Bringing student-to-student community marketing to St. Olaf College

The challenge 

One of the main draws of St. Olaf College is its culture of community and the prospect of broadening students’ horizons. Roy Cady-Kimble, Assistant Dean of Admissions at St. Olaf College, was keen to introduce the St. Olaf philosophy from “day one of being admitted” and to provide students with a taste of what they would experience as a student at the college.

Each year, St. Olaf College hosts a series of admitted student weekends in spring for students to meet and mingle. Although well-attended, these events have been missing a vital online component and unintentionally isolating international students who were unable to attend these events.

In 2019 and 2020, like many other institutions, St. Olaf College was forced to close its campus doors to visiting students due to pandemic restrictions. This prompted St. Olaf College to adapt to new virtual strategies to continue to engage their student cohort online.

The solution 

“We weren’t doing a lot of student-to-student community marketing type things, and I think of this [Unibuddy Community] as the missing puzzle piece,” said Roy.

Then, along came Unibuddy Community. The platform granted St. Olaf College the space it needed to facilitate organic conversations and authentic connections.

Roy and his team worked to facilitate chats between students with similar interests. Some examples of the groups they created included: “Athletics and Active Life at St. Olaf,” “Music at Olaf,” and “Clubs and Activities, A-Z.” They also worked to build communities amongst those that are often marginalized, with group chats such as “Diverse Abilities and Accommodations on Campus,” “BIPOC at Olaf,” and “LGBTQIA+ at Olaf.”

The groups were diverse and varied, reflective of St. Olaf’s attitude towards their student body: “It’s all about students being able to see themselves reflected in these groups,” said Roy. His goal was to ensure each Community topic echoed this sentiment. They even offered students the ability to suggest their own groups through a “Suggest a group” chat within their Community in case they felt anything was missing.

Although eager to allow the platform to be shaped and driven by the students themselves, St. Olaf College was grateful for the oversight and management they were able to maintain as admins: “It is helpful to be able to clear up misconceptions and make sure that the conversations being had are healthy, and nothing offensive is being said.”

The results 

“We have seen actual, realized connections through Community that have bled into the real world,” said Roy.

In the first three months, more than 300 messages were exchanged and 100+ St. Olaf admitted students connected with one another.

One stand-out moment for St. Olaf was when they saw two students meet at their admitted student event, who’d previously met on their Unibuddy Community LGBTQA+ group chat. They spent the entire day together at an admitted student weekend throughout the day’s sessions.

Stories like these continued as the day went on. Roy recalls many of the students at the campus event recognizing people they’d met online, with many recalling they’d “met you through the university Community.”

Not only does St. Olaf have great stories to tell, but they’ve also seen tangible results.

After introducing Unibuddy Community to their orientation strategy, they saw a 4% increase in yield, with more students moving from accepted offers to depositing. A clear win after a 3% decrease the year prior. They attribute this U-turn in yield to increased engagement from students online.

Impressed with the initial success they saw through Unibuddy Community, St. Olaf College plans to continue using Community to engage their admitted students between January–May each year.