Great Social Media Idea: Instagram Campus Tour

As is true for many of you too, I'm sure, the responsibilities of managing social media at a college inevitably includes admissions work. Engaging with prospective students on all platforms, answering their questions, connecting them to resources on campus... we do it all.

But as much as we like to think our awesome Twitter replies and Instagram comments seal the deal, really some of the most important ways we do admissions work is simply by showcasing our campuses with beautiful photos. We have to make our college look like a place that students can see themselves attending. At the same time, we also have to make sure that it doesn't look too polished or too airbrushed - kids these days are experts at sniffing out things that stink of marketing. 

So what's a social media marketer to do? As Kenyon College shows us, student bloggers and Instagram can come to the rescue!

I've died and gone to listicle heaven.

 A campus tour using Instagram pics, in listicle format. I've died and gone to heaven! This is an absolute dream of a blog post for breaking through the short attention spans of today's high schoolers. Major, major props to student blogger Mia Barnett for putting this together.

Of  course, it is also an ideal vehicle for alumni to get their nostalgia on, which is a lovely little ancillary benefit. And last but not least, it can be a great way to promote your Instagram presence (something that presents some real challenges).

Best of all, if you've had a campus Instagram account for a while, you probably already have most (if not all) of the photos you would need for a project like this. Re-purposing content is always, always preferable to creating it new. 

Thanks to Kenyon for sharing this idea, and again - kudos to Mia Barnett for creating it in the first place.