Recruitment Through Social Media

With college decisions coming out over this past month, social media has been flooded with not only acceptance letters of the young seniors, but with campaigns and, ultimately, advertisements from sorority girls across the nation.  Originally, sorority recruitment was a week long process that began a week before school. It was an equal playing field. Girls would tour houses and base their decisions off of who they met and which house they found the prettiest. But, in todays digital age, recruitment begins the moment you post you were accepted into college. 

An entire industry has been created out greek life recruitment.  Companies are paid thousands of dollars to showcase a group of 200 girls the best they can in a video or to manage their social media. One company in particular that is on the rise is CollegeWeekly. CollegeWeekly is basically a PR firm for greek life across the U.S.  They create and post content across college campuses. Another, that has been around a tad longer is Total Sorority Move, a sister website to the infamous Total Frat Move.  They write articles and rank greek life. Highschool girls begin seeing these posts and "ads" for sororities before they even apply to colleges. 

One of the biggest platforms for sorority promotion is Tumblr.  Tumblr is an endless feed for sororities to show case that they have the most fun, the prettiest, the sweetest, the most adventurous girls. Sororities push their Tumblr pages out to the world via other social media platforms to get their name out there. So now, when girls come through rush in August they know "I want to be a Zeta, KD, or ADPi" (all of which are just examples. 

Our digital age has changed the game for sorority recruitment. Millenials are spending more money now than ever on content creation - and all just so they can boast that a website find their group of 200 girls the "hottest" or "top tier." Quite silly if you ask me, and I'm the one who writes the thousand dollar checks for my sorority.  

UGA Exchange

Before spring break I was racking my brain trying to find ways to come up with some last minute

money for Spring Break. I already have a job, but am only able to work one or two days a week and I

considered Plato's Closet, but I feel like they kind of rip you off. I mean last time I sold to Plato's closet, they gave me $7 for a BCBG shirt that was originally $50 something dollars. Anyways, I was talking to my friends who use Ebay and they said it's really only helpful for high priced items.  Then, one of my friends suggested I post somethings on UGA Exchange. I had no clue what that was.  

UGA Exchange is a secret Facebook group with girls from UGA that sell and search for clothes.  My friend added me to it and I was introduced to a whole new world of resale. For a second I was worried because I saw more things I wanted to buy, but I took photos of my clothes and posted them. Within a couple hours girls messaged me asking if they could try on and bidding on it with different prices! Within an hour I sold two items and had $50 in my pocket for spring break!  I also saw a cute Victoria's Secret swimsuit top for only $5 that completed my spring break swim wardrobe. 

Spring time is also formal season.. and wedding season. So girls are in a constant search for gowns and nice dresses, which in the real world run for pretty high prices. On UGA exchange there is a plethora of discounted gowns! I mean like "beat the outlets" kind of prices. Girls who have worn $400 BCBG gowns one time resell them for $100. I am a junior and I sold my freshman and sophomore year formal dresses on there, which allowed me to afford a new formal dress for this year! 

UGA Exchange is a great idea. It connect people in the same area in search of the same things.  It has even developed its own lingo.  People will say "ISO" when they are "in search of" a certain item or "OBO" for "or best offer" if they don't know if their item will sell at the listed price. I buy or sell something at least every two weeks. It is a huge community with over 2000 members.  If you're interested in being added, just comment below! 

Twenty-First Birthdays

Today marks the last 21st birthday of one of my friends - thank goodness. Now, I don't mean that in a negative way, but a lot more goes into a 21st birthday celebration than would would think. You have to get balloons, create a sign, plan a party, bake a cake, make jello-shots, post a "HAPPY BDAY, ILY" Instagram, and much, much more.

Let's start with the sign:

This sign marks a milestone in a young lady's life. Believe it or not, this sign will be with her for the rest of the night. If you aren't quite sure what sign I'm talking about, think of an Thursday through Saturday in downtown Athens where you saw a girl with a cut out poster board in a shape of food, an animal, or a flower with the worlds "Name's 21st!" These things take weeks to design and create - trust me I'm making my 9th one right now! It wasn't until my junior year that I fully understood the point of these things. The sign is usually something funny or cute that depicts you - your favorite thing. For example, tonight's birthday girl LOVES Sour Patch Kids, so her sign is in the shape of a Sour Patch. When it is one of your friends' 21st birthdays, expect your timeline to be flooded with photos of her. EVERYONE wants to take a photo with the sign.

Next, the Insta post:

If you don't post it didn't happen.  There are two kinds of posts on a 21st birthday. First, the sentimental, obligatory post that shows the world you are the 21st birthday girls best friend - oh and of course to make her feel special.  These are the photos that flood anyone in your circles new feed all night. The second kind is the birthday girls post. Where she goes to the local liquor store, in Athens it is almost always 5 Points Bottle Shop, and posts holding her license and a bottle of something. It is basically her right of passage.

As I prepare for my ninth 21st birthday celebration tonight, I reflected on all the other ones.  Social media has played a huge part of every single one.  Aside form the obligatory instagram posts, there are the 21 second mystory on the checklist, the Facebook event to invite everyone to your pre game, and the "hey, the birthday girl lost her phone last night, lmk if you find it" post (which we have always recovered the next day).

Thank you social media, for making 21st birthdays worth it.