Best Short-Form videos in higher education
A Marcom Leader’s Guide to Creating Viral TikToks, Instagram Reels, and Youtube Shorts.
Short-form videos have exploded in popularity over the past few years, revolutionizing how we consume and share content online.
These bite-sized clips, typically lasting anywhere from a few seconds to a minute or more, have become a dominant force on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube.
Their appeal lies in their ability to deliver quick, engaging, and often entertaining content that fits perfectly into our scrolling habits. From viral dance challenges and hilarious skits, to concise educational snippets, short-form videos have proven to be a versatile medium for creators, and a captivating format for viewers.
As this trend continues to grow, many colleges and universities have experimented successfully with various ways of engaging current and prospective students on these platforms and in this article we want to share a non-exhaustive list of some of the best we’ve come across.
Stats on each video are based on data at the time of publishing this article.
Let’s jump in!
New York University Captures Big emotions with User-generated content
New York University
Views: 663k
Comments: 313
Likes: 26.5k
Landmark emotional life moments are the perfect starting point for content that is primed to “pop off.”
This video from NYU shows a montage of user-generated videos (UGC) of prospective students finding out they were accepted into the college of their dreams.
Cutting together footage that’s already emotional is one thing, but adding a trending sound to the mix is gasoline on the fire.
This was NYU’s second top performing Reel on Instagram.
University of Michigan
Views: 622k
Comments: 537
Likes: 31k
U of M jumped on this trend as well and it is to date their top performing Instagram Reel.
2. University of California Professor Delivers New dietary research
University of California
Views: 1.06M
Comments: 1k
Likes: 56k
Going viral with short-form videos can be as simple as pointing the camera (or smartphone) at someone saying something interesting.
This was the case with this Youtube Short featuring UCSF professor Robert Lustig giving a presentation on his research around the affects of added sugar on Metabolic Syndrome.
Your faculty is some of your lowest hanging fruit for short-form video content. Take your phone or video crew to where they are talking about interesting things and cut it up into bite-sized vertical videos.
(If you’re filming horizontally on an actual video camera as this likely was, make sure to frame it with a vertical crop in mind!)
3. Boston University Capitalizes on Valentines day
Boston University
Views: 882.3k
Comments: 91
Likes: 76.7k
Man On The Street (MOS) style videos are highly effective. We see them performing really well across various institutions’ social content. There’s something about the impromptu nature of these videos that comes across really authentic and gets viewers to engage and share.
This video from Boston University is a great example of how to handle holiday-specific content. The interactions in this video being slightly awkward yet touching proved to be a timely concept that produced great results.
We like how they took a typical MOS style video to the next level like by going beyond a simple question and actually creating a whole moment on camera.
4. Moody College of Communication Goes Viral With Their Campus’ Turtle Pond
Moody College of Communication
Views: 8.1M
Comments: 743
Likes: 519
People that are actively looking at colleges to attend have a vested interest in what the campus vibes are like. This provides so many great opportunities for short-form content that is simple to produce. If you can manage to take that a step further and wrap it in a more emotional concept, the message is amplified and relatable to a much broader audience.
In this video by Moody College of Communication we get a glimpse at their turtle pond on campus. But these aren’t just any turtles. They are turtles in love (or maybe just good friends). Pairing this cute visual with a dreamy song and a caption on screen that invites the viewer to put themselves in the turtle’s shells makes for a very shareable video.
One of the top comments is also one of the cutest:
”He sent me this.”
5. University of Florida Lights Up Century Tower At Night To The Tune of Taylor Swift
It started with @EmpireStateBldg
Views: 4.7M
Comments: 3.3k
Likes 753.9k
Did you know the Empire State Building in New York has it’s own Instagram and TikTok? Well, it does and their videos are hilarious. They’re a great account to follow if you want to keep up with trends to spoof.
In this video they flew a drone around the building lit up at night, and put it to a mashup of Taylor Swift songs and posted it on her birthday.
Half the comments are just people wishing Taylor a happy birthday which is a genius way to get people into the comment section and fuel the algorithm. But we digress…
So University of Florida did their own version…
University of Florida
Views: 110k
Comments: 202
Likes: 2.9k
Century Tower is a notable historic building on UF’s campus in Gainesville, FL.
They lit it up at night, flew a drone around, set it to some Taylor Swift music, and let the wind (algorithm) blow where it may, and it did pretty great.
Not bad for a relatively simple video to produce if you have some lighting capabilities and a licensed drone pilot handy.
6. Felician University Shows Off Its Modern Nursing School Tech
Felician University
Views: 135k
Comments: 61
Likes: 10.7k
If your school uses remarkable tech and innovative approaches to teaching, show the world and it might pay off like it did for Felician University.
People in the comments section marveled at the holographic patients, lifelike suture arms, and other cool tech they were either hoping to use one day, or wished they had when they were in nursing school.
One viewer chimed in with “Biggest flex is that I go to Felician… this is literally so cool.”
Talk about igniting school pride.
Speaking of innovative tech… Here’s Bowling Green State University showing off its fleet of meal delivery robots that roam autonomously around campus.
Bowling Green State University
Views: 201k
Comments: 73
Likes: 10.1k
Meal delivery robots. Now this is tech we can all get behind.
Lots of schools have these on their campuses. This is an easy idea for content that is primed to pop off. Especially if you can find fun ways to personify them.
7. University of Sydney Puts a Fun and relaxing Twist on MOS Style Video
University of Sydney
Views: 1.7M
Comments: 313
Likes: 375.1k
There are a several things going on in this video that we think helped it go viral.
MOS videos are popular with the algorithms to begin with.
It has a strong hook.
It has strong ASMR* vibes, triggering relaxation in a percentage of the population that experiences ASMR.
The “manifesting an A for you” is novel and humorous
*ASMR stands for Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response. It’s defined as a relaxing tingling sensation that usually starts at the scalp, and cascades down the back of the neck and upper spine. It is triggered by certain visuals and sounds in the percentage of the population that experiences ASMR. Whispering is a very common trigger.
8. Oxford University History Student Shows A Day In The Life
Oxford University
Views: 224k
Comments: 137
Likes: 11k
Day in the life videos tend to be great for both short and long form videos.
In this video we’re shown a slice of student life at Oxford through the lens of a history student.
This is a simple way to show off the campus, student life, and academic experience all at once in a format that tends to do well with the algorithms.
This is one of those video concepts that we feel schools should be rinsing and repeating.
As we’ve seen from these examples, colleges and universities across the globe are embracing short-form video with creativity and enthusiasm.
The versatility of short-form video allows higher education institutions to address various themes, appeal to different stakeholders, and make complex information more accessible. By adopting this modern medium, these schools are not only staying relevant in the digital age but also finding innovative ways to educate, inspire, and engage both current and prospective students, bringing more and more people into their orbit at the top of the funnel.
Now is the perfect time to play around with this format and begin measuring what is working and what isn’t, and doubling down on the concepts that work as you lead more and more prospective students to discovering the value your institutions brings to the world.
As the landscape of digital communication continues to evolve, and the enrollment cliff rears its head, it's clear that short-form video will play an increasingly important role in higher education marketing and recruitment.
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