3 Steps for Gaining Leadership Support to Launch Social Media Ambassador Program

One of the most impactful and least expensive marketing initiatives we launched last year was the Social Media Ambassador program, where current students became the voice of the college on social media platforms. This program helped us humanize the brand, create authentic content, increase engagement, attract prospective and retain current students. I believe that every community college that wants to leverage social media to support strategic initiatives should integrate student ambassadors into its strategy.?

But how can you convince your leadership to support this program? In this article, I will provide a step-by-step guide on how to research and develop a strong proposal, identify key stakeholders, and make a formal presentation to gain support for a social media ambassador program in your community college.

Step 1: Research and Develop a Strong Proposal

The first step in convincing community college leadership to support a social media ambassador program is to research and develop a strong proposal. This proposal should include:

a. Statistics supporting the importance of social media marketing. Such as:

• According to Statista Research Department, more than 80% of people in the United States have a social networking profile and on average, those users spend more than two hours a day on social media.
• Younger generations prefer to get their information from social platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and many are using these social platforms as search engines. (NPR)
• Prospective students browse college profiles on social media before applying.
• Online advertising options are?limited?for audiences that include people under the age of 18.

b. An overview of the program.

Describe how many students you would like to participate in the program, and how you plan to find them, train, and manage them. Explain how this program fits with our social media strategy and the college’s overall goals.

c. The benefits it will bring to the college. Benefits include but are not limited to:

• Humanizing the brand by showcasing real students and experiences to help stand out among more than 4,000 advertisements that an average person is exposed to a day.
• Publishing authentic content can help reinforce trust and be more effective than traditional ads.
• Increasing the college’s visibility and helping attract prospective students, increasing engagement with current students, and fostering a sense of community.
• Augmenting internal social media staff by working with students on content creation. Creating fresh and meaningful daily content for each audience and each channel takes a lot of consistent effort, time, and creativity… often humanly impossible for one or “half a person” to accomplish.

d. Resources required to launch and maintain it.

Explain which type of arrangement you will be implementing and highlight how the ambassador program is a lot more budget-friendly than additional staff or outsourcing to external agencies: Internship (paid and for credit); Federal student worker program; Student employee; Student ambassadors (volunteer).

e. Statistics and testimonials on the effectiveness of a similar program at other colleges.

Examples of colleges running successful programs include?Cape Fear,?Carroll,?and TMCC Nevada.

f. Provide examples of the content you’ve created.

Include links to the reels, TikTok videos, or stories you have created using current students and highlight performance compared to generic content.

Step 2: Identify Key Stakeholders and Build Support

It’s important to identify key stakeholders who will be impacted by the launch of a social media ambassador program. These stakeholders can include current students, faculty, prospective students, alumni, members of the community, as well as staff from departments such as Admissions, Advising, Academic Services, and Student Engagement. Share your proposal with them to better understand their needs and concerns as well as collect feedback and build a coalition of supporters who can advocate for the program.

Step 3: Make a Formal Presentation

The final step in convincing community college leadership to support a social media ambassador program is to make a formal presentation to the college’s administration. The most important point to highlight is how this program can help not only your department achieve its goals but also support the strategic initiatives of the college.

Do you have questions related to starting a successful social ambassador program? Not sure how to get students excited about participating in this program, or how to work with them on content creation or measuring results? I recently did a webinar that covers everything you need to know to launch a successful street team.?Let me know if you would like to see it and I will send you the link.