Liberty Dining by Sodexo explores social media during pandemic

For the Liberty Dining marketing team, a typical April would be filled planning end of school year events. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, the team has turned to social media to engage residential students now studying at home and honoring essential employees on the frontlines of a crisis.

As the Centers for Disease Control and federal government officials established guidelines in the early weeks of March, social media coordinator Tobi Laukaitis said the campus dining team worked quickly to post safety measures to be immediately implemented.

“We knew this was a very fluid situation and our students, as well as their parents, would have concerns and questions,” Laukaitis said. “Our team worked closely with Liberty University officials to quickly disseminate information about new policies such as takeout, social distancing, and cleaning procedures.”

Using Facebook, Instagram Stories, and Twitter, weekly updates about COVID-19 changes were posted so students remained in the loop. Social media accounts were checked around the clock to answer direct messages.

Laukaitis said they also wanted to highlight Sodexo’s employees who were serving the remaining students and staff on campus. Using the hashtag #PeopleofLibertyDining, portraits of employees were taken at their locations and employees were asked to share a word of encouragement for students.

“The feedback was incredible, especially from parents, because I think it reassured them that their students were safe and taken care of,” Laukaitis said. “We received some of our highest engagement on those photos. I know our employees miss our students too, and I think it was also a good outlet for them.”

The marketing team also saw the crisis as an opportunity to explore new platforms. At the end of March, the team launched a Tik Tok account. Already the account as gone viral with a third Tik Tok receiving more than 293,000 views and 23,000 favorites.

“Gen-Z engages with brands differently than millennials,” Marketing Manager Ryan Wheeler said. “Because the majority of our student population falls in that category, we saw Tik Tok as a great way to interact with them like never before. It’s also a great way to introduce lighter content that isn’t related to COVID-19.”

Wheeler believes that a situation like this creates lots of opportunities for brands to get creative with their content. “Our customers are sitting at home, consuming more social media than ever before. If you’ve ever wanted a time to reach your base, now is certainly that time.”

Liberty Dining continued Student Takeovers on Instagram, encouraging students to talk about how they’re staying healthy at home, as well as create video recipes with campus chefs so students can practice their culinary skills.

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Editorial Contact: Jennifer Toone Corrigan, In Toone Communication, 401-258-8830, jtoone@intoone.com