Story By: Stephen Solomon
Photos By: Ljubica Basic
A growing trend across college campuses is the use of social media. Missouri Western has many different social media accounts in use. From main university Facebook and Twitter pages, to the pages dedicated to specific sports. Keeping up with the trend, Missouri Western has now incorporated a geofilter on Snapchat.
Geofilters are filters that can be added to a picture on Snapchat that can only be accessed at a specific location. These filters are a way Snapchat users can share their location with their followers in a unique and creative way.
Alex Atkinson, a student worker for the Office of Admissions, was beginning to plan Griffon Edge, a three-day orientation for incoming freshmen, when he learned that many other universities used geofilters on Snapchat to help students interact with each other. Wanting to give incoming freshmen this same opportunity, he took it upon himself to begin the process of creating a geofilter for campus.
Creating this geofilter was no simple task. With the help of the Campus Printing and Design office, Atkinson was able to design and submit a geofilter for Missouri Western to Snapchat.
“When you submit your geofilter to Snapchat, they don’t accept or reject your application directly,” Atkinson said. “Awhile after we submitted, we received an automated message that told us our geofilter was rejected. But for some reason, they didn’t tell us why we were rejected. It took a few weeks of trying to finally submit a filter that was accepted.”
After many hours in the design room, Missouri Western finally had a geofilter on Snapchat.
Adding a geofilter for Missouri Western was more than just something to keep the university up-to-date with popular social media trends. This allows anyone on campus to share their location with their followers in a new and exciting way. With this geofilter, anyone can share their experience on social media, and show others they had this experience at Missouri Western.
This geofilter has been more than just a fun way to share experiences at Missouri Western. It has become a tool used to help recruit new students.
“Lets say a student comes to Missouri Western for a tour,” Atkinson said. “They post the geofilter on their Snapchat Story. Then their friends from high school see the Story and the filter, which in turn will give them a sneak peek into life at Missouri Western.”
Unfortunately, there is no way to quantify whether or not this geofilter has brought new students to campus; however, most students are pleased with the geofilter option.
“I love it,” Drew Crist, a sophomore at Missouri Western said. “Now anytime I use Snapchat, I can show my friends I’m on campus. I’ve actually found out my friends were on campus because of their using the filter and it’s made me seek them out so we can chill. So I really like it.”
So next time you send a Snap while on campus, make sure you add the Missouri Western geofilter.