Gifts

Giving a Read (From page 71) on their social media platforms. Waters said they promote their gifts to different customer segments by “concise messaging on our website, keeping hot sellers on the forefront and get new items on our web site and on the sales floor as quickly as possible.” At their respective schools, Bradford and McDowell turn to those who know this type of marketing, and its core audience, best—the students themselves. “Everything goes through StratComm,” Bradford said (referring to the university’s Strategic Communications office). “We have a student handling social media right now, and they are doing a great job. We’re trying to freshen it up. We’ve moved to TikTok and some of the other platforms the students are on. We try to keep it fresh, keep it social. It’s brought more students into our bookstore and it’s really helped bring more people to our website, especially if we promote a hot new item.”

McDowell added, “We are definitely trying to grow more into social media. Our brand manager has done a ton of work with this, and I’ve been working with him. We’ve done ‘reels’ for Instagram, and we’re asking the students who work at the bookstore, ‘If you were to see something on Instagram, what would it be?’ We’re asking the students to help us—they know what students want because they are students themselves. We’re taking merchandise outside and taking pictures of it—we have the cherry blossoms in bloom, and [we’re] using different backgrounds. We were also doing stories on Facebook and reaching out to students when we were looking at getting tote bags in. We asked them what kind of bags do you want to see? Some responded with ‘florals,’ or someone else responded with ‘vintage movie posters,’ which I thought was a great idea, although I’d have to research it. Getting the feedback from students has been really great.” ❖