There are many opportunities to celebrate holidays. We have broken it down to the ones we will cover on the institutional Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Awareness and Appreciation Months
This list incorporates existing traditions and activities that are hosted by other units and programs.
Black History Month
Women’s History Month
Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Mental Health Awareness Month
Pride Month
LatinX Heritage Month
Native American cultural event
ECC Festival
Non Denominational U.S. Holidays
There are a small number of national holidays that we participate in. Our activity will be driven by the quality of content that is developed. These are subject to change.
When Instagram rolled out this feature, no one really knew how to use it. But they are getting popular with lots of fun features. They’re a great way boost your Instagram game. We’ve been using it more frequently and have seen great progress.
Stories are a great way to grab followers’ attention for a short period of time. Want to get more likes on one of your posts? Want to share a post you like? Post quick updates? Share a cool video? This is where you can do that.
Highlights are a great opportunity to archive your stories. When we post to our Story, we think about which highlight bucket the content will ultimately be saved under. That way we aren’t just posting a story that doesn’t connect with our followers. At the institutional level, our goal is to showcase the Oregon State experience, and Stories do that.
We have found success in using Stories for event or gameday coverage. These truly capture what it’s like to be part of #BeaverNation. We have also seen people engage with our fall, winter and spring highlights. By simply grabbing boomerangs, photos and videos you can produce a great Story.
Additionally, the perfect length is about 4-8 slides because people will just skip past you if the story is too long. You want to make sure to have a good hook at the beginning and your followers will love it! Check out Sprout Social’s Instagram Best Practices if you still want to learn more.
Next up, going Live:
The key is to have a goal in mind. Are you going to answer follower questions? Or are you going to showcase an event or are you going to go live with someone? Once you have that figured out, you can execute a plan of how your live will go.
The feature is pretty easy to use and here are some tips we’ve learned:
Post an Instagram story a couple days and hours before you go live —this way your followers know it’s happening.
Save your live after it’s done. It will stay on your profile for 24 hours and people can revisit it.
Instagram live will cut you off after one hour. So make sure you keep track of the time.
Make sure you have a tripod or a secure place to put your phone when you go live. You don’t want to move your phone too much or it doesn’t make for a fun live.
Better lighting always helps.
Make sure the phone is charged.
If you want to do a Q&A, check out these helpful tips. This feature is engaging and allows you to connect with your audience. You’re able to pick questions you want to answer and won’t have to read the comments as they roll in.
Check out how to go live with another Instagram user here. If you have a student or researcher, this might be a fun way to interact.
Both these Instagram features are a great way to connect with your followers. These are becoming more popular among brands and helps up your Instagram game. Go have some fun!
