Social Media Success Story: Ask Big Questions – Virginia Tech

Ask Big Questions is an on campus organization that helps college students get to know themselves and their peers through asking life’s Big Questions. A Big Question anyone can answer, which differs from a hard question. A hard question takes prior knowledge and expertise to answer.

As my regular readers know, I consult Ask Big Questions on their social media strategy. This year I am working with individual campus groups of Ask Big Questions to help them tell their story using social media. Ask Big Questions at Virginia Tech is hosting an event as apart of Native American Heritage month. Their event is centered around the question…

“Indigenous and American Indian Heritage: How Do We Balance the Value of Tradition with the Need for Change?”*

The goal of this Ask Big Questions conversation is to inspire students to talk about their own heritage in addition to learning about Native American Heritage.

My advice to this group was to ask someone of Native American Heritage to join their conversation, which is taking place on November 4th. I also suggested that they feature their story on their Facebook Page on the days leading up to the event. I knew that whomever they chose to feature would share the post with their friends on Facebook. Below is an an actual post from the Ask Big Questions Virginia Tech Facebook Page.

At the time of this posting, this post has 35 likes, 3 shares and was seen by 393 people. All by a page with 163 Likes. This is what makes social media so magical.

What can we learn from Ask Big Questions – Virginia Tech?

. Beautiful imagery is the way to go. The above image is not your usual type of Facebook Image

. Feature someone on your page, they’re likely to share it

. Facebook allows 63,206 characters, Twitter allows 140. Don’t be afraid to use all of them

. Use your social media to tell a story. Tease your event at the end of the story encouraging your fans to learn more

As I started working with this group, we planned out their posts to feature stories of people who would take part in their conversations. I’m happy to be able to use my social media knowledge for social good. It also gives me pleasure to know that I can help a non-profit achieve social media success.

Want to learn more about Ask Big Questions? Check ’em out on Facebook , Twitter or askbigquestions.org

*This question is not by definition, a Big Question. The students were suggested this it by one of their professors.