Engagement tactics continued...
The next ‘big thing’ was live video streaming; early adopters being Bournemouth, Leeds Beckett and Sheffield Hallam. Some university broadcasts attracted almost 200 live viewers, which beats most live chat sessions. Birmingham City's decision to provide offer-making via social media generated substantial national publicity. Personalisation proved popular again and the University of Birmingham produced a personalised video for confirmed students. Many, including BPP, Sheffield and Leeds Beckett, published personalised messages and images. Less popular were the social media cover and profile images provided by Leeds Beckett and Northumbria. Almost one trillion 'selfies' were taken in 2014 and universities delivered a variety of creative props, including: cut-out glasses from Northampton; photo frames from Loughborough and Salford; a make your own owl kit from Birkbeck; and a hilarious virtual selfie maker from UEA. Social search and display forumslike Storify and #tagboard (by UCLan) were used to create montages of posts and photographs. Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter are still hugely popular within HE as social networking sites, but 6 Tribes, a new social networking app was pushed by York University.