Great Social Media Idea: Study Abroad Storify

Since I took a little hiatus last week, I'm going to eschew my normal Friday links round-up and feature a great social media idea for higher ed. Because I'm good like that.

I think I've written once or twice about study abroad programs and how they offer the potential to generate some really great content (students wearing school shirts in front of the Eiffel Tower, etc.), but I don't think I've ever written about how social media offers great potential to promote study abroad programs to current and prospective students.

Well my friends, that all changes today... take a gander at this cool Storify from MIT that showcases all sorts of great student-generated content tagged with a special #iapglobal hashtag:

Not only does this highlight a lot of fun student photos from all sorts of cool places around the world, it also tells a story about the programs the students are participating in and gives some context about where they live and what classes they are taking.

If I were a current or prospective student checking out study abroad options, this would be a really terrific way to learn about it in a quick and visual way with content that is authentic and coming directly from kids in the programs themselves.

By creating a special hashtag, the study aboard programs are able to direct their students to tag all the photos they share, which makes curating a cinch. Believe me, as someone who has tried in vain to email students who are studying abroad and begging them to take and send photos to me, I can say with confidence that snagging them off of social media is a much, much easier and more effective way to get pics from kids that are abroad.

Well done, MIT study abroad! And many thanks to the person who kindly submitted this to my suggestion box.

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I always post a song at the end of my links round up, and since March is Portland Month for music on this blog I'd be remiss if I didn't share with all ya'll a hot cut from my beautiful home town the Rose City. Enjoy everyone, because this ish right here is a straight up 80s jam: