COVID-19 challenged institutions and long-practiced ceremonies around the world. Many US colleges were forced to cancel in-person commencement ceremonies and moved online. Alexander Hamilton Scholars (AHS) did not think this type of celebration was enough for their students, most of which are first generation college students. As Marketing Manager at AHS, I spearheaded efforts to hold a supplemental Virtual College Graduation for our scholars graduating from colleges around the country.
I outlined the program, enlisted my team to record and send me video clips, collaborated with former Washington State Governor Gary Locke to deliver the commencement speech, recorded my own videos as MC for the video, edited everything together, created a marketing campaign, and navigated the "Premiere" feature on Facebook to host the Virtual Graduation video.
I created an email and social media campaign beginning two weeks before the premiere of the Virtual Graduation video, shared with the entire Hamilton community, including students, donors, volunteers, and high school counselors.
I was able to grow my skills in social media scheduling and understand flexibility of livestreaming on Facebook, using the "Premiere" function, which allowed followers of the page to receive reminders and alerts of the video premiere date.
The premiere went smoothly, and the video, once archived on AHS' Facebook page, is one of the top 5 most viewed videos AHS has posted and has the highest level of engagement on any post ever.
This video campaign also helped to strengthen the scholar community and reconnect Hamilton scholars who had lost touch during undergrad!