By tyler Clifton, Newswire Live Show Manager

The Muskies have decided to renegade their way onto the TikTok scene.

The university has created a TikTok account in an effort to highlight the Xavier experience in a way that would better connect with the next generation of students. 

The account was created by Digital and Social Media Strategist Steph Fiorelli in December 2021. She believes it gives the university a good way to connect with current as well as potential students.

“We’re trying to show that Xavier is a fun place to be, to show the fun things that you can do in and around the Xavier community. We want to help people have the best possible experience during their time at Xavier,” Fiorelli said.

The account contains a wide variety of content on theme with current events, such as Ash Wednesday and Mardi Gras. Found at @officialxavieruniversity, many videos star the Blue Blob. 

During the Bengals’ Super Bowl run, the account featured multiple videos about how to enjoy the games in a dorm. The videos included how to make Skyline Chili dip, how to have a watch party on a college budget and recommendations for Bengals-themed treats to enjoy during the game. 

Another video showed clips of what life looked like at Xavier the last time the Bengals made the Super Bowl, with “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” as the audio.

Fiorelli aims to showcase the Xavier community. A Jan. 12 post highlighted the student section during the men’s basketball game against Villanova. 

The most popular video, posted on Jan. 23, plays off all the ways that people mispronounce “Xavier.” Some of the comically incorrect pronunciations included “Egg-zayver” or “that school for mutants.” This TikTok received approximately 10,000 views and 400 likes.

Fiorelli explained that there are times when a video posted might not get a lot of traction on TikTok; however, when the video is reposted on Instagram, it can receive more views.

“We’ll get 15,000 to 20,000 views on Instagram reels for a video when we typically get around 1,000 views for it on TikTok,” Fiorelli said. “It comes down to figuring out how to play the algorithms best in order to get the content out there to people.”

Fiorelli added that she would like to have more current students take part in the creation of these videos moving forward. As a Xavier alum, she noted that she understands the Xavier experience as it was during her time as a student but feels it is important for current students to bring their experiences to the forefront. She hopes this would allow videos to resonate with the intended audience in a better way than before.

Students interested in producing or helping to generate TikTok content can contact Fiorelli via email.