2018 In Review: Top Posts

What a year it was, 2018.

Starting off with a bang, a Facebook post from Mark Zuckerberg set the tone for what social media would come to be throughout the course of the year 2018.

“We’ve gotten feedback from our community that public content—posts from businesses, brands and media—is crowding out the personal moments that lead us to connect more with each other,” Mr. Zuckerberg explained.

Unfortunately, the Colorado State U online presence falls under the category of “brands that are crowding out personal moments,” and our Facebook content suffered. But all was not lost, as Instagram remained strong, and we had much success with utilizing Instagram Stories as a way to deliver content.

As we look back at 2018, let’s examine the Top 5 posts for three major platforms (Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram) and consider ways in which this data might affect our 2019 content strategy.

Facebook

Top posts by reach

1) We’re Proud To Be CSU Rams: 286,148

2) First snow on campus… in snow-motion.: 212,761

3) Proud To Be (No. 1 college in Colorado): 195,235

4) Campus is buzzing: 160,194

5) Your alma mater doesn’t have an on-campus brewery? Can’t relate: 144,257

One key finding — and an important consideration for 2019 — is that the reach of our overall top post was boosted significantly by putting money behind it. Facebook will continue to demand your budget in return for accelerated reach.

Thematically, there’s no major surprises here — rankings, the first snow of the year, beer. Each of the top posts either 1) demonstrates a reason to be proud of the institution or 2) is timely and local.

Four of the five posts are videos, leading us believe that video will continue to reign supreme as the preferred content format.

2019 Tips: Fork over the cash, bolster your video content, and make people proud.

Twitter

Top posts by impressions

1) Jenny Cavnar: 91,334

2) Spring Forward: 80,781

3) Tater Tot: 71,339

4) This place we call home: 68,120

5) Top college in Colorado: 64,525

The only post overlapping as a top post for both Facebook and Twitter is the ranking. Otherwise, Twitter’s top posts were of a mixed variety. The number one tweet received an abnormally high amount of impressions due to a retweet from the Colorado Rockies. Two very visual posts (#2 and #4) remind us that beautiful photography doesn’t only belong on Instagram. And of course, a cute pup named Tater Tot found his way to the number three spot.

2019 Tips: Build relationships with influencers who will retweet you, and crosspost your Instagram photos.

Instagram

Top posts by engagements (likes + comments)

  1. Meet the Class of 2020: 8,093
  2. Guy posing his dog by CSU sign: 7,998
  3. Downtown Holiday Lights: 7,905
  4. Snow-motion: 7,870
  5. This way to Ram Country: 7,826

Every single year, the “Meet the Class of 20__” post receives an incredible amount of engagement. This year, the post became our most-liked Instagram content of all time. The post with the second-most engagement was a video that was first featured on the popular @dog account and then made aware to us through direct messages. Each post on this list is very strongly associated with location, either being taken on campus or somewhere nearby and recognizable.

2019 Tips: Don’t shy away from posting videos, and resolve to get out and about frequently to capture scenes familiar to your audience.