By Becca Lerzo
When it comes to a student organization’s social media, it can be tricky to capture the attention of such a busy audience. College students have so many things demanding all of their attention at any given moment. From classes, to homework, to working a job, to Greek Life, to social life and a million other student organizations seeking out their participation, learning how to stand out on social media is important. From someone who has run multiple student organizations on social media, I can tell you that this is not an easy task, but here are a few of my best tips and tricks to help you get started in captivating your audience on social media and in return, increasing your student organization’s presence and participation on campus.
1. Get Connected with Other Organizations
College students are very rarely only ever involved in one organization on campus. You can typically find that many students will be involved in several different clubs and organizations, whether that includes being a part of Greek Life, a campus ministry, or a professional organization. For a student organization’s social media, it can be beneficial to connect with other clubs and organizations. I would suggest finding similar organizations where members of that organization may benefit from joining your organization and vice versa.
For an organization like PRSSA, it may be beneficial to follow and interact with other professional organizations in similar fields, such as communications, journalism, marketing, graphic design and more. Members of these organizations will be most likely to connect with your content and find it beneficial to their future endeavors. Other organizations you may find helpful to get connected with could include the University or college’s programming board, student government, student activities, and the fraternity and sorority life on campus.
2. Create Content that Students will Relate to
Now, when you first read this tip you may be rolling your eyes and finding it a little cheesy. But I don’t mean relatable as in creating memes with a caption of “#Relatable” or cliche dad humor (unless of course that’s your style, then by all means go for it). I mean creating content that your audience actually cares about and can connect with or start a conversation about. One tool that I have found really beneficial with this, is the “Add yours” feature on Instagram stories. With this feature you can create a prompt for your followers to add their own Instagram story of whatever it is on the prompt. This really helps increase engagement and can even lead traffic back to your organization’s platform.
For example, while running the social media for my school’s Panhellenic Association, a big goal for us was to increase positive feelings and what is known as “Pan Love” between the sorority chapters. I was able to create an “Add yours” prompt that said “Tag your bestie down row” where members were able to post Instagram stories of them with their friends in other sororities. This is something that members already had photos of and probably wanted an excuse to post, this just gave them an outlet to do so, while working towards our goal of increasing engagement as well as positive feelings between chapters. For professional student organizations, I would suggest something along the lines of “A moment you were proud to be ___ major,” or something similar. You can really get creative with it!
3. Pictures, Pictures & More Pictures
This tip may be the most obvious, but I really encourage you to take pictures and post them whenever you get the chance. Pictures receive a lot of engagement and create a more personable social media platform. Don’t get me wrong, I love a fun and colorful graphic and enjoy making them whenever I get the chance, but pictures are going to be the most effective way to reach people on social media. Pictures truly do speak a thousand words and people can learn a lot about an organization through them. This includes what kind of people are a part of it, how many people are involved and some of the things that the organization does, whether it be service events, guest speakers or just fun activities.
With these tips in your back pocket, I encourage you to go into a social media role with confidence and don’t be afraid to be creative and innovative and find new tools and tactics that will benefit your student organization!
About the Author: Becca Lerzo
Becca is a Senior Public Relations major at Georgia Southern University. She is a member of the Public Relations Student Society where she serves on the Exec Board as the current Director of Finance. Last year, she served as the Director of Digital Media. Becca also serves as the Vice President of Public Relations for the Panhellenic Association, creating content and posting for their social media platforms. She is also a member of Zeta Tau Alpha. She hopes to get into the travel and tourism sector of Public Relations after graduating this May!