Instagram ideas on campus

Instagram, the photo- and video-sharing social networking site, marked its third anniversary earlier this month. I looked up some stats on its blog this week: 150 million active members, 55 million photos posted every day, 16 billion photos shared since 2010. It's not the biggest social media site in terms of members, but it's grown enough that it cannot be ignored by colleges and universities trying to reach their varied audiences.

Plenty of schools are online with Instagram, using it to recruit new students, reminisce with alumni and more. And plenty are not; with limited resources, they may feel that even if they know their audience is on Instagram, they don't have enough time/staff to add another social media site to their mix.

One way to help with that is to take advantage of what's already out there, or rather who's already out there: current students. Recent posts on the Social Media for Colleges and Higher Education Marketing blogs highlight just a few examples of schools tapping their current students as Instagram ambassadors. I like the "takeover" idea; I've seen schools do that with Twitter as well, having a student post on the official university account for an hour/morning/day. Even when students are selected with a particular reason in mind, I think it can convey an authenticity that anyone can appreciate.

(Photo from Microsoft Office Images)
(Instagram logo courtesy of Instagram)