It's Gonna be May
(🎵 Must be sang to the tune of *NSYNC - It's Gonna Be Me 🎵 )

How to be an Insta success 

Suppose you ask a group of higher ed social media managers to rank the most effective platforms for reaching the priority audience of prospective students. You may get a variety of different answers as far as the exact ordering — and the debate may devolve into a marcomm melee — but nearly all of them will agree that Instagram sits atop the list. 

Although it is wise for every institution at this point to have a paid Instagram strategy, today let’s talk about some tips for optimizing organic content that you may not be leaning into as much as you should:

• Collaborate: It's arguably the best feature Instagram has implemented in recent years: two accounts essentially posting to their feeds at the same time. Use this function with school leaders, other units' accounts and campus influencers. 
  
• Reels: Vertical video still reigns, and it's never been easier to make catchy videos thanks to templates available right within the tool. Aim for at least a third of your posts to be Reels. 
  
• Carousel posts: Now that Instagram has scaled back its obsession with throwing Reels in your feed, photos are making a comeback — especially multiple photos in a carousel. 
• Tagged content: Ensure you allow this in your account settings. It’s the easiest and best way to find great user-generated content you can repost. 
  
• Relevant captions: We all love a fun, snappy caption, and there's definitely room for those, but it's important to remember that the Instagram algorithm is looking at the text of your caption — as well as alt text and hashtags — to decide who sees your content.
• Pinned posts + story highlights: Make sure you are utilizing these functions and don't forget to update them every so often so they don't seem stale.

Twitter: Do you stay or do you go? 

Sometimes it feels like we talk about Twitter ad nauseam in the Social Minute. But the future of the platform weighs heavily on all of  us, and we know institutions are still struggling with what to do. A recent blog post we wrote may help provide clarity for you. The tl;dr version: Don't ditch Twitter yet. 

This is perhaps my favorite week in higher ed: Excitement is building on both sides of the on-campus journey, with students getting ready to decide where they are attending school officially. National Decision Day is celebrated  on May 1 and graduation momentum is in full swing for many institutions. Not to mention, many campuses look their best in the spring and exciting summer plans are in the works for students and faculty.

So take this time to look around and soak it all in. Let’s remind ourselves that the enthusiasm and potential in the air right now is why many of us do what we do. And yes, of course, make sure you capture some of that energy and bring it to life on your social media channels. 

Around the socials

> Hard times are here for social media and web 

> You can now add up to 5 links to your Instagram bio

> Twitter makes advertisers pay for authentication

> Confessions of a Higher Ed CMO podcast: Sarah talks influencer marketing

RWJ Social helps higher ed institutions shape social strategy through a variety of services, including influencer engagement, benchmarking, monitoring and more.

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