End-of-the-Year Content Ideas for Social Media

in Inspiration

We’ve made it. The end of the year, the end of the decade, the end of Facebook scandals (lol jk). Before we ring in the new year, here are some year-end content ideas for social media.

Finals Week

Puppies: If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that the people want puppies during finals week (and any other week of the year). We are no strangers to mixing puppies into our content mix, and this semester we’re sharing a video of Zeke (adorable puppy below) as studying motivation. There was also that time we surprised students with puppies during finals.

A golden retriever puppy at CSU looks into the camera


Campus Beauty: Sometimes a beautiful clip of campus is motivation enough.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2674271409263039

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/B53schcJNJw/


Study Break: Be the study break you wish to see in the world and give students something to distract themselves with. Study break games work great on Instagram Stories and Snapchat.

A maze shaped like a Ram head. Instructions say, "Take a break and help CAM find his way to the alfalfa


Resources: Provide students with resources during an extremely stressful week. The CSU Health Center hosts Instagram Story takeovers on CSU’s Instagram account frequently, and it’s no different for finals week. This week, they shared healthy tips and resources for students in preparation of finals. We also promote events focused on finals week in our weekly events Instagram highlight.

Instagram Story graphic that says, "With the end of the semester in sight, we have some tips to help you survive finals."  Instagram Story graphic that says, "But first, we want to hear from you! Tell us your study tips and how you survive the end of the semester."  Instagram Story graphic that says, "Study tips: Make sure you sleep! Staying healthy is super important through finals."  Instagram Story graphic that says, "Study tips: Ensure some sort of exercise into your day! Alleviates anxiety and promotes focus!"


Mascots: Because, of course. We have a tradition of surprising studying Rams with CAM, hugs, high fives and candy at our library. The students appreciate the encouragement, and our fans on social media love it. What could your mascot do to make spirits bright during finals week?

 


Commencement

Feature some outstanding graduates: We use a tool called Animoto to quickly create visually appealing social media videos.

https://www.facebook.com/coloradostateuniversity/videos/1249513261892697/


Feature graduates doing what they should be doing on graduation day – Celebrating: We asked RamGrads to meet us in an on-campus studio for a fun slow motion video. We provided the caps, gowns, confetti, and fun.

https://www.facebook.com/coloradostateuniversity/videos/382801542444507/


Ask for words of wisdom from alumni: This year, CSU’s Alumni Association is asking alums to submit their advice for graduates. Two-for-one tip: After you receive amazing advice from alums, turn their words of wisdom into a fun BuzzFeed-style article. Kind of like this:

https://www.buzzfeed.com/ashleymanweiler/32-tips-for-the-colorado-state-class-of-2019-1mnub


Differentiate your school from others by highlighting what makes your school unique. For us, it’s the Oval.

CSU graduate walks CAM the Ram down CSU's iconic Oval


Holiday Inspiration

Coming up with a new holiday idea for social media is daunting. Here are some fun ideas from other universities to inspire us all.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BcLBwdjD_Ym/

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=3084955424866934

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=856530341187160

Looking for more inspiration? Here are a TON of holiday video ideas.

Countdown to 2020

Give yourself a gift this holiday season and plan a countdown to 2020 on your social media platforms. Here are two ways to ring in the new year on social:

Counting down to the new year with your top posts from 2019

CSU Social, along with many other brands, have counted down to the new year by posting our most popular posts for a few years now. The beauty of it is:

  • You don’t have to worry about finding content to post while you’re away from the office on holiday.
  • You know the content will perform well because it already did in the past.
  • You get to start the countdown as early as you want.

We typically start our countdown December 27 (top 5 posts of the year). But the best part is, it’s flexible. You could do the “Top 9 Posts of 2019,” the top 10 posts, whatever works best for your content calendar. You could even create a unique hashtag for your countdown as a way to catalog of all your top posts throughout the years.

We typically retweet our most popular tweets, and post our top Instagram pictures with a graphic overlay. The tricky part is figuring out how you want to share your top posts on Facebook. Share the original post from your page to get the OG post even more engagement? Post the content brand new with a fun “Countdown to 2020” graphic overlay? We’ve done it both ways. The tricky part is, you can’t schedule out a shared post, so someone (maybe you) needs to remember to share the top post each day of the countdown. You can, however, repost an existing video on your Facebook Page and schedule it through Creator Studio.

Screen shot of CSU's Top Tweet of 2018, which was a tweet about Jenny Cavnar, who is a TV broadcaster for the Colorado Rockies baseball team

Counting down to the new decade with the top moments at your university

The unique part about 2019 is we’re rounding out an entire decade (2020 here we come). Instead of a traditional “top posts countdown,” you could do a countdown that highlights some of the most impactful events that have happened at your university over the last ten years (2010-2019).

While we’re sticking with our traditional top posts countdown, we are also partnering with CSU’s public relations team to create a story and video marking the end of a remarkable decade on campus that we’ll post on December 31 (along with our No. 1 top post of 2019). Stay tuned!