USAC works to increase student engagement through social media
USAC council members have various ways of keeping students informed, such as through officer updates at weekly meetings. (Laura Uzes/Daily Bruin)
By Rupan Bharanidaran
Nov. 1, 2016 11:23 p.m.
Celina Avalos worked three hours a day on undergraduate student government social media campaigns this quarter.
Avalos, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president’s office, is one of many staff members who works to advertise USAC initiatives. USAC offices spend significant time and resources reaching out to students about the various programs they spearhead, but they do not always engage as many students as they would like.
Several council members said they think it is important to keep students informed about USAC activities, but reaching students who do not ordinarily interact with USAC is difficult.
USAC President Danny Siegel said student government offices have to constantly work to inform students of their work because a new class of students enters the university yearly.
“We’re not on a 24-hour news cycle – we have to bring attention to ourselves,” he said. “We have to use a lot of different mediums, like the Daily Bruin and social media, to constantly … get the word out on our work.”
Cultural Affairs Commissioner Amy Shao said she thinks USAC offices sometimes neglect student engagement because they assume that students follow student government already.
“It’s true that once you are in that USAC bubble, you think everyone knows what’s in that bubble,” she said. “But we are not the center of campus – we have to go outside that bubble and meet with different student groups and go to more non-USAC events.”
USAC External Vice President Rafi Sands said he thinks there is no single way to engage with students. He added he thinks the BruinsVote! campaign was successful because it used multiple methods to reach students. BruinsVote! is a coalition of campus political groups and the EVP office that registered more than 10,000 students to vote.
“We have to meet students where they are,” Sands said. “For BruinsVote!, we used social media, we knocked on every door on the Hill, we flyered on Bruin Walk, we did whatever it took.”
But USAC members’ most common way to engage with students is through social media.
Every USAC office has a team dedicated to handling the office’s social media presence and other outreach efforts, said USAC Publicity Chair Sara Zaghi.
Claire Fieldman, press secretary for the USAC Office of the President, said USAC offices use social media to make their work more transparent. She said the president’s office gives regular updates about its work on its website and social media.
“If we are able to promote student awareness of everything USAC does throughout the year, we can better maintain USAC’s relevance to students and remain accountable to the student body,” she said.
[Read more: USAC Office of the President creates database for easy access]
Avalos, who led social media efforts for the BruinsVote! campaign, said she tried to make the campaign’s social media posts more personal. She said the posts featured students sharing stories on why they registered to vote and what the election meant to them.
“I think making the social media more touching makes it more meaningful to students,” she said.
The campaign reached about 7,000 people through social media, Avalos said. She said the videos received an average of 200 views each, with the most popular one receiving 5,000 views.
Some student government staffers and council members said they think engagement with students can sometimes be unsuccessful.
Siegel said he thinks USAC events are not always well-attended because it can be difficult to find and target interested students.
“You have to be clear how you market things, whether you post stuff on the Hill or do posts on social media,” he said. “When you have 30,000 students, it’s hard to reach out to everybody.”
Jack Guo, the director of the USAC President’s Committee of International Relations, said the committee often has difficulty reaching out to international students.
“The majority of international students are not part of campus organizations,” he said. “So we have to come up with different ways to reach out to the (greatest) number of international students.”
[Related: USAC holds forum to address international students’ concerns]
Guo said that in September, the committee organized a video to welcome international students to campus. They hired students from the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television to direct the video and invited cultural groups to participate in it. However, the video received only a few shares and likes.
“We’re still not sure why the video did not do (well), but we just have to try different, more grassroots approaches,” he said.
Some students said they receive updates about USAC because friends of theirs are involved with student government.
Rachel Santos, a third-year biology student, said she receives information about USAC activities because one of her Facebook friends is involved in USAC and frequently posts on social media.
“I’ve never actually met this Facebook friend – I actually met her on the Class of 2018 Facebook page,” she said. “But she helps keep me informed because I don’t really take the time to inform myself on USAC activities.”
Winona Noronha, a first-year undeclared student, said that as a freshman, she feels she has not been reached out to enough.
“Honestly, I think they could do a better job of personally interacting with more (first-year students),” she said.
Mac Heravian, a second-year molecular, immunology and molecular genetics student, said he sees a lot of Facebook posts related to USAC during election time, but hears very little about USAC after the election.
“I think the problem with engagement is two-fold, and that as students we should also try to learn more about USAC,” he said.
