Make no mistake; the fear of missing out (FOMO) is very real for college students. More than ever, students are pressured to be everywhere at once. For better or worse, the FOMO culture is transforming how they communicate to each other – and how we communicate with them – on social media. In this presentation, you’ll learn how keeping this in mind will help you use social media more effectively in campus activities.

1. How to Reach Students in the
Age of Digital FOMO
Dominique “Dom” Benjamin
Digital & Social Media Specialist, Office of News & Communications
@dom_forshort

3. "Social media is a really easy way to
feel excluded. Facebook, Instagram and
Snapchat make me hyper-aware of the
activities I wasn’t invited to partake in.”
*A Freshman at Franklin & Marshall College, quoted in Huffington Post’s “Social Media
Is Changing How College Students Deal With Mental Health, For Better Or Worse”

9. There’s something happening right
now... Here’s how you can be apart of
it
“There’s something
going on right now.”
“Here’s how you can
be apart of it.”

10. MAKE IT
REAL-TIME

12. Periscope

13. ACCESS INTIMACY IMMEDIACY
The ability to watch something they
don’t normally have access to.
The ability to feel connected to the
subject.
The ability to connect with something
happening in real-time.

14. IMMEDIACY
Give the people what
they want!
• Most of your audience will be
people who also follow you on
Twitter.
• How can you cover as much of
that target audience as possible?
“ ”

15. IMMEDIACY
Give viewers a
reason to interact!
• Given the opportunity, viewers will
ask questions or comment.
• How does your video create a
two-way street between your
viewer and the subject that
matters to them?
“ ”

16. IMMEDIACY
Keep the camera
rolling!
• Most of your audience will be live
viewers watching only a few
minutes at a time.
• Why not open the window of
opportunity for them to tune in
live?
“ ”

17. Snapchat

18. • Celebrity takeover of the university account
• Post to your university’s Campus Story
How to Share Content On Campus

19. Celebrity takeover of your campus account

20. Post to your campus story
• The selection process is subjective so:
– Take the time to plan content that’s authentic and
engaging
– Make it snappy, witty
– Try submitting from various accounts

21. MAKE IT
SHAREABLE

25. • 40,000 page views
• 10,000 unique visitors
• 3,000 total downloaded files
The Results

26. MAKE IT
AUTHENTIC

27. “We do our best to enlist social media ambassadors
through our student advisor group, but we don’t do
as well as we could with directing their efforts. We
ask them to support and share our social media, but
that tends to fall flat.”

28. A VISION OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE
Have a strategy and let them figure out
the tactics.
Give them ownership of projects that
cater to their strengths.
Set goals/benchmarks and schedule
regular check-ins.

30. Major 🔑🔑🔑
“There’s something going on right now... Here’s
how you can be apart of it.”
• Make it real-time
– How will you make students feel like they’re there?
• Make it shareable
– How can you allow students to participate in
conversations that are already going on?
• Make it authentic
– How can you give interns/student ambassadors the
tools they need to succeed?

31. How to Reach Me
• Email: dominique.benjamin@duke.edu
• Twitter: @dom_forshort
• Website: socialmedia.duke.edu