Great Social Media Idea: Acceptance Letter Hashtag

Another day, another post about a social media promotion from another school that perpetuates my slow by steady acceptance of the sad realization that I will never do anything this awesome. Because this, what I'm posting about today, is freaking awesome.

#IUSaidYes is a hashtag created by the University of Indiana admissions office, and it is featured prominently on the packets sent to prospective students who have been accepted. Here's a report about it (and other Indiana college's social media efforts) from Jon Blau of the Bloomington Herald Times.

The real power of this hashtag, of course, is looking up the hundreds upon hundreds of tweets and Instagrams of future Hoosiers using it. I mean... it almost makes me sick how good it is. The IU Admissions office has its own Twitter account, which is uses to engage with and congratulate everyone using the hashtag.

As we all know, prospective students these days apply to more and more colleges, spreading the net wide and seeing which schools come through with the most competitive scholarship packages. Which means that the competition for students is getting ever more fierce, especially for the best and the brightest. 

I would never be so cavalier as to say that a student will make his or her college decision based on social media stuff like this - there are much bigger factors at play - but I would be so bold as to say that I think it can make a difference. Getting kids exciting about a college they have applied to and helping them feel a real connection to it aren't nothing, right? And if you can encourage them to be posting on social media about it - where all their friends and family see it - it becomes that much more "real." So I absolutely believe promotions like this are a worthwhile endeavor, and this is a truly fantastic example.

We are all so old and grizzled now that we can forgot how big of a deal it is to be accepted to college. It is the culmination of years of hard work, and the promise of an exciting future ahead. It's one of the major accomplishments of their lives, and anything we can do to help them feel even more proud of the accomplishment is a good thing, I think.

So major props, Hoosiers!!! (Also props to the jokesters on Twitter using #IUSaidNo - got to love kids with a sense of humor and humility!)