Georgetown University is one of the world's leading academic and research institutions located in Washington, D.C. Georgetown Stories is a multi-media, first-person, video documentary series (video blog) that follows 15 undergraduate students throughout the academic year as they attend Georgetown University.
The central goal of the project is to more intimately connect our community of prospective students, current students, alumni, parents, and friends to share the contemporary Georgetown experience in an immediate, exciting, and personal way. Our student cast creates content designed to appeal to prospective undergraduate students including first person perspective video recorded on smartphones used on Facebook, Snapchat takeovers titled "Snaps Behind My Story," Buzzfeed-style written articles which include embedded Instagram photos and videos, and live video content giving a quick peek to what's happening on campus. Classes and events; exhibits and parties; lectures and discussions; fun, friendships and even visits from mom and dad... you will see a little bit of all, through the perspective of our Hoya storytellers.
Most of the magic on Georgetown University's college campus happens through unplanned and unfiltered student experiences, which often aren't possible to capture by communications staff members. Georgetown needed a way to tell the stories of its students without the polish and voice of administrators and we knew that students and alumni really listened when these stories came from other current students. The Georgetown Stories project provides Georgetown with authentic student life content for promotion across all digital channels.
We selected a diverse student cast from a body of applicants who embody Georgetown's values and core brand attributes and are involved in a wide variety of student life on campus and in Washington, DC. These students produce videos of their daily lives from their smartphones, illustrating everything from mundane student experiences (like pulling an all-nighter in the library) to Georgetown-unique opportunities (such as attending a speech by former Vice President Joe Biden). The videos remain untouched by university staff, resulting in a genuine view of what it is like to be a current student on Georgetown University's campus. These videos are displayed on a Georgetown Stories microsite, are promoted on all official social media channels, and often appear in marketing and admissions correspondences.
Students also produce "listicles" of advice and commentary on being a Georgetown student and studying in our nation's capital. These provide prospective and current students with ideas on how to make the most of their time on our campus and additional written context on the Georgetown student experience. Our fifteen storytellers also regularly takeover the @GeorgetownUniv snapchat story to highlight a day-in-the-life or a particular event or experience they have access to on campus. They also act as the on-air host for many Facebook Live video broadcasts on Georgetown's official Facebook page. This cast of students provides access to opportunities and experiences that we as staff members cannot capture and tells these stories in a variety of mediums that can be used across all of our social platforms. This student-generated content has an authentic tone to which current, past and prospective students can relate and allows us to utilize the first person perspective of students to tell the story of Georgetown to our community.
Today, the Georgetown Stories project has an archive of more than 842 videos and 1,745 photos that are showcased on the content portal for Georgetown Stories as well as are leveraged via social media, design and publication teams across the institution. An additional 3,265 organic social media posts have been made by the community. These uses have propelled the university social media results:
