The semester is the season
- Move-in in August is the biggest marketing moment of the year. Thousands of students are learning the town at once, from their phones.
- Football Saturdays at Brooks Stadium bring alumni and families into town.
- Breaks (fall break, the long winter break, spring break) empty Conway out while the beach stays busy or quiet on its own schedule.
- May graduation brings families, then summer Conway is quieter than the rest of the Grand Strand.
Every fall, a new audience
Each year’s new students have never heard of you. Your Google listing, your reviews and your Instagram are their first impression, and many of them will choose a barber, a coffee shop or a Thursday-night spot in their first two weeks. Make sure all three are current before move-in, not after.
Where students actually look
We DJ and run VYVE at Conway’s college bars most weeks, and the busiest nights there aren’t only the weekend. Plan posts around the nights your crowd actually goes out, not a generic Thursday-to-Saturday schedule.
- Instagram and TikTok, especially stories and short video showing the place full.
- Google Maps, when they’re deciding where to go right now.
- Group chats and friends, which you reach by being worth posting about.
- Not Facebook, which is where you reach their parents and the rest of Conway.
Under 21
Much of a campus audience is under 21. Alcohol promotions should be kept to audiences of legal drinking age using the platforms’ age settings, and drink specials need to follow South Carolina’s alcohol rules. Promote the food, the music, the events and the space to everyone, and the drinks only to those who can buy them.
Written by Nikita Huttenlocher, founder and lead engineer at Huttenlocher Technologies, a web design and software company in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.