Instagram — what “we” want vs. what “they” want

What happens when you focus on what the people want 

Raise your hand if you’d had to retweet or post something on a social media account that didn’t make much sense to you. [Everyone raises hand … at least I assume I’m not in this boat alone.] You probably asked yourself: “Why would we do this?” but then do it anyway, because there is little you can do.

What would actually happen if that content a university wanted/needed to post was thrown out the window — and we just posted what people wanted to see?

Weird, right? It is odd.

I know what you’re saying — this isn’t strategic. Wrong. It’s very strategic. Deciding when something isn’t successful, doesn’t fit the medium or won’t engage the audience well enough is tough. When someone brings you content for Instagram, it’s really tough to tell people no, especially if they have the best of intentions.

In turn, when you stay true to “the people,” you develop a quality of content like never before.

And, really, you begin to use social media like other people use social media. In a time when businesses and marketing firms are trying to out-clever each other, I’ve found it’s just better to be as real as possible — and this allows for that.

I once read that Instagram was the “next press release,” and I just haven’t found that to be the case. Research findings aren’t usually photogenic. Professor awards? Nah. Big donation? Probably not. The hardest thing to do would be to find a way to make these things Instagrammable … and if I didn’t have 1 million other things to do, I’d sure love to. What I’ve found is that it’s just as tough to decide that this type of content just isn’t for the medium. And in our case, it really isn’t for Instagram. Our audience is so specific, that type of content plays much, much better on Google+ or Twitter.

So often, for example, we focus on putting a video together of a smart student researching something. Is that student doing something visually appealing? Something with movement and action? If not, then why is this a video? It’s likely better suited as a photo/audio/text story. Same is the case with social media in my mind.

And do people really want to see this on Instagram anyway?

Here’s what I did:

1. I spent last summer experimenting — posting all types of photos like stuff you’d see in admissions materials, athletics photos, photos students took themselves, etc.
2. Then, I went back and analyzed how each of these photos performed by looking at which received the most likes, comments and followers after posting the photo.
3. I talked to some of our followers who most often post using the #WVU hashtag about what they’d like to see and how they use Instagram. These were students, prospective students and young alumni for the most part. Honestly, I didn’t spend a lot of time with this, but it was more so an opportunity for me to confirm what I had learned in 1 and 2.

That allowed me to learn a little about what people wanted to see more of. Then I went to work, finding that content “the people” wanted.

Based on what I learned, I did this:

1. I started posting less often — instead of once or twice each day, more like 5 times a week.
2. I started to share more photos from others, using less and less stock photography.
3. I started to post more of what people wanted to see: campus scenes/buildings; sports (specifically more all-encompassing stadium shots or celebration photos); out-of-the-ordinary reposts from others (examples from the last few months: school-themed snowmen, ornaments, logos made from leaves or sand, a student dressed up as a Power Ranger on campus)
4. I also started to like photos that fit into these categories, even if I didn’t share them. It has helped shape the type of content we expect to see about WVU.

Outcomes:

Posts that our followers want to see have a much bigger impact now when we post. Nearly 20 percent, on average, of our followers like our content, which is much better than an average Instagram account (about 4 percent).

Our statistics in likes, comments and followers-by-month have increased each month since November, when I started posting what “the people” wanted.

Sure, I have to post stuff I’d rather not every now and then. That’s life at a university. Yet, it’s clear that this content isn’t appreciated as much and thus even more of a reminder of how successful other posts have been.

This was an experiment — and I know there are few opportunities to do something like this when on the daily social media grind. That’s why I wanted to write about it, because it happens very rarely. Based on the results, it was well worth my time.

PS: Follow us on Instagram at http://instagram.com/westvirginiau.