From the Nominator

Throughout the fall semester, the University of Michigan (UM) encouraged its students to vote in the 2024 election. UM social media included details about the two on-campus voting hubs, the new nine days of early voting in Michigan, and election day logistics that had changed since the 2022 election cycle. UMSocial continuously worked to relay this information in creative ways, including a video of a dog touring both voting hubs, an “Outfit of the Day” Instagram carousel with UMich Votes apparel, a reel highlighting various “I Voted” stickers, and more. While election-centric content was posted across platforms, a significant portion of our effort focused on Instagram to reach our students. This digital campaign, which did not have any paid components, included 74 pieces of original content and an additional 34 posts in partnership with UMich Votes (a non-partisan campus coalition whose mission is to improve the accessibility of voting). This content reached 1,711,023 people, achieved 781,454 video views, garnered 44,039 engagements, and led to 4,698 link clicks to the UMich Votes website. A total of 14,932 voters exercised their right to vote at the hubs, and 6,373 in-person voter registrations were processed (a 63% increase from 2022). The leaders of UMich Votes referred to our strategy as “a critical piece in voter turnout success” and said “there’s no way we would have reached these numbers without UMSocial.”

From the Judges

This was an awesome way to encourage students to vote early. Great metrics, student engagement, and results!