Twitch for higher education marketing and communications: Creating a presence in the gaming world

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Abstract: Social media communicators at the University of Alaska Fairbanks used the video streaming platform Twitch to create a wide variety of content marketing assets as well as develop a new place to build community with current and prospective students. This paper analyses how the team navigated fair use laws and technical challenges and along the way broke through silos in unique and collaborative ways.

Keywords: Twitch; marketing; community; storytelling; collaboration; communications; admissions

Andrew Cassel has been creating and curating social media content for higher education since 2011. Andrew speaks regularly about social media content including appearances at HigherEd Experts 2018, 2019 and 2020 Higher Ed Content conferences, as well as full sessions at the 2017, 2018 and 2019 Higher Ed Web annual conferences. Andrew was awarded a best-in-track Red Stapler at the 2017 High Ed Web annual conference and is a five-time winner of Aurora Awards of Excellence from the Public Relations Society of America — Alaska including the 2018 Grand Award of Excellence. In 2019, he was a host for Higher Ed Live — Marketing Live. From 2010 to 2019, Andrew was the social media admin for the University of Alaska Fairbanks and is currently the Social Strategist and Content Producer at Middlebury College.