Office of Admissions branches out in social media world

By Esther Shittu ’16

Trinity College has taken its social media engagement to a whole new level with the addition of Snapchat as a means of communicating with the Trinity Community. The Snapchat account was launched at the end of December, 2015 by Admissions Assistant, Hannah Davis and Senior Associate Director of Marketing, Joseph Catrino. It was created to increase the engagement of students with Trinity. According to Catrino, the Enrollment and Student Success office decided that Snapchat was another platform that Trinity’s audience could experience the college.

“After implementing a few changes, [office of Enrollment and Student Success] decided to create a Snapchat account to provide our audience, mostly prospective students and families, high school guidance counselors and current students, with another opportunity to experience Trinity College and life on campus,” Catrino said. “Furthermore, more and more prospective students are using Snapchat to communicate with each other. This was a chance for us to optimize our engagement with them and their families.”

Snapchat is not the only social media platform that Trinity College has. “In the office of Enrollment and Student Success, we utilize Twitter (@TrinCollAdmiss), Facebook (Facebook.com/TrinColl), Instagram (@TrinCollAdmiss) and our newly redesigned WordPress blog for our social media strategy.” Catrino said. “We also created the Facebook groups for each incoming class. In early January we launched the Facebook group for the Trinity College Class of 2020. We are pushing content on a daily basis. From pictures of campus to a student group profile to a new admissions strategy, we are using all of these channels to connect, engage and, ultimately, tell the Trinity College story.”

The Office of Enrollment and Student Success has employed student Ambassadors, who are in charge of posting stories of their daily lives as a student. The students that were chosen were selected as part of the Social Media Ambassador Program. “We posted ads in the Class of ’16, ’17 and ’18 Facebook groups to attract students to apply,” Catrino added. “Right now, we have four wonderful Social Media Ambassadors. They are writing blog posts, sharing photos, and snapping their daily lives. We are always looking for more students to participate. Because we want to engage prospective students, it makes the most sense for us to show them what current students are doing on campus. We have turned the account over to our ambassadors, so they can show followers exactly what they’re up to throughout the academic year.”

Catrino continued by saying that Trinity hopes to engage prospective students and families in the Trinity College Brand. “We want to tell the Trinity College story to our target audience and pique their interest in attending the college for their undergraduate studies,” Catrino said. “In addition, we hope to provide pride points for current students and alumni who are following the account.”

Catrino also mentioned that the response to Trinity’s Snapchat has been strong. “We typically receive approximately 100+ views on every post,” Catrino said. “Most of the views come from prospective and current students, which is exactly what we were hoping for when we launched the account. We have some really fun campaigns planned in the next two months on the Snapchat account.”

While Catrino made it clear that Trinity College Snapchat is not a platform in which students can snap back and forth with the page, the Office of Enrollment and Student Success does want more student input and are willing to expand their Social Media Ambassador team. Therefore, anyone interested should contact Joseph.Catrino@trincoll.edu.