Lee Harmon was looking for something exciting to do while studying at UB when he came across the opportunity to be a campus representative for Speakiesy.
Speakiesy is a new app that combines aspects of Instagram, Twitter and Yik Yak but it is only accessible for college students. This app was released in September by MOKO Social Media, a multimedia platform developer, so that students can communicate with a community solely based at their school.
This app serves as a new form of social media for students to post statuses, photos and videos to stay in contact with their college campus.
Harmon, a senior business major, picked a team of five other students to serve as UB representatives with him based on how well he thought they would perform on the task at hand.
“The attraction the app has is that it is solely for the campus it’s on,” Harmon said. “By only having access with the .edu feature, only UB students can use it making it more exclusive to our school.”
In order to create a Speakiesy account and assure users are college students, students must have an .edu email to sign up.
Students don’t follow one another on Speakiesy like on other forms of social media because users already can only see posts from other users on his or her campus.
The app deletes posts after 90 days so students can post and not have to worry about it being on the Internet forever.
John Davis, a senior economics major and campus representative, enjoys the opportunity Speakiesy gives him to post weird, questionable things and not have to worry about anything ever coming back to “haunt” him.
“It really gives everyone a chance to stay in the loop in an easy way,” Davis said. “With most other apps, you don’t get that privacy. It only shows other people from the same school, you really can post with less concern than you would have to on about every other networking site, app there is today.”
Davis said the app differs from other forms of social media because people without a UB email can’t see students’ posts and it’s an easier way to stay connected with your friends and campus.
“Twitter and Instagram are so broad with friends from all over, the point of this app is to give people a way to stay relevant and informed at a school-based community level,” Davis said.
Joe Lycon, a sophomore business major and campus representative, said his job is to get as many people as he can to sign up.
“I have to post material on the app according to the hashtags they send me out each week,” Lycon said. “I need to try to get other people posting on the app as I can.”
As it was recently released, Speakiesy is not yet popular at college campuses. But the representatives believe that its popularity will slowly pick up with time.
“I think this app will become very popular across larger college campuses,” Harmon said. “While our use is picking up, I feel larger schools are having the most success due to their larger focus on school sports, spirit and a larger Greek life community.”
Davis has been on the app since it first launched and has seen the amount of users the app has accomplished so far exceed his expectations. He is excited to see where this app will be in another month from now.
Dani Guglielmo is a features editor and can be reached at features@ubspectrum.com.
Photo: Courtesy of Tracey Drury
