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Snapchat: Higher education’s new key to current and prospective student engagement
Abstract: Snapchat is the fastest growing social media platform and attracts a young, high school- and college-aged audience — one crucial to higher education. While some institutions in higher education have struggled with implementing a Snapchat strategy due to its controversial reputation, difficult user interface and ever-evolving content, this mobile platform provides a great opportunity to captivate a difficult-to-reach audience. This paper details how higher education can approach Snapchat using West Virginia University’s strategy to engage with prospective and current students.
Keywords: higher education; social media; Snapchat; marketing; prospective student recruitment
TONY DOBIES is the social media strategist at West Virginia University. He manages the day-to-day presence on social media for the university on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+. In addition, Dobies leads the conversation on campus about using social media to reach high-level goals and various audiences. Dobies has been named a PR News Rising PR Star 30 and Under.
CANDACE NELSON is a senior writer for University Relations/News at West Virginia University. She manages the daily operations of the university social media accounts, including Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.