Social Media Takes Off at Fairfield—With Stags Front and Center
Always finding new ways to communicate with Stags wherever they are, ¶¶Ňô»ĆƬapp continues to expand on social media with new content and strategies to grow and engage its online family. After implementing customized approaches in 2016 to speak authentically to followers’ experiences on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat, the efforts are paying off.
In a little over one year, Fairfield has grown its social media following up to 37%—in numbers, that’s over 9,500 followers on Twitter, almost 10,000 on Instagram, more than 17,000 on Facebook and an estimated 4,000 on Snapchat.
The reasons for that growth? Now, students are everywhere on Fairfield’s social media. Clubs and events regularly take over the University’s Snapchat account, and broadcast their activities to an average of 1,400 viewers per post (up from around 600 in early 2016). Club activities and key University events also receive coverage on Fairfield’s Instagram account stories, and reach over 2,400 for each post.
And, on Facebook and YouTube, students are integral to communicating what's on Stag Country’s horizons through both live videos and their own creations. Recently, new FUSA president and Nursing major Cara Gibbons ’18 hosted a live tour previewing the new Marion Peckham Egan School of Nursing and Health Studies building before its completion; in less than 24 hours, Cara’s tour received 175 reactions and over 6,100 views, reaching over 13,000 individual users on Facebook.
Meanwhile, throughout the Spring 2017 semester, 17 students have contributed monthly to Fairfield Voices, a documentary-style video series allowing students to tell their own stories of life in college. Students in the series come from all majors, and the stories they tell live on YouTube and Facebook, where they have reached thousands of viewers, and received engagement from the students involved, their friends and family. By featuring campus life, and those who live it, on social media, the University achieves the goal of not only broadcasting life at Fairfield, but also welcoming alumni, family and friends to be part of it, wherever they are.
That approach has been noticed outside the University community, too; in May 2017, PR News named Fairfield a finalist in its Social Media Awards for efforts to welcome the Class of 2020, in the category of Best Instagram PR Campaign. Fairfield was chosen alongside major agencies and brands including Weber Shandwick, Pepsico and more.
