A student brand ambassador within a university is typically meant to serve as a representative of the institution. Their work typically involves promoting campus-wide events on social media, encouraging student engagement, and working behind the scenes to put student perspectives at the forefront through their own experiences.
This year, Ohio Wesleyan is moving away from its more traditional marketing strategies by placing a student at the forefront of its social media management.
Despite only being in her first year at OWU, Carolina Sola is no stranger to the nuanced aspects of managing a college-level curriculum and building a brand via social media. From Southeast, Ohio, Sola took college credit plus classes during all four years of high school, allowing her to graduate with an Associate’s Degree.
Within her position as brand ambassador, Sola is focused on growing OWU’s social media presence to create content geared towards both current and prospective college students. Having many years of experience in social media marketing, Sola understands the importance of utilizing social platforms to connect with students and trending topics.
“With OWU, I work to help them grow their social media presence by creating content centered around trending topics or video ideas,” says Sola, regarding the responsibilities of her position. “Specifically on TikTok, I have created a page called @bishatowu, which will focus on funny videos that students can watch and relate to with their own experiences being a student at OWU.”
Sola works in collaboration with Kiona Dyches, OWU’s assistant director of social media and digital communications, to create content that can be seen as relatable to students and their lived experiences.
Outside of recognizing the importance of creating university content that appeals to current students, Sola understands first-hand that when researching a university before enrollment, prospective students focus on aspects crucial to student success and social engagement.
“When I was looking at schools, I looked primarily at content featured on TikTok,” says Sola. “While Instagram is more geared towards showcasing campus events and scenery, I feel Tiktok shows more of an authentic, first-hand student’s perspective, and those are the experiences that I hope to share in my position.”
As the first person to hold this position, Sola understands the weight of her role and the crucial nature of keeping up with the current culture and not being left behind.
“It’s important to remain adaptable,” says Sola. “Trending topics are changing daily and it’s important to stay on top of what is important to current students and prospective students.”
In terms of previous marketing strategies utilized by colleges and universities, younger generations have raised concerns about the disconnect felt when older generations create content geared toward younger audiences. Faculty are less involved in day-to-day student life and are therefore unable to fully grasp the nuances of current youth culture.
By placing students like Sola in key positions, OWU can work to foster a more authentic and trustworthy presence via its social media, helping students to feel that their experiences and perspectives are valuable on a larger scale.
Welcome to OWU, Carolina! We look forward to seeing what content you have in store.
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