Asking professors to sign copies of old photos of themselves, which were often a little embarrassing, went over very well.
Recapping an event on campus with still photos didn’t go over so well.
Trial and error, learning what works and what doesn’t, is a big part of Ashland University’s Eagle Social Media class, which started last semester and continues this semester.
Students in this new class handle the Instagram, LinkedIn and TiKTok social media accounts for the Dauch College of Business & Economics (COBE) under the direction of Assistant Professor of Marketing and Fashion Merchandising Alison Rossi, who convinced COBE leadership to allow students to run COBE’s social media with this new class in addition to teaching her usual Social Media Marketing course. COBE didn’t even have a TikTok account.
This spring, Rossi and the returning students look forward to building on what they learned in the fall to help them and the new students create more popular social media posts like the one with old photos of professors.
“It’s nice to have the class be a mixture of returning students with new students, bouncing ideas around for the different platforms,” Rossi said. “Some students are familiar with content ideas that didn’t work so well and other ideas that were extremely successful.”
So far, some of the posts this semester have included an Instagram post of a day in the life of a student worker, LinkedIn highlighting student internships and a TikTok video asking students about the Super Bowl.
Rossi said she’s excited to see what the students will do for the whole semester, hoping to guide them to go beyond basic posts, utilizing Instagram reels more and using other available features the class didn’t use the first semester.
One of the posts of COBE professors went viral
Because it was started from scratch by the students, Rossi said it has been fun to watch COBE’s TikTok account develop.
Last semester’s class did a second post with the same idea of different professors, and this semester’s class recently did a third one. While not as successful as the first one, the following two were still popular.
“We’re going to a do a lot about professors because we found that students like to see funny videos about professors, just seeing them being relatable and seeing that they are not always serious,” said Lilly Phillips, one of the members of the TikTok team. “It’s surprising how many professors want to join in and be a part of it.”
Associate Professor of Marketing and Sport Management Kenneth Brubaker was one of those professors who appeared in several TikTok posts last semester and already has done the same this semester. One of the classes he teaches is Digital Media Marketing.
“Students on the AU COBE Social Media Team approached me because they know I don’t mind helping out with providing content,” said Brubaker, who added that because he played Division I tennis when he was in college the students recorded him playing against several members of the AU tennis.
While that post’s engagement did well, Brubaker, or Bru as he is known by students, did not, as the students wrote on the post: “It’s okay Bru.. at least you’re a good professor.”
Phillips wasn’t on last semester’s TikTok team. She was on its Instagram team and noticed how well TikTok posts did with interactions involving students and professors and looks forward to that interaction throughout this semester.
Another TikTok team member and returning student, Kale Miller, who did LinkedIn in the fall, also said he hopes that he, Phillips and the other returning student (Grace Grant, going from Instagram to LinkedIn) can provide guidance to the new students with their experience and help them have as much fun as they have been having with the class.
“I love the networking aspect of it,” Miller said. “You meet so many new people when you do this and there are career opportunities down the line. I love that you almost get to be the campus mascot. You’re like the face of the university.”
The new students joining Miller and Phillips on TikTok are Josh Bachnsky and Ellery Reck.
Some students already had extensive social media experience
The Instagram team is made up of all new students, including Kendall Weber, Taylor Sharlow and Maddie Fleck, a member of the AU golf team who has a following of more than 16,000 on TikTok with Maddie Fleck Golf.
“I talked her into taking the class because I told her, ‘You could really help us’,” said Grant, who is also on the golf team. “She’s really good a social media, so that will help us, and it will help us if she reposts things because of all her followers.”
Another new student in the class is Brady Casto, a third AU golfer in the class who came in with quite a bit of previous social media experience.
“My dad and I started a golf academy in Columbus (Casto Golf Academy) a few years ago,” Casto said. “I do all of the social media for it. He does most of the instruction. He’s a golf pro and I am on the golf team. I also do social media for my fraternity.”
Other new students in the class are Bella Jesse and Mallorie Norton.
Sam (Coon) Brenes used to handle COBE’s LinkedIn and Instagram. Brenes, who moved from COBE to eAshland this academic year, said the students have done well with those social media platforms, as well as adding TikTok.
“I really have enjoyed their posts about trips COBE students have taken,” Brenes said.
Some COBE students took trips to Louisiana for a few days the week before the Super Bowl, which was in New Orleans, as well as a long weekend to New York in late January and a spring break trip to Costa Rica.
The ultimate hope of Eagle Social Media class is bringing in prospective students to COBE.
“They have been getting a lot of impressions and getting a lot of awareness of COBE, and that’s good,” said COBE Dean Dan Fox. “The next step is getting a strategy and getting students to have more of an interest in applying to Ashland.
“The first year has been more go and experiment with it,” Fox added. “I want the second year to more structured and even better.”
