Rotex is a society of past Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) Alumni Association

Article by Rotex 9790 President Lauren Murphy

At the beginning of the new Rotary Year our new social media coordinator Tegan Murphy decided with the support of other board members to start a Rotex 9790 TikTok account. This idea came after attending a Rotex international workshop regarding media presence which mainly focused on how different social media platforms connect to different audiences. The account was made in hopes to engage other Rotex members while also promoting Rotary Youth Exchange to the target age demographic through short videos, and skits made by Rotex members.

Rotex is a society of past Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) alumni that engages with current Inbounds and Outbounds to better their exchange experience overall.

We started the account started with 14 follows, all being Rotex members and our first video received around 400 views over the course of a few days. Which according to our research was fairly consistent compared to other Rotex club videos around the world. We started brainstorming unique ways to approach new videos by followed trending music, hashtags, and dances to see what people were watching to ensure our videos could compete with the thousands of videos that are posted daily.

Our second video, which featured Rotex president Lauren Murphy showing photo highlights from her exchange to Switzerland in 2017 to a trending sound, some would say went “viral”. The 10 second video was watched 50,000 times in the first 24 hours and is currently sitting around 450,000 views only a few months later. The video has received 95,000 likes and inquiries from countries such as United states of America, United Kingdom, South Africa, Spain, Italy, and Germany.

This sudden impact was very overwhelming. We needed to quickly respond by answering questions and by creating a LinkTree account (a tool which allows you to share multiple links within one link) which included links to apply now, find your district (for international inquirers), Rotary Youth Exchange Australia information, as well as our other social media accounts. Since the video was posted we have had over 16,000 clicks on the link, which has led to hundreds of Youth Exchange applications worldwide.

We have since posted 6 other videos all of which are sitting over 2,000 views. We are continuing to develop new videos to connect, engage and promote Rotex and the Rotary Youth Exchange programs for our almost 8,000 followers. This is one great example of the positive effect social media has and how it can be used to promote Rotary Youth Exchange and engage the target audience so they can experience the joy and benefits of a Rotary Youth Exchange.

You can check out our video here; https://www.tiktok.com/@rotex9790/video/6988335445545389314?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id6942663063524099585

Visit our profile and see our other videos here https://www.tiktok.com/@rotex9790

or check out our other social media here, https://linktr.ee/RotexDistrict9790