Engage with King's on TikTok
January 26, 2021
Dr. David Malloy, King’s Principal, has taken part in a social media trend and recorded a sea shanty as a way to lift the spirits of the King’s community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The short video was filmed by the Thames River and featured Dr. Malloy playing guitar while singing a shanty written by King’s Digital Content Coordinator Chantal Quagliara.
It has been the most popular post on the King’s TikTok account with over 1700 views and over 100 likes. A link was posted to Dr. Malloy’s Twitter account and received praise from musician Alan Doyle. It has also garnered mainstream media coverage, including Ken Steele's The Eduvation Blog.
The post from Dr. Malloy has helped to grow the King’s TikTok account to over 250 followers. The account has had thousands of views on the nearly two dozen videos that King’s has posted. Videos have helped communicate events such as OWeek, Choose Your Major, King’s Virtual Open House, the Off-Campus Don’s BBQ, Christmas, Halloween, and even International Coffee Day and the first major snowfall of the year. The TikTok account has also provided inspiration and support during the COVID-19 pandemic with stress relief tips and empathy posts.
Led by a research project started by Communications Interns from Fanshawe College and Western Continuing Studies, King’s Communications Department launched a TikTok account @kingsatwestern this past August, in an effort to enhance the engagement with students and the community while having fun with short video.
A communications plan for King’s TikTok was developed last summer by Communications interns Dina Ibdah and Chloe Balmer of Fanshawe College’s Graduate Certificate in Public Relations and Corporate Communications program and Farnaz Kouchaki of the Marketing Post-Degree Diploma program of Western’s Continuing Studies. The interns researched the use of TikTok, especially among other institutions of higher learning across Canada, and made recommendations about the introduction and use of the platform for King’s specifically. Student Social Media Squad Leader and fourth year Disability Studies and Thanatology student Elizabeth Hauspie has worked with King’s Digital Content Coordinator Chantal Quagliara to create and post content to TikTok. Former Communications work-study student Amer Ajjawi, 4th year College transfer, also assisted in the TikTok content development. Quagliara has supervised the overall implementation of TikTok for King’s.
“What I like about King’s being on TikTok is it gives that community feel to students, during COVID-19 its nice to see student faces and interact. It really shows students that King’s is a community,” says Hauspie.
“We need to meet students where they’re at, and right now, TikTok is one of those places. There are a number of diverse social media platforms that can help us connect and share information with a wide variety of audiences. Different platforms appeal to different people which is why it is important for King’s to utilize a variety of social media channels to communicate,” says Quagliara.
King’s has implemented this emerging social media platform as a way to engage students with events and initiatives taking place within the King’s community in a fun and whimsical fashion. It will complement our other social media channels including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Snapchat.