International Social Media speaker during the pandemic

posted on Sat 10 July 2021 by
Aswin Lutchanah, Your Favourite Social Media Manager

Last October (2020), I attended UNICA’s PR & Communications workshop for the 3^rd time and I had the opportunity to speak about Social Media and my topic was “Connecting with students via Social Media during the pandemic“. I wanted to post an article about this international social media speaking opportunity for a while but you know how it is when you have a blog. You promise yourself you will post regularly and then you don’t take the time.

After attending the 6th edition at the University of Iceland and the 8^th edition at the University of Cyprus, I was planning to attend the 9^th edition of UNICA PR & Communication workshop at the Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest. However, the pandemic decided otherwise. Last year’s edition went fully online. UNICA is the Network of Universities from the Capitals of Europe.

“In #SocialMedia, there is SOCIAL which we tend to forget as we are used to traditional media where we speak and people listen. People will always remember how you made them feel.💛”

Connecting with students via Social Media during the pandemic

In my presentation, I talk about how as a Social Media Manager, I connect with students during the pandemic over social media at the University of Luxembourg.

How do we connect with students on Social Media?

• Instagram is our go to channel.
• Stories are the place to be.
• Informative stories ➔ News & Events
• Listening stories ➔ to take the temperature (get feedback)
• Promotional stories ➔ promoting study programmes
• Sharing stories ➔ user-generated content
• Motivational stories ➔ exams, loneliness

Why does it work?

I personally value empathy in all aspects of my life and try to put this in action in my job and strongly believe in empathy and eventually empathy marketing cause it connects human beings with authenticity. Be real and watch the magic on and off social media. Because we care …

EMPATHY
“the ability to share someone else’s feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in that person’s situation”

Cambridge English Dictionary

Empathy Marketing

• Not selling but providing assistance
• Embracing the student world (problems, joy, questions)
• Think like students
• Listen to them
• Find solutions for them
• Direct them to the right content / contact person

Feedback from Diana Aljas, Brand Manager at TalTech University in Estonia

I connected with Diana in Cyprus and we had an amazing time exchanging our knowledge and having fun as well. The power of real networking beyond the small talk and drinks is amazing. The small talk and drinks are important to initiate the in-depth relationship which follows afterwards. We are still in touch and Diana is one of those people you connect with that you remember. She did in an amazing job with the new branding of TalTech University in Estonia; I love it. Thank you my friend and hope we get to meet soon.

The coronavirus affected every person in the entire world. As a fellow university marketer, I understood perfectly all the tasks and challenges that uni.lu had to deal with. Therefore, the approach and strategy that Aswin composed was a very great one, because it also took into consideration students’ well-being in the context of corona. This is a movement that has not spread so largely yet, but is something that soon will be emphasised even more – the importance of mental health. The role of marketing should also take into consideration people’s mental health and well-being and Aswin’s empathic strategy to let users’ share their experience and authentic emotions was a clever way to do it. It created the feeling out community and possibly helped to spread the word, that we are in this together and we can survive it. In lockdown, you can rely only on digital tools and Aswin and uni.lu students did a very good job at it.

Diana Aljas, Brand Manager at TalTech University

Smile. Create. Inspire. 💛
Take Care,
#SocialMediaManager