Great Social Media Idea: Rate My Professor Video

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

An absolutely killer idea came in though my suggestion box. Check this brilliance out:

For reals... this is FANTASTIC.

Here's what Lindsay Lebresco from Lehigh University had to say about it:

“The first is a video of profs reading their “Rate My Professor” reviews - a take off of Jimmy Kimmel’s Celebrities reading mean tweets videos. I won’t lie and say we had a strategy with this, but we have close relationships with some of the featured profs and know them to be good-natured, fun and down-to-earth — a side of them that students don’t always see. We thought this would be a fun way to bring that to life — and it did! The profs had a fun time doing the video and the response was fantastic- from students, alumni and faculty & staff. We’re getting lots of requests for a sequel :)”

I absolutely love it, and I defy anyone working in higher ed marketing to say that a video with 50K views and counting that shows a sense of humor and that makes professor seem really cool and approachable isn't a helluva lot more effective for prospective students than a typical dry, dusty, boring video of deans extolling the academic virtues of their respective disciplines. This is super fun, and feels extremely fresh and timely.

And, as an added bonus, Lindsay sent in another video too:

From Lindasy:

“[This] video was a “Training” video for first year students as they come to Lehigh and experience our epic hills and approximate 2,600 steps for the first time. Our campus is on “South Mountain” in Bethlehem, PA and the hills & steps are always a topic of discussion among first year students especially. (ironically the inventor of the escalator is a Lehigh grad & people are PISSED that we haven’t adopted his technology on our campus) :) This video is also “strategy-light” but I always love to talk about the stairs at Lehigh because once students settle in, their conquering of the stairs becomes a point of pride and has them scoffing at their friends’ pathetic complaints about their long walks to class. Talking about the stairs is fun for current students and a great nostalgic reference for alums. Alumni always like to share their “one time, sophmore year, I was on crutches, and...” stories. So we had some fun with this one too.”

Love it, love it, love it.

Big props to Lindsay and her marketing team at Lehigh - this is some really great video content!