Great Instagram Idea: Post a Facebook Gallery!

You know how the question "If you could pick one superpower, what would it be?" will often pop up in those "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you" Q&As? Most pick flying or invisibility or some such nonsense, but me? I'm going with the Zack Morris Timeout every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Why? More on that later. (A reference to "The King and I" and "Saved by the Bell" in the same lede paragraph? It's writing like that that keeps the masses coming back, my friends.)

Real talk: I love Instagram. I think it's brilliantly suited for engaging with the ever elusive prospective/current student crowd, and I'm increasingly bullish on its prospects for we higher ed social media mongers as Facebook continues its frustrating slide into the sole terrain of soccer moms and grandmas, Twitter continues to be better suited for big brands, celebrities, and media outlets, and YouTube continues to be primarily cat videos. (Not that I'm complaining... I mean, cat videos!!!) And, you know, I hear that smart phones are going to be huge. I even wrote a previous post about How to Launch an Instagram Page in 13 Easy Steps. 

One big challenge with Instagram, however, is the difficulty in spreading the word about your page within the platform itself. Though advertising is coming sooner rather than later, other than liking/commenting your little heart out on Instagram itself, there really isn't an effective way to encourage people to follow you on Instagram other than promoting from external sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. 

ZACK MORRIS TIMEOUT:  This may be a bit too personal, but what is a blog if it doesn't pull back the curtain a bit from time to time. Over the past several weeks, I find myself unable to talk about Instagram without thinking about the "Numa Numa" song. Yes, that "Numa Numa" song. (Please, as if there were another "Numa Numa" song.) For reasons unexplained, I can't help but sing "Insta Insta Gram, Insta Insta Insta Gram!" to the "Numa Numa yay, Numa numa numa yay!" part every time Instagram comes up. And now, I imagine, so will you. See what I mean? Wouldn't this be the best superpower ever?

So props to Yale for this devastatingly simple idea: collecting some of the most popular Instagram photos, posting them in a Facebook gallery, and encouraging people to follow on Instagram.

All together now: "Insta Insta Gram, Insta Insta Insta Gram!!!"

Instagram does offer the capability to cross-post onto Facebook when uploading, but as someone who is always cautious about the amount of things I post on FB (probably overly so) , I rarely use that feature. Doing it this way allows you to easily show off some of your greatest hits from Instagram (rather than piecemeal) while hitting a large audience in one fell swoop. Why I never thought of this idea, I really can't say. I do have my moments of brilliance ("Insta Insta Gram, Insta Insta Insta Gram!" comes to mind), but really the only explanation is that I clearly fall into the "Those that can't do, teach, and those that can't teach, write social media blogs" category.

But like any good magpie in that somewhat sad but persevering category, I immediately stole the idea and posted my very own "Best of Instagram" gallery on the UP Facebook page today. I picked 20 photos and made sure to comment on each one with a link and call to action to follow UP on Instagram.  (Pro tip: Use the eminently useful website WebStagram to download your Instagram photos if you don't have them saved on your phone or computer. Seriously, that website is just fantastic. Big ups to the developers.)

Since I posted that gallery earlier today, I've gained a solid 30+ bump in followers (about a 2.5% increase overall), and I expect more to roll in over the next few days. Not bad at all. 

So thank you, Yale, for showing once again that the very best ideas are often the most simple.