Temple Student Government added Snapchat as its newest social media platform Sept. 18. One of TSG’s initiatives at the beginning of the semester was to add another way for students to interact.
“It was a way we could make it personal for people,” Ben Palestino, manager for social media, said.
The purpose of the Snapchat account is to interact directly with the student body, inform students of current events happening around Main Campus, and show different perspectives of Temple life.
Included in TSG’s “snaps” are pictures from football games, events like President Theobald’s cookout on Sept. 18 at the Founder’s Garden, and even squirrels around Main Campus.
“[We] want to make it very broad in what people can send to us and what we can send as well,” said Brittany Lewis, director of communications. “Every aspect of Temple – we want students to see that whole package.”
Lewis runs the Snapchat account with Palestino.
In the first three days, the TSG Snapchat garnered around 90 followers.
“We basically want to get it out to as many current students, prospective students and alumni as we possibly can,” Palestino said.
Lewis and Palestino said that TSG’s purpose is to act as a voice for the student body and to advocate for changes on campus.
One such change Palestino said Snapchat can be used to advocate for is a potentially smoke-free environment on campus.
“If a student is seeing a bunch of people smoking and the air doesn’t look too well, they can Snapchat a picture of that to us and it could give us information on how to make things better,” Palestino said.
Students studying abroad in London have also interacted with TSG’s Snapchat account.
“It isn’t limited to Main Campus,” Lewis said.
TSG posted the snap from a student studying abroad on the TSG Instagram account. “That led to people seeing that TSG has a Snapchat,” Palestino said. “It was good advertising for us.”
Companies outside of TSG are using Snapchat as an additional marketing outlet along with other social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter.
According to mashable.com, Taco Bell used the app in May 2013 to inform consumers of the return of the Beefy Crunch Burrito. Karmaloop and Grub Hub used Snapchat to alert customers of current sales and coupons.
Jalen Blot, director of campus life and diversity, said that his interaction with TSG’s Snapchat account is “just like [interacting] with anybody else.”
Ray Smeriglio, student body president, said a Snapchat account would “[make] it a lot more fun for students to see what [TSG] is doing outside of the suit-and-tie meetings every day.”
Lian Parsons can be reached at lian.parsons@temple.edu
Be the first to comment