By Grace Farrell
In the past couple years the University’s Office of Undergraduate Admissions has undergone a noticeable shift in their marketing strategy. The Puget Sound Admissions Instagram account was previously pretty formal, but has recently seen posts with a more playful tone. Instead of heavily academic, professional language, captions include jokes and emojis. Videos with memes and tongue-in-cheek content populate their new TikTok page.
Cynarah Alcantara, the Assistant Vice President for Enrollment Marketing at Puget Sound, says that these social media changes are part of a deliberate shift to better cater to prospective students. The shift originated several years ago when Alcantara arrived at Puget Sound and built a team of four individuals dedicated to forming a comprehensive plan to help families navigate the college search process. Her team has already seen success in their This is the Sound campaign video, which won two collegiate awards last May, including the Gold Telly award.
Alcantara’s admissions marketing team focuses on attracting prospective students and their parents not only by managing social media accounts, but also through consistent emails, website maintenance, and print communications. For instance, they regularly send emails to prospective students first encouraging them to apply, and then to keep Puget Sound on their radar. Alcantara’s team prints brochures and pamphlets for admissions events like Puget Sound Bound, and sends acceptance packages out, which they’ve strategically redesigned to engage each of the senses in what they hope will get students excited about being admitted. These communication methods, however, haven’t undergone shifts as drastic as the admissions social media accounts.
Along with the Instagram rebranding, Alcantara’s team launched a TikTok this fall as one of their efforts to better “meet students where they’re at,” she said. Part of this means using emojis, slang, and a tonal shift to more casual descriptions to mirror communications that students would have with a trusted friend. The team also hired three student workers to organize most of their social media content, especially on TikTok. This results in more fun and inspirational content, which Alcantara says is “helping to tell an authentic Puget Sound experience.”
“A big change was balancing the transactional type messages we have to send students with more information,” Alcantara notes. Her team aims to make the content “more inspirational, instead of just nagging them to apply.”
To meet students where they’re at in their admissions process, Alcantara stresses the importance of hearing directly from families about their experiences. The team aims to stay up to date with each incoming class to monitor any changes in their attitudes towards college, such as the degree to which they worry about job outcomes or their four year experience at a liberal arts institution. Hopefully, these changes will continue to attract prospective students and grow the incoming freshman classes.
“Higher education is in a really rough spot right now,” Alcantara says, “and we’re doing everything we can to recruit students.”