Newcastle University: creating a thriving social community

A Russell Group university with a proud track record of research and student employability, Newcastle University is located in one of the UK’s most student-friendly cities.

Newcastle University wanted to make big strides on social media, but they needed a helping hand in creating something that would be noticed.

Pickle Jar was brought in to develop a strategy that would put social media to work in marketing to students, and in the space of 12 months we increased their Facebook community by over 1400% without paying for a single advert or creating “gimmicky” campaigns.

Building on audience research, stakeholder engagement and benchmarking, we recommended a course of action that involved humour, character and a range of social media channels. The ultimate aim was to use social media to showcase real student experience at Newcastle University.

We managed these channels for over a year before helping the University to recruit the new in-house social media team. During the project we managed the community, created content and developed and delivered campaigns for key events such as visit days and clearing.

Image by Sarah Cossom / King’s Walk on Newcastle University, 2013 / CC BY-SA 3.0.