Most people are already on WhatsApp regularly, so it’s ideal for group chats since you can easily share pictures, videos, and documents there. Many international students are also more likely to use WhatsApp as they’re able to use their international number with it and Facebook isn’t as popular in many other cultures. How you use WhatsApp will be down to your specific CU. Some ways will work better than others for your CU. Here are some different ways you could use WhatsApp in a CU context:
A big group chat for everyone in CU where anyone can send a message. This is ideal for smaller CUs as it helps people stay connecting with each other on a more personal level. This might also be a better option for small CUs connecting with new students rather than using a Facebook group.
It’s also helpful for quick messaging, asking for help at events, impromptu meet ups, and can help build up a core community. And it also means that, as people join throughout the year, they can be welcomed personally by people in the group.
It can work well for medium-large CUs, but you may find lots of people don’t comment because they don’t know everyone and may feel shy. It’s also very easy for announcements to get lost among lots of different messages. If it becomes quite active, some people may put the chat on mute, meaning they may miss any future announcements.
In a chat’s settings, there is the option that only admins can send messages in group chats. This could be the committee, Impact Group leaders and any other leaders you want. This is a helpful way of promoting and reminding people of events, posting links and media, and broadcasting any other notices without the worry of it getting lost. Perfect for a large CU.
It does mean you lose the community aspect of a group chat and can make it harder for people to respond to messages because they’ll have to contact someone directly.
You could have both this and an open group chat, which would be helpful for a medium size CU so they have a balance of both community and announcements. To make someone an admin, add them into the group, go to the participants list, click on the person you want make admin and select ‘make group admin’.
A dedicated group just for new students in the lead-up to and just after Welcome Week. It’s a great way for them to connect with each other, ask for advice, and build friendships. This is ideal for medium-large CUs where you might have a bigger group of new students joining.
We would recommend deleting this group chat a some time after Welcome Week to encourage new students to be involved in wider CU chats, getting to know other people in the CU and avoiding cliques being made.
WeChat is similar to WhatsApp and is mainly used by Chinese students. You may want to consider creating an international student group chat via WeChat rather than Whatsapp as it will be more familiar to them. We recommend talking to someone who is familiar with WeChat before doing so.
Top tip: be cautious of having too many CU group chats. Don’t try to do all of the above options; it will feel overwhelming and people are more likely to put them all on mute, which means they’ll miss the point of having the group chats in the first place. Carefully consider what might work best for your CU.
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