How do colleges maintain a social media presence when competing with 40 others? From access Instagrams to society Facebook groups to JCR-run TikTok pages, you’d be hard-pressed to find a corner of the Internet not touched by an Oxford University college. But, in a sea of similar profiles, it isn’t easy for colleges to stand out.
For a year, I managed my college’s access page on Instagram. This would be fun, I thought. But when I tried to make an infographic explaining student life, I quickly found that not all college profiles are made equal, and engagement is not a given.
Being an unofficial profile, the outreach staff had no involvement in the Instagram page, which meant I was alone in my research. Part of the reason I got the role was because I understood the need for an access page: I was the first from my school to go to Oxbridge and from a very deprived area. I didn’t expect to suddenly have to know all of the information I was barred from accessing myself – like formal etiquette, for instance. I went from being the target of access initiatives to being expected to share this information with the children I was once one of, as if a few terms here taught me a lifetime of experience.
But would it be unethical for someone without this background to take on this online persona? Would it be seen as patronising? Out of touch? In my opinion, yes. It would be unethical, and for good reason. So, the issue of my lack of knowledge persisted. A potential solution would be to ensure that students in charge of representing the college online are properly trained and supported by staff. The difference between college-run and student-run social media (as the two rarely mix) is often palpable, and the latter could learn a lot from the former.
But the lack of training is not the only issue that plagues student-run pages. First, the quick turnover of student pages often creates inconsistency in aesthetics and long gaps between posts, affecting how well posts perform. This may be no problem for college Entz and society pages, but access posts, which are designed to reach a wider audience, are significantly affected.
Secondly, the resources available to students are often much less than pages with college support or management. I could not tell you the amount of times I stalked the Pembroke College access page, admiring the beautiful clips compiled into semi-viral reels. I had a degree to balance, and there was no way I could dedicate this much time to filming, editing, promoting, and monitoring. Likewise, camera equipment and even Canva Pro were far out of budget for our JCR. These financial disparities also exist between colleges with vastly differing endowments.
Consequently, engagement suffers. Do prospective applicants know about these pages? Do they even care? During one open day, I did everything I could to advertise the access Instagram, from etching the handle on chalkboards to talking directly to students. The response? No one had heard of it, much less followed it. I understand this completely – coming from a school where academic success was not exactly great for social status, following a bunch of Oxford pages was probably a bit (dare I say) cringe. In the end, the follower-base remained the same: entirely students of my college.
Is meme-ification the way to go? It seems to gain the most attention right now, to the extent that the current government is posting Keir Starmer sigma edits. Brasenose JCR’s TikTok page is one of the rare examples of a student-run page actually achieving success, pairing trending audios with open day footage and student life, and averaging thousands of views. Their approach certainly works, with accessible, relatable memes that do not bombard the unfamiliar viewer with Oxford lingo. However, the perhaps lightning-in-a-bottle success of Brasenose JCR may not translate to other colleges, especially for those whose social media reps do not want to affect their digital footprint for the future.
Oxford’s reputation precedes itself, and for this reason the University is perhaps less reliant on social media than other higher education institutions. Yet, Oxford is faced with a unique problem: so many colleges yields so many social media profiles. While the University’s central social media thrives on platforms like LinkedIn, individual college pages, especially those which are student-run, may not be able to compete with the funding and time poured into their official counterparts.
