Unhinged 101: How to reach Gen Z through TikTok

In this session, I’ll showcase the strategies that have led to explosive growth in an extremely tricky platform. In the past year, the Northeastern University TikTok channel has become our fastest-growing platform. Our follower count has grown by over 300% since March 2022, while our views and engagements are each up over 500%. This growth isn’t a fluke, it’s because of a carefully designed strategy shift to lean into the chaotic and boundary-pushing nature of the platform — as the title suggests, growth through being unhinged. We’ve subverted the typical image university marketing teams often present of being careful and mission first, and created a 10:1 entertainment to mission-driven content ratio.

In this presentation, I’ll be covering four main pillars:

• The TikTok landscape.
• Gen Z sentiment.
• How to adapt our content strategy.
• What results you can look for.

Together, we’ll look at what kind of content works for universities, and how to create content that connects with target audiences. We’ll look into the much-lauded TikTok algorithm, and how to end up on users’ “For You Page.”

We’ll go into the TRICE approach I take to create content:

• Transparent
• Relatable
• Instantaneous
• Community-driven
• Engaging

TikTok is a unique platform for us — it provides an outlet to collaborate with one another in new and exciting ways, so we’ll look at collaborations Northeastern has done with local and international institutions, and how to make content that is mutually beneficial to all your collaborators. We’ll also discuss our collaborations with student ambassadors, and how we integrate the student voice effectively into creating a well-rounded channel.

Presenter

Cam Sleeper — Northeastern University

Shortcode

SMS9

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