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 day by day TikTok vlogs sharing all the things from their outfits of the day, to what they’re carrying of their luggage, documenting your complete course of till the sororities made their last picks.
Audiences worldwide rapidly turned captivated by the method, selecting their favourite recruits to comply with and root for. So far, 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 very good impression. Some PNMs who documented the method by way of 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 Grew to become A Advertising and marketing Engine
What began as partaking content material in 2021 has advanced into a robust advertising and marketing engine that manufacturers need in on. As potential new members shared their experiences and gained recognition, additionally 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 members. It’s a easy social listening play to garner visibility within the remark part of common posts throughout a key social media occasion.
Past social listening, main manufacturers akin to Lease 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 acquired excessive engagement whereas utilizing the hashtag #RushTok. The transfer generated priceless social impressions for Tarte.
Although school college students is probably not each firm’s goal demographic, the RushTok viewers spans wider. Customers of varied 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 inventive methods to get in on the motion, and the method will probably proceed to introduce audiences to the subsequent era of creators.