Sorority recruitment has remodeled from a secretive course of to huge social media enterprise.
Within the fall of 2021, sorority rush on the College of Alabama took TikTok by storm, successfully changing into RushTok. Throughout that recruitment season, sorority hopefuls posted each day TikTok vlogs sharing every thing from their outfits of the day, to what they’re carrying of their luggage, documenting the whole course of till the sororities made their ultimate choices.
Audiences worldwide rapidly grew to become captivated by the method, selecting their favourite recruits to observe and root for. To this point, the hashtags #BamaRush and #RushTok have 4B and 2B views, respectively.
Potential new members (PNMs) curated their social media feeds months prematurely, hoping to make a superb impression. Some PNMs who documented the method through TikTok used the week of occasions to jumpstart careers as influencers, persevering with to ship (generally branded) content material to the audiences amassed throughout recruitment.
It’s not simply the potential recruits utilizing social media to make an impression — the chapters additionally use social media as a recruitment instrument. Loads of RushTok movies additionally showcase extremely choreographed dance routines and friendship-based content material to woo potential new members.
How RushTok Turned A Advertising and marketing Engine
What began as partaking content material in 2021 has developed into a robust advertising engine that manufacturers need in on. As potential new members shared their experiences and gained recognition, additionally they caught the eye of manufacturers.
Scrolling via the feedback of RushTok movies, the accounts of main manufacturers are amongst these rooting for sure contributors. It’s a easy social listening play to garner visibility within the remark part of widespread posts throughout a key social media occasion.
Past social listening, main manufacturers resembling Hire the Runway and Amazon, together with native Alabama manufacturers just like the Pants Retailer took issues a step additional by working with RushTok creators on sponsored content material offers.
Final 12 months, cosmetics model Tarte despatched free merchandise to 90 sororities and 100 sorority hopefuls who obtained excessive engagement whereas utilizing the hashtag #RushTok. The transfer generated helpful social impressions for Tarte.
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Although faculty college students will not be each firm’s goal demographic, the RushTok viewers spans wider. Customers of assorted age teams and backgrounds have been locked into recruitment content material for the previous three years and are actively taking part within the feedback part of RushTok posts alongside varied manufacturers.
As RushTok continues to develop, entrepreneurs will discover extra artistic methods to get in on the motion, and the method will seemingly proceed to introduce audiences to the following era of creators.
