Great Social Media Idea: Question Time

Reunited and it feels so goooood! I had a work event tonight to help plan the 50th anniversary of my study abroad program (in lovely Salzburg, Austria, aka the most beautiful city in the world), and I had a wonderful time reminiscing with friends and connecting with many generations of Salzburgers. But I just got home, and I don't have much time to blog, so I'm going to dip once again into the list of suggestions that people have kindly sent in. (Which you can do too - just use the form on the right!)

Check out this fun, spontaneous, off-the-wall-in-the-best-way video from LeTourneau University (click the still... I couldn't embed a Facebook video on the blog):

Being legitimately funny is one of the most difficult things to do in social media (and in life in general, when you think about it), but this video pulls it off. I found myself laughing out loud (legit LOL!) more than once, and it does a nice job of featuring a variety of people and giving a flavor of a "day in the life" on campus. It's such a simple idea, but it's executed well and it shows a ton of personality, which makes it feel so authentic.

It's unpolished (even to the point that it was shot in portrait instead of landscape... tsk tsk!) but charmingly so, and it generated a lot of interaction in the comments. I think it works so well because just different enough that it feels surprising and unexpected. Plus, it features a lot of students, which is one of the cardinal rules for higher ed social media success. Students love seeing themselves in photos and videos. This will never not be true.

There is so much value in doing projects like this, which may not be able to provide a snappy, corporate answer to the "What's the point?" question, but which has clearly proved itself popular with the audience. Doing things that are a bit off the wall make your college feel current and cool, and it can be very refreshing for the audience to make them feel like they're not constantly being marketed to (even, sadly for them, they are indeed being marketed to every time they watch something like this and feel pride in their school).

Way to go, LeTourneau!!!