Kevin Kurz

Student Social Media Marketing - Reddit and Effectively Engaging and Learning from Students

In our current day and age, the vast majority of people have some form of social media account where they share content about themselves and view content from others and students are no exception. After doing some research on different university and college websites for work it was clear to me that they are all on the same main social media platforms and those are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube. That’s not to say that all schools are on all these platforms, but if they are using social media that’s usually where you’ll find them.

Although these schools do not usually have a presence on Reddit, they do mostly have unofficial subreddits where students interact with one another for a variety of other reasons such as complaints, memes, questions, etc. My school, the University of Ottawa is no exception, and their subreddit is slowly growing over time. This begs the question, is Reddit a viable platform to interact with students and learn from them?

One of the main things that I noticed about Reddit is people will post very honestly. They express how they are feeling or what happened to them without any fear of being judged or punished as a result. Since users can create their usernames and have their own avatar instead of a profile picture there is no link to their real self as there would be through Facebook, or Instagram (if they were posting pictures of themselves). Some of the horror stories I’ve read from students on Reddit are in some cases not safe to be posted on other platforms. It gives users some sense of protection knowing people cannot easily attribute their account to them. Not all users choose to use a username unrelated to who they are, but many do.

Reddit's Anonymity

Although you could post about upcoming events, news, and other school-related activities on these subreddits since students can easily see this information online or on other platforms, it may not fit Reddit's format properly or simply be redundant to users. The best times I’ve seen Reddit used is to get student input and feedback. For example, while developing an app for the University a co-op student from IT created a post asking students for their opinions on what they would like to see in the app. This post had good interaction, and many students upvoted comments or left their own.

Another example where Reddit could be used, and I got this from uOttawa’s subreddit, is through the section for future students that is pinned (this applies to other schools as well if this is on their subreddit). If the same questions are being repeated and there is no easily accessible answer online, this could be something students could benefit from if it was added to the respective website.

A Good way to get Student Interaction when done Correctly

One thing the subreddit for uOttawa didn’t lack was questions, and I do not mean that in a bad way. Students are comfortable with asking one another questions on many different subjects such as co-op, courses, professors, tuition, etc. Because the subreddit is filled with students from different programs and different years of study there is usually someone who can answer that question and people collectively help each other. Sometimes these questions are not something you can email the school about, or sometimes getting input from your peers is just more useful. Depending on the faculty and time of year, asking these questions on Reddit can sometimes yield quicker responses too.

A Place to Ask Questions You couldn't Elsewhere

Covid-19 has made school harder and put a lot of pressure on many students and this was something that could be seen in certain posts on Reddit. Some people would go into great detail explaining the situation they were in or a currently living through and the community would then support the individual in question.

Another tool on Reddit that helped me when I was looking for information was the polls you can do on Reddit. In a nutshell, there would be a question being asked, a specified number of answers to choose from, a limited amount of time where the poll was open and then you could see the results after it was closed. This could be a way to get feedback about your services or try to learn more about students and how you may be able to help. At a glance, these can quickly give you an idea about how students feel about that topic.

It can Shed Light on Student Issues and Concerns

By no means am I an expert about Reddit or social media, so do take these thoughts with a grain of salt. School subreddits are a great place for students to communicate, share, and help each other and although they may not be as multi-purposed as other social media are, I do believe there is a place for schools to integrate themselves. By that I do not mean to create a new subreddit, but to answer questions and offer insights when possible. This information could also be new information to your faculty and help improve services when they are rightfully criticized, within reason of course.

If you aren’t familiar with Reddit and how the platform works, now is your time to check it out!

Closing Thoughts

Additional Resources

Kevin Kurz, June 6 2021