Camosun College Increases Engagement Through Unibuddy and a Student-Centric Strategy

Challenge

Higher education is constantly confronted with the need to evolve and appeal to new generations. Embracing new technology and giving a voice to students have become essential for institutions to thrive. Camosun College, situated in the heart of British Columbia, Canada, and serving a community of over 1700 international students, is an organization that has risen to this challenge.

Camosun College heavily relied on in-person events, tours, and presentations as their primary marketing strategy. However, when the pandemic hit, they had to put a halt to their face-to-face approach, causing a significant decline in student engagement. As Antonio Rivadeneira, International Recruitment Specialist puts it, “The pandemic served as a powerful catalyst, causing us to rethink our strategy and adjust to the digital landscape. It challenged us to find a creative way to engage with prospective students in a virtual environment, and put their needs first” 

It was at that point when Rivadeneira and Daniel Zeldin, Associate Director at Camosun College, realized the importance of embracing a new piece of technology that could sustain the student experience. Zeldin shares, “Leveraging the student community is invaluable to growth and success; prospects should be able to learn about student life at Camosun directly from an authentic source and feel confident doing so online. We just had to find the right platform to help us do this.”

Solution

Rivadeneira was introduced to Unibuddy through an email campaign, and learned that the platform had the power to support peer-to-peer connections virtually. “I was particularly impressed by the platform’s emphasis on the student perspective and having safe conversations digitally, which was exactly what we were looking for.” Excited by the idea, Rivadeneira and Zeldin quickly adopted the platform. 

Camosun College found the onboarding and integration process to be collaborative and straightforward, due to the prompt support and helpful resources provided by Unibuddy. Within just 8 days, the platform was integrated on their website and ready for prospects to engage with. “When we developed our Unibuddy program for ambassadors, the level of enthusiasm to begin connecting with prospective students and using the content capabilities was remarkable” Zeldin shares. “Our students contributed over 35 pieces of user-generated content across the platform, and we’ve been thrilled to see prospective students leverage and engage with these resources.”

Camosun actively started promoting Unibuddy across their marketing campaigns and student recruitment strategy. “We recognize that this generation already spends a significant amount of their time online. So we reshare ambassador user-generated content, link to our Unibuddy Chat page and promote ambassador profiles across our social media and digital communications. This helps us share the right resources, in the right places, at the right time.”

Result

The integration of Unibuddy created noticeable change in Camosun’s student engagement. Since implementation, Camosun has had 727 prospective students use Unibuddy. As a direct result of their interaction with an ambassador, 42 of those students went on to officially apply. 

“Thanks to Unibuddy, we’ve successfully facilitated 1,071 conversations and had over 13,439 messages exchanged.” Rivadeneira further explained that students who engaged with ambassadors through Unibuddy were eager to become ambassadors themselves, completing a full-circle experience. 

Additionally, according to a recent survey conducted by Rivadeneira on social media, Unibuddy played a significant role in influencing the enrollment decisions of 17 out of 42 students who joined Camosun College. Zeldin shares, “Unibuddy is one of the strongest tools in our student recruitment and marketing strategy. Compared to other CRM initiatives we run, students seem to be far more engaged using Unibuddy and far more likely to enroll.”