Why I Would Never Run My Sorority’s TikTok Again (Exclusive)

Gone are the days when sorority recruitment only mattered to those rushing; now, the whole world is watching — with an especially keen focus on Southeastern Conference (SEC) schools. As summer winds down and university life picks back up in August, TikTok turns into #RushTok. Social media feeds are flooded with prospective new Greek life members vying for a spot in their top-choice house.

The viral, annual trend started with “Bama Rush” in 2021, when sorority hopefuls — also known as potential new members (PNMs) — started documenting their experiences with sorority recruitment at the University of Alabama. The TikTok posts range from lighthearted “outfit of the day” videos to students’ candid reactions to rejection and drama behind the scenes.

#RushTok continues to compel social media users on a global scale, and as a result, digital presence has become a crucial, top priority for sororities, especially in the South.

While PNMs post about their individual recruitment preparation and daily rush routines, sorority social media managers are tasked with producing content that speaks for the whole house. They can’t simply ride on the charm of their sisters, either. Such videos often take the form of highly produced dances fitted with themed costumes and props. made to convince any incoming freshmen that they need to join that specific sorority.

This digital output often serves as students’ first impression of a sorority, so the rollout doesn’t wait for summer to set into recruitment season. Instead, social media managers are expected to start the content blitz when their university sends out its earliest acceptance letters — and according to one former social platforms director, the pressure is on and high.

“The second those freshmen get in, it’s game time,” says Sofia Varon, a senior at the University of Florida. “And you need to make sure every single post is perfect.”

Last year, Varon, 21, balanced her school work as a public relations major with her duties running all social media accounts for her sorority, Alpha Omicron Pi (AOII). She’s since passed the torch to another capable sister, though Varon admits to PEOPLE that she’s relieved not to manage AOII’s front-facing pages anymore.

“It’s just a lot of work. No one I know would ever do it again,” she says with a laugh, referring to her fellow PR major friends who also ran their respective sororities’ social media. 

Social media has indeed become a high-stakes aspect of Greek life, and not just because of the uptick in interest due to Bama Rush hype. It’s a sorority’s outward identity, says Varon, how a house presents itself to the outside world, people with little to no knowledge of a specific campus culture.

If executed improperly, a poorly received post could knock the organization’s reputation to some extent, and it could cost them worthy new members.

“If someone doesn’t like the identity, they don’t want to be categorized like that,” adds Varon. “It’s just a lot of pressure to make sure everyone’s happy, but not everyone’s going to have the same exact style and aesthetic.”

The content creation process isn’t as simple as picking a concept and then hitting record on an iPhone. The dances, costumes, songs and settings are selected months in advance, tied to the themes of “Work Week,” the pre-rush period when sorority members practice recruiting PNMs.

Varon says that during Work Week, each member of her sorority is expected to be at the house at 7 a.m., ready with their hair and makeup done. Each sister will have spent months shopping for the perfect outfit based on the daily theme, but if someone is wearing a really standout ensemble, her social media chair will select her to participate in a social media video. 

“While you’re learning about recruitment, we’d pull you aside if you were going to be in a TikTok video dancing,” Varon explains. The members with dancing experience are often sent the routines to learn before they even arrive on campus.

“You have to come up with all the concepts for videos, and you pretty much have to send them in beforehand. It’s not only during sorority recruitment,” Varon notes of her pre-rush planning during her tenure as the social media director.

If done right, the results of all that preparation are impressive to say the least. Varon points to a video AOII put out in August 2024, which wrapped around two key tentpoles: their Lollapalooza-themed day and a partnership they secured with beverage brand Poppi.

The TikTok sees a number of sorority sisters clad in brightly colored festival-inspired outfits, bouncing to the beat of Lil Mama’s 2008 hit “Lip Gloss” in front of their house. At the center of the group, five members wore bright smiles and flipped their ponytails along to upbeat choreography.

“This one took a lot of time … We just looked like we were having a good time during recruitment, you know?” Varon recalls. The video reached over 160,000 viewers, which does indicate some viral success, though AOII’s most viral TikTok hit over 519,000 views, yet another dancing clip produced by Varon last year.

But from her perspective, looking appealing as a group of friends is more of the goal than garnering the most online engagement. “You just want to make sure that everyone thinks that we’re fun,” Varon says of the social media strategy. “It’s not necessarily about going far, but just having a really good vibe that everyone would want to be a part of.”

That said, in this ever-so-digital day and age, going viral does make for an undeniably “good vibe.” Sorority administrators may not put pressure in regards to views and likes, but passionate sisters want to see that win for the sake of impressing more prospective members.

“If it goes viral, then probably the people in recruitment are going to see it and they’re going to be like, ‘Oh, that’s a cool video,'” says Varon. “If a video went viral, that’s cool.”

Ultimately, social media has become a high-stakes aspect of Greek life, and not just because of the uptick in interest due to Bama Rush hype. It’s a sorority’s outward identity, says Varon, how a house presents itself to the outside world, people with little to no knowledge of a specific campus culture.

If executed improperly, a poorly received post could knock the organization’s reputation to some extent, and it could cost them worthy new members.

“If someone doesn’t like the identity, they don’t want to be categorized like that,” adds Varon. “It’s just a lot of pressure to make sure everyone’s happy, but not everyone’s going to have the same exact style and aesthetic.”

After recruitment, once rush is over and pledge classes are compiled, most of the sorority can step back from TikTok dance rehearsals and the general content creation grind. The same can’t be said for the sister heading social media. In place of coming up with colorful, creative video concepts, a manager like Varon will then assume the task of keeping sorority profiles updated.

“There’s a lot of other things that you have to do. For example, there’s about 400 girls in my sorority, and you need to do a birthday post for every single one of those girls,” she tells PEOPLE. Almost every single day, Varon would check whose birthday it is, compile their photos and create an Instagram-friendly shareable graphic on Canva to celebrate the sister.

“It would get really, really stressful sometimes, just because a lot of people are depending on you. If I had a busy day, no matter what,” Varon reflects. “I would just do it early in the morning or late at night.”

This July, the AOII took to her personal TikTok account to explain why her previous role as the head of social media director is the proudest line on her resume.

“I’m pretty confident that’ll always be the hardest job I’ve ever had in my entire life,” she said in her recent video, which has over 114,000 views. “That was actually like going to war; it just really set me up for life.”

Speaking to PEOPLE, Varon elaborated on her claim, positioning the role against more standard, “real-world” employment.

“When you have a job, you realistically have one boss or maybe a few people ahead of you that you pretty much have to make proud,” she says. “In a sorority — yes, we’re all really similar and we all get along — but everyone has their own vibe and their own aesthetic.”

In Varon’s experience, that meant almost every member had a different opinion about how the sorority’s pages should look. She could spend hours curating an Instagram post that she was really proud of, and she still anticipated someone suggesting she should’ve done something differently.

This summer, Varon put her social media and communications savvy to use interning at a PR agency. Naturally, she was able to apply what she learned running AOII’s pages in the professional landscape, but her very role in the sorority actually helped her nab the job in the first place.

No, she didn’t interview with a former Alpha Omicron Pi or meet any bosses at a sorority networking event. After she started her internship, Varon asked her boss what made her stand out among other applicants. As it turns out, the agency previously hired two different women who once ran social media for their sororities.

Although those employees moved on to other companies as their careers advanced, Varon’s boss formed a sense of respect for women who volunteered for the demands of sorority social media administration.

“She just thought, ‘You understand pressure,'” Varon says, remembering the conversation with her boss. “It might sound silly if you haven’t been in a sorority before, but they knew that I understood every single detail matters.”