Jul 26, 2024
Persona
The landscape of higher education marketing is constantly evolving. By 2022, the number of 18-24-year-olds enrolled in college had decreased by 1.2 million from its peak in 2011, making it crucial for colleges and universities to refine their branding and marketing strategies to attract prospective students.
In this context, effective social media marketing has become more important than ever. And with millions of active users worldwide, TikTok stands out as one of the biggest platforms on the internet. But what exactly are institutions posting on TikTok, and how can they leverage this platform to attract prospective students? Let’s take a look.
What Types of Institutions are More Likely to Have TikTok?
The size of the institution is a significant predictor of its presence on TikTok. This finding is unsurprising for several reasons. Larger institutions usually have bigger alumni networks, engage with more students during the college search process, have larger student populations, and are well-known beyond their immediate networks, leading to a larger social media following. Additionally, individuals who create viral content for these institutions often have substantial followings themselves and are linked to institutional accounts with the highest number of followers.
Inconclusive Reasoning to What Makes a TikTok Video Successful
Virality refers to the extent to which a video is shared, making it “viral.” It is often measured by share counts, view counts, and engagement rates. Going viral can lead to a massive increase in brand exposure, reaching a wide audience that may not have been accessible through traditional marketing efforts alone.
Unfortunately, identifying the predictors of virality is challenging, and most researchers have inconclusive answers. Some research suggests that combining audio and hashtags in a TikTok video can lead to higher views. However, beyond these factors, the vast diversity of content makes it difficult to predict which videos will garner the most views.
While virality can be somewhat random, it’s always a good idea to follow the crowd. Especially on TikTok, keeping on top of and capitalizing on the latest trends is a great way to get noticed. These trends vary by industry and demographic, so it’s important to keep an eye on the content being generated by others in the higher ed space.
Video Themes
Our research team selected 200 colleges and universities from the National Center for Education Statistics database and analyzed their TikTok accounts. From this analysis, we found a wide variety of themes. The top themes we identified were:
- TikTok trends: Institution-specific additions to popular trends, sounds, and memes (such as day-in-the-life content, dances, voiceovers, etc.)
- Events: Videos from or about events on and off campus
- Interviews: Videos of students, staff, or faculty talking about anything campus-related
While these top themes emerged, many institutions’ pages were inconsistent and scattered. Some accounts focused on creating videos that were funny or topical but didn’t relate to the institution itself. Other accounts focused solely on messaging to current students (e.g., wishing them luck on finals, conveying information about closures and updates) and not reaching prospective students at all.
Check out the full results of our survey on TikTok video themes.
In today’s market, it’s crucial to stay on top of what’s happening in the industry. That’s especially true for social media marketing. If you need a hand getting started or leveling up how you use all social media platforms, start a conversation to learn how our Digital Marketing team can help.