Sunday, November 1, 2015

7 Awesome Ideas to Kick Your District Instagram Account into High Gear



1. Back Stage Pass

Do you have a big, awesome event each year? Why not show off all the hard work it takes to get this event ready for the big day. 

People love to see stuff they are not supposed to see. We all crave that backstage pass to the New Kids on the Block, right? I am sure your fans would go equally as crazy to see volunteers and your staff putting the extra effort to make you event a success.

Not only will parents and students share pics of their favorite teacher, but also people love to share pics of they take. What an excellent way to get engagement on your Instagram account.

2. Construction Progress

Are you building a new school or putting an addition on one of your campuses?  Let the public know of its progress through Instagram.  They did pay for.

A "Construction Picture a Day" on Instagram informs the public of their investment.  Cool pics of architecture and the building functionality will help your community get behind your construction.

For even more engagement, get your campus or district leaders to pose in the pictures with their hard hats on.  Get creative, and show-off your new learning facilities.

3. Fine Arts Gallery Showing

This is one of my favorites. Not everyone can get to all of your events, and there are many talented, young artists in your district. Why not display their talents using a digital online Instagram art gallery.

Post a piece of artwork a day for the biggest bang for your buck. Tag your posts with engaging hashtags and link the picture back to your fine arts website.   On the fine arts website, you can have the whole gallery for your community to view.

4. Instant Replay of Football Game

This is might take two people to make this work.  During a football game take action shots of exciting plays or crowd interaction.  Have the second person make notes of each shot so you can put them in chronological order on your Instagram account.

When the game is over, post the pics in order of when they happened and call them "Instant Replay on Instagram". It’s a great way to recap your Friday night football games for the community and fans that missed the game.

Don’t forget to take pictures of the band, cheerleaders and drill team.  They are an important part of the game as well.

5. Alumni Hall of Fame

The community wants to know their investment (tax dollars) is paying off. Instagram is an excellent tool to post pictures of how your alumni are impacting the community and making a difference in the world.

Do you have doctors who fight cancer? Do you have heroes in the armed forces? Do you have business people making a difference? Do you have alumni who are teaching in your district? Show them off to the world.

6. Attendance Zone Shots

This is a cool idea I thought of to inform parents and the community in your district where their neighborhood schools are located.

Gather your school mascots and have them take pictures all across the district in neighborhoods and in front of local business and city landmarks. In the pictures you take, have the mascots hold a sign that lists the schools students would attend if they lived in the area where the picture takes place.

This is an awesome way to make your community aware, but also shows off the beautiful areas of your city.  Now city Instagram accounts will share your pictures for higher engagement.

7. Fan Submitted Images

Now last, and certainly not least, you must showcase user submitted photos. I would even setup a separate Instagram account to showcase these pics.

Fans are more likely to share their own pictures.  They want to show off they were featured and it was their own shot.  You can even have a contest for the best user submitted picture of the week or month.  Have some fun with this campaign. You could have themes of the week to help get certain type of content on your account.

Always make sure you get permission to use the pic.

Do you have any other awesome Instagram ideas? Leave them in the comment section below.

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