Sorority recruitment has remodeled from a secretive course of to massive 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 every day TikTok vlogs sharing every part from their outfits of the day, to what they’re carrying of their baggage, documenting the complete course of till the sororities made their last alternatives.
Audiences worldwide rapidly turned 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 upfront, hoping to make a great 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 participating content material in 2021 has advanced into a strong advertising and marketing engine that manufacturers need in on. As potential new members shared their experiences and gained reputation, in addition they caught the eye of manufacturers.
Scrolling by means of 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 in style posts throughout a key social media occasion.
Past social listening, main manufacturers comparable to 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 beneficial social impressions for Tarte.
Although school college students is probably not 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 collaborating within the feedback part of RushTok posts alongside numerous manufacturers.
As RushTok continues to develop, entrepreneurs will discover extra artistic methods to get in on the motion, and the method will probably proceed to introduce audiences to the subsequent era of creators.