Colleges need influencers, but do influencers need a college?



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Among the accused of The New York Times earlier this week for allegedly cheating their children's way to college, were parents of Olivia Jade Giannulli. As his 2 million followers on YouTube know, Giannulli has a successful career as a lifestyle vlogger. You would be forgiven for asking if she even needs the university. When she was first accepted at the University of Southern California in 2018, she seemed ambivalent herself.

"I do not know how much school I will go to," she said in a YouTube video last August about the beginning of her studies. school in the fall. "But I want to experience the game and the party experience." After a break, she added with a laugh, "I do not care about school, as you all know." But she said that she would meet with her deans and hoped to be able to "reconcile everything".

By "all this," she heard the courses and her busy career. Since his mother – Full House actress Lori Loughlin – was indicted on Tuesday, Giannulli has become the influential person on campus social networks, both mocking and envied. She is far from alone. Colleges and universities are teeming with influencers and both sides are striving to make the most of their relationship.

Colleges are trying to leverage their students' social media knowledge through social media ambbadador programs that help them advertise new students. , raise the profile of schools and educate their students about school programs. And for some influencers, such as Giannulli, the university can be a boon, allowing them to sign brand contracts for dormitory furniture, Victoria's Secret underwear and smoothing solutions for their peers. For others, studies conflict with their true pbadion.

Becoming a social media star is the fourth most popular career aspiration of Generation Z, far ahead of the actor or pop star. By the time many of them begin to apply to colleges, they have already learned how to connect to Vlog, edit a vignette and accumulate the following. (Olivia Jade Giannulli has published a makeup palette and signed brand contracts with Amazon, she is 19.)

"Influencers are well known on campus, especially among new students," said Markian, speaker , which (surprisingly old-fashioned) Videos on Facebook, such as "What we have to have a latina girlfriend," in front of an audience of more than 2 million people. According to Markian, watching the vloggers on campus is the number of students who have an idea of ​​the university's culture, much like a digital and frank version of a campus tour. Once these students have enrolled, they become customers willing to spend a lot on a wide range of non-essential products. When Markian created a club of influence on USC's campus, he drew everyone from photographers to musicians to digital marketing. Thanks to this diverse talent pool, the American Eagle brands at Nestlé have been able to join this system, hoping to retain their customers throughout their lives with influenceable and influenceable students.

The universities themselves are only somehow another brand that hopes to reach these young people. minds. Admitters are desperate to make the most of social media as a recruitment tool. "One of the things we're constantly talking about in our marketing department is: how do you use these tools where students spend a lot of their time in the admission process?" Says Stefanie Niles, Vice President of Enrollment and communications at Ohio Wesleyan and President. of the National Association of College Admissions. The answer is growing through partnerships with charismatic students, who produce videos, take brand control and serve as ambbadadors to the outside world. Niles' son, a high school student, has watched Facebook videos of students and campus tours on YouTube to help decide where to apply.

Ohio Wesleyan establishes this type of partnership, as do many other higher education institutions across the country, but they are still trying to find the best way to use influencers and microinfluencers on their campuses. . "We just have a college that contacts us about it. I think the colleges are as follows: "Wait, we can ask our students to promote us? Oh my God! "I think it's a trend," says Brian Freeman, CEO of Heartbeat, a platform of micro-fluids with 200,000 users, 45% of whom are students. And colleges try to achieve different things. Some want to reach new students; According to Mr. Freeman, others want to change their school's speech by using micro-fluids on campus to promote academics, let's say, rather than the evening scene. Others, like UC Berkeley, are mobilizing alumni influencers to help them raise funds.

The University of Michigan collaborates weekly with students to promote school projects on various social accounts and reach out to new potential candidates. "We never take into account the fact that this person has 1.2 million followers, we should have them," says Nikki Sunstrum, who directs social media at the University of Moncton. Instead, they care about making people who are good at social media charismatic. look, and excited about the school. In other words, the kind of things likely to make someone a popular influencer.

Sunstrum says that with influencers, as with other famous students, college is aware of respect for their private life, so they try not to interfere with their having a normal college experience. This experience is, after all, the best publicity these influencers can give to schools. "Ninety-nine per cent of social media publications about the University of Florida come from people who are not on my team," says Todd Sanders, director of social networks at UF, who does not collaborate. directly with campus influencers. "We cherish their creations more than our" official "content, because it's authentic. To take this purity and modify it in any way for recruitment purposes, at least for me, defiles it.

Some schools, like the Babson College private business school, pay students to get the message across. Niles says it's common. "I have known students in schools who have had the opportunity to become a vlogger or create a monthly blog," says Niles, who compares that to schools paying their guides. Well done, programs like this one may be of interest to students who want to pursue a career in marketing. They gain experience and the school gets what it needs most to attract first-year students: the authentic storytelling of students.

But it's not money from the Amazon brand partnership. The most successful influential people who have reached the age of university seem to have been overwhelmed by university offers, both educational and financial. Markian is a student who dropped out of school. "I took a marketing course in 2017 and it has nothing to do with social media," he says. "There is no doubt that the college is useless. I gave up because it hurt my business. "

It is more and more common to drop out of school to be able to exercise full-time influence. Petar Mandich, Talent Manager at Addition, who runs renowned YouTubers like iJustine and Joey Graceffa, has enjoyed his academic experience, but admits that much of what he's learned "does not happen." not really because technology has changed so much. " to manage a daily loading program while taking six courses, and if influencing already pays your bills, why fight?

The long-term benefits of college (in addition, you know, an education) are supposed to be the links you make, plus the degree of graduation adds to your resume. However, even for relatively traditional positions in companies such as Google, Apple, IBM and Penguin Random House, four-year degrees are no longer required. Graduate from the university is even less important in the changing world of adult influence, and this includes the seven-digit brand agreements taking place at its highest level. "No brand has ever asked to see a resume or transcript," says Mandich. "They ask for examples of previous brand partnerships." If you want to be an influencer, your YouTube channel and Instagram page are the only summary you really need.

Even admissions specialists at universities such as Niles see value in social media CV "She has a presence, she is distinguished," says Niles about Giannulli. "She has, in some ways, worked hard and demonstrated her commitment to an interest. So, yes, this could certainly be a part of his record that admissions might consider. "Social influence may be another valid extracurricular for your application.

That is, if the remainder of your recording is not a total fabrication.

Updated 3-14-19, 9 am PT: This article has been updated to correct a statistic about the number of children who want to become YouTubers.


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