really enjoy bringing to life content that the Georgian community appreciates, learns from, and even participates in! We can’t wait to see what the future holds. Stay tuned, Grizzlies!