Brain Waves Blog

Gratitude was not a word that I used as a child. But writing thank you notes was a common practice in our household. And always saying “thank you.” From a young age, the importance of expressing appreciation for the kind gestures of others was instilled in me. In turn, I've always had a fear of people not knowing how truly grateful I am for their kindness.

We know students' methods for communication evolve regularly. The higher education industry needs to evolve along with those methods so we remain relevant in the minds of students.

Influencer marketing is an innovative strategy that has developed as individuals become more influenced by their peers than by businesses or organizations. Student influencer marketing strategically reaches students through their peer networks. Corporations and big brands have used effective peer marketing campaigns since 2010, but few higher education institutions, especially in student affairs, are taking advantage of this new strategy. In 2017, the Division of Student Affairs at Illinois State University launched one of the only formal student influencer teams in student affairs divisions nationwide.*

Before you jump into Reddit, get familiar with these rules of engagement.

As soon as we decided to start Campus Sonar, I committed to providing social listening benchmarks for the higher education industry. This was a direct response to what I heard from campus-based professionals at conferences and during research conversations. While the concept of social listening was intriguing, administrators weren’t sure how much conversation they should expect to find about their campus. Once they looked and knew how much conversation there was, the first question they had was “is that normal?” This is why we released our 2019 Online Conversation Benchmarks study—I wanted every college and university to be able to measure their online conversation and know how it compared to their peers. 

Influencers are an important part of the social listening conversation. They create a connection between audience and content, providing experiences their audience can relate to. As more and more people turn to social media to connect with others, share experiences, and search for help in making decisions, influencers have an enormous impact. In fact, a 2021 Edelman study found that 53 percent of people trust what influencers say about brands more than what the brands themselves say. 

By now you’ve probably heard about TikTok, the short-form video app with more than a billion downloads worldwide and over 500 million active users. Launched in China in 2016, it entered the U.K. and U.S. markets in 2018. Currently it supports 15 languages and users in at least 75 countries. According to Google Trends, interest in TikTok as a search term peaked this summer in both the United States and the U.K., and worldwide in April 2019.