TikTok, Bumble, others are working with university student as brand name ambassadors

Companies like TikTok and Bumble are working with university student to work as brand name ambassadors on school. These tasks pay much better than common college tasks like food service and retail — and offer important profession experience.

Students state they have actually found out about marketing, material production and management while working as brand name ambassadors — and grown their network by getting in touch with other school agents throughout the nation. And, in a hyper-competitive internship and task market, brand name ambassador experience is one method to stand apart, the trainees stated.

 “My life changed because of the TikTok ambassadorship program,” stated Bita Motiie, a senior at the University of North Texas studying marketing. 

Motiie has actually been working as a school agent for the social networks platform considering that the fall of 2019 and states it assisted her recognize her interest in branding and structure online neighborhoods — and boost her profession.

“I have had so many new job opportunities,” Motiie stated. “Even the place that I currently work at, they specifically hired me because I had experience as a TikTok brand ambassador.”

Campus ambassador programs benefit brand names, too. A research study by Jonah Berger, a marketing teacher at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, and research study company Keller Fay Group, discovered that 82% of customers were most likely to follow a suggestion made by a micro-influencer (an individual with more reach than the typical individual — though not a star — in a really particular classification or group like university student).

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“These programs are a win-win proposition because they give valuable exposure to brands while students gain marketing experience as they move closer to graduating,” stated Julie Jatlow, a partner at Fuse, a firm that runs college ambassador programs for TikTok, Amazon and other brand names.

Depending on the business, school ambassador responsibilities usually consist of publishing material on social networks, giving out product or samples, hosting top quality occasions and connecting to trainee companies.

“Finding creative and passionate students who have qualities that specifically align with the brand’s DNA is paramount,” Jatlow stated. “We’re always looking for proactive students with drive and enthusiasm.”

Student agents are usually compensated by an hourly rate or a regular monthly stipend, and able to deal with their own schedule. Wages for school ambassadors vary from approximately $15-25 per hour, according to task posts on work site Indeed. That’s well above the per hour rate for tasks typical amongst university student such as food and drink service, which pays around $11 an hour, and retail sales, which pays around $13 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“It’s a lot more flexible than a standard work-study job,” stated Cedoni Francis, a 2020 graduate of Vanderbilt University who worked for brand names consisting of TikTok, dating app Bumble and beer business Anheuser-Busch when she remained in school.

Francis, who is now an associate item marketing supervisor at Google, stated her experience in school ambassador programs assisted her establish abilities like time management and stakeholder engagement.

Her experience with TikTok, in specific, offered her a refresher course on viral marketing, proficiency that she utilizes in her present task.

“It’s a good primer,” Francis stated. “There are certain things that other people need to be taught how to do that I don’t need to be taught how to do.”

Peter Corrigan, associate director of company and alumni connections for University of Arizona’s Student Engagement and Career Development, stated working as a school brand name ambassador assists trainees construct crucial abilities.

“Students strengthen communications skills as they talk to a lot of people trying to create brand awareness on campus,” Corrigan stated. “It stretches students out of their comfort zone and gives them sales experience with companies they may want to work for.”

Candice Nguyen, a third-year public administration trainee at Drexel University, represents brand names like Bumble, Victoria’s Secret Pink and Red Bull on her school.

Like Francis, Nguyen stated her work as a school ambassador equated into expert experience. She just recently finished an accreditation in task management and is interning full-time in a job management function.

“I realized a lot of the work I’ve been doing was project management, like running events and being able to supervise and coordinate with teams,” Nguyen stated of her brand name ambassador experience.

Michigan State University senior Montserrat Lewin Mejia got her start in school ambassador programs as an agent for retail brand name Rent the Runway throughout the 2nd term of her junior year prior to the Covid-19 pandemic closed down the program. She’s now a brand name ambassador for Bumble and style start-up Qatch.

 As an engineering trainee, Mejia stated school brand name ambassador programs presented her to the world of influencer marketing and assisted her understand brand-new profession objectives.

“Since I’ve started doing all this, I have a really big goal of potentially becoming a full-time influencer,” Mejia stated.

TikTok school agent Tatum Riley, a junior at Duke University, sees how college ambassador programs assist construct brand name awareness. Riley and her fellow brand name agents on school attempted to “personalize the promotion” by catering occasions and outreach to Duke trainees particularly.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are financiers in Acorns.