Is YouTube Social Media?

Is YouTube social media?

Is a hot dog a sandwich?

For both of those things — YouTube and hot dogs — a lot of things that would be unsavory individually work together to make something palatable, if not in some ways delicious.

YouTube is composed of videos, comments, opinions, deep fakes, misinformation, divisive, informative, entertaining and, sometimes, quite disturbing content, all combined into one of the most powerful search engines on Earth.

A hot dog’s parts are something best searched with care.

For all the many ingredients that make up YouTube, at its core, is what centers it firmly as a social media platform: content shared by users spreads across a network driven by an engagement algorithm. It’s free to use (the base price is the user’s data) and provides a way for users anywhere to see and add their voices to conversations.

Yes, YouTube is social media.

Save the hot dog discussion for another time.

YouTube Policies for Institutional Branding

YouTube is social media, which means institutional brand messaging on that platform should fall into the realm of the communications and marketing department.

Unfortunately, that’s a patently ridiculous thing to say.

Patrick McGovern describes it this way: 

The fact is, too many departments have their hands touching the brand: for example, Academics, Admissions, Athletics and Alumni and Advancement are all telling their own version of the brand story. Sadly, that story is different depending on the department telling it. And this is resulting in a watered-down, fractured and often confusing brand message. Messaging aside, a decentralized model creates and empowers silos and often the college or university marketing department has no idea what other departments are saying to prospects or the world at large.

Many institutions have social media account non-proliferation processes in place. The University of Michigan updated theirs in December 2023 and “continues to recommend a university-wide freeze on creating new U-M department, program, office, etc. social media accounts.” Sacred Heart University puts it simply, “This form must be completed, submitted and approved before the launch of a new social media page.” The University of Cincinnati outlines a process for new accounts to “be presented to their unit’s leadership for justification and assessment before being presented to Mar Com for strategic review and inclusion on the university-wide social media inventory.”

So, if the new U of Cincinnati account is not approved, it’s not included on a web page listing campus social channels. For Sacred Heart, there’s no mention on the form of what happens if an account is not submitted and approved before launch, but the University of Michigan recommends a freeze.

All these, and the many, many, many more examples of these forms and protocols, illustrate the difficulty of asserting governance over social media within the campus communications network. 

In these cases, there are probably siloed YouTube channels for academics, admissions, athletics and alumni and advancement spread across most higher education communications networks.

And that’s okay. 

Let go of any frustrations or bitterness that goes along with a struggle over governance. Embrace YouTube’s identity as a social media channel. After all, higher education social strategists have always had to make the most out of what they are given.

Use YouTube Shorts Strategically

Making the most out of the YouTube social network begins with what content type is shared there. Of course, that’s video content, but there’s a particular kind of content that’s working particularly well. 

One of the best YouTube features for higher education to use tactically in comms strategies is Shorts. YouTube makes it easy to post a Short. Any uploaded video in a vertical aspect ratio that’s fewer than 60 seconds automatically becomes a Short.

By adding carefully curated Related Video suggestions at the end of Shorts, admins can influence user journeys on YouTube, keeping viewers engaged with branded channel content.

The downside to this tactic is that the Shorts thumbnail is currently not customizable. This can lead to some awkward facial expressions used as the display image. So, check carefully after posting. An unflattering image on social media can break trust with the people who make themselves vulnerable appearing in school content, resulting in a ‘no’ the next time there’s a great video story to tell with that person.

Shorts have a separate feed, look and feel on the platform, and they are growing in popularity. Statista reports that Shorts had 70 billion daily views worldwide in the 4th quarter of 2023. Higher ed strategists facing the enrollment cliff and seeking ways to engage Generation Alpha ignore Shorts at their peril.

Social Media Familiarity 

There are a few features of YouTube that make working on the platform feel very familiar to admins, revealing more of the traditional social media aspects of YouTube.

A very robust Community tool creates a kind of in-platform feed for followers to engage with both brand content and videos shared by other campus creators. As YouTube describes it, “Community posts can include polls, quizzes, GIFs, text, images, and video. Community posts can allow you to connect with your audience outside of video uploads. They show on the Community tab, and may show on Home or the Subscriptions feed.”

This is a great way to tap into all of the other YouTube videos that are being shared in all those silos around the institution and to embrace the proliferation that McGovern describes above. Does athletics stream games? Great, into the Community feed it goes! Webcams from research sites or field workstations? Perfect. A student vlogger shares final exam products? Get permission, and share them widely!

YouTube profile pages are also extremely customizable with what playlists are featured on a profile page, bringing together videos of similar themes and a way to bring new context to old videos. All those old campus tours can be part of a ‘retro tour’ playlist, and commencement playlists and news stories can be gathered by years and shared during reunion or homecoming.

There’s also significant design and creative work that can bring a strong branded look to any YouTube channel. Some videos were probably produced before the latest brand re-imagining and could be updated and re-shared outside of YouTube or brought to the forefront as a featured playlist.

Make YouTube Brilliant, Avoid Pitfalls

There’s a lot more to YouTube. It takes concerted effort and planning to make a channel into something brilliant. But there’s one part of YouTube that no one likes to talk about, just like there are things in a hot dog no one wants to think about.

For YouTube, that’s the video comments section. These can cause so much head and heartache. 

So turn them off.

Turn off comments on higher education YouTube videos. No good can come of having the comment section available on that platform for whoever has something to contribute to the online dialogue.

They’re the burned part of the hot dog that stayed too long in the campfire. They’re not helpful. 

In the end, that’s what higher education social media is for, including YouTube — to be helpful.

Social media helps students decide where they’re going to invest their time, money, energy, emotions and imagination. YouTube helps show that story and complements how things like viewbooks tell that story.

And like hot dogs, YouTube should be one of the first things put on the grill at a social media cookout. Audiences will eat that social sandwich with a smile on their face.