Great YouTube Idea: Answering Freshmen Questions

Before I get started on today's blog post, I'm going to share a little #ProTip: Want some through-the-roof engagement numbers on social media? Just have one of your alumni win The Bachelorette. I learned this first-hand earlier this week. Apparently people still watch that show. And I did indeed accept that free EdgeRank boosting rose. Thanks ABC!

Anyway, onto business. And some good business it is! Why? Because it involves students, something I definitely don't see enough of in higher ed social media. It's always nice to see those bright and smiling young faces, except for the part when they so painfully make me realize how distressingly old I am and that I'm much closer to my mid-life crisis than my quarter-life crisis. Sad day.

But it wasn't a sad day at all when Howard University's student government leaders decided to make this video that helps answer - in person - some questions that have come up on the Howard admitted student group on Facebook.

I love how this takes social media "off line" in the sense that it pulls back the curtain a bit and puts real faces and real voices to the people engaging with the admitted students in the group. Sure, the questions could have been answered by these students typing a response in the group itself (and they may indeed have been... I can't access that group), but there's something really cool about having it done "in person," isn't there? In some ways, this reminds me of the super-popular Old Spice videos of "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" responding to questions or Amy Poehler's "Ask Amy" video advice series.

The video has just the right of production value (unpolished enough to feel organic and not like slick marketing, but well-made enough to look legit and professional), and the students are engaging and friendly. They answer some common questions that have come up on the group,  promote their own student government Facebook and Twitter pages, and encourage new students to get in touch with them online. 

This is a terrific way for student government leaders to introduce themselves to new students, and a great way for higher ed social media managers to creatively respond to the normal, everyday questions that new students always have. 

Well done, Hoawrd, and major props to the awesome students of HUSA 53!