Using Snapchat as a Higher Education Tool

by Monthira Sopho

There have been many applications created for the standard smartphone that allow people to communicate faster than ever. These applications include Facebook Message, GroupMe and Twitter. One of the fastest growing applications is Snapchat. Snapchat has taken social media industry by storm. On Snapchat, users are able to send temporary pictures back and forth. Recently, Snapchat has updated their features and have added messaging as well as video chat. Along with these features are also updates such as the Snapchat story. While the app is popular among the millennials, business have also been starting to use Snapchat. Businesses are not the only ones though, today Snapchat is being introduced as a higher education tool.

Although not a lot of colleges have implemented Snapchat in their marketing plans, universities such as the University of Houston and Eastern Washington University have gotten involved with the app. At first, EWU was skeptical the idea of using this social media application and did not what to do at first. But soon, they figured out some measurable goals and objectives. The first thing they did was use the app during the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. With the app, students could post snaps into one story of the event. It provided a way for the university to portray the student fan experience through a student’s point of view. This was a really great way for EWU to communicate with their students and the student body to collectively view a story/video of the playoffs. In the future, EWU wants to have student athletes become hosts of the Snapchat account.

The University of Houston is also using Snapchat in a variety of ways. They’ve already gained many followers by doing so. Their initial motive was to involve the university’s fans into the activities of their school. Snapchat is great for the University of Houston since it allows the school to engage their students with daily updates on events. Social media coordinator, Kimberly Davis, explains, “We launched Snapchat with the idea of giving our fans the inside scoop to our offline social media activities, like our Cougar Red Friday shirt give away, where we reward our students for wearing red on Fridays”. The university would snap locations of where they were giving out free shirts and prizes. The University of Houston realizes what Snapchat’s reputation is, but they want to give the platform a chance since they are using it to benefit the university. Other uses of the app by the university include informing students of closing and delays. Snapchat provides a direct form of communication and saves their students a lot of time.

In the South, Tennessee Wesleyan College is using Snapchat to their benefit. They’ve been informing their students of campus events and recently the administrative departments have gotten involved to remind students of important information. The school plans to use Snapchat to communicative with future students. Also, Tennessee Wesleyan is using Snapchat in their “Where’s Wesley” scavenger hunt with is hosted during the summer during new student orientations. Students will be given the task to find the bulldog mascot around campus while being given video hints via Snapchat.

Overall, there are many ways Snapchat can be used in regards to higher education.The school can promote events, host giveaways, and showcase what is happening around campus. Schools can also use snapchat for question and answers along with campus tours. In the future, many sports based school will start using the application to their advantage. Division I coaches will be able to use Snapchat to recruit prospective players starting August 1. Schools like Kansas plan to use the platform to give students an inside look into various student athlete’s personalities. Snapchat has a very bright future ahead of them as more universities begin to implement the application on their campus.

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