At Colorado State University, our Social and Digital Media Team makes it easy for fans to feel connected and part of our Ramily. We do this through engaging storytelling and cool content that really brings everyone together.
After attending this year’s Social Media Summit, I got some helpful insights into building and maintaining meaningful relationships through social platforms. Here’s how these insights complement CSU Social’s strategic goals and offer strategies for creating engaging social media content within higher education.
Know your audience and define your goals
Before launching any content or platform, it’s critical to understand your audience and your objectives. At CSU Social, our primary audience on platforms like Instagram consists of current and prospective students, where our focus is to showcase the vibrant campus culture and student experiences. This fits with our goal of helping students succeed and fostering institutional competitiveness by getting our community involved.
As part of our overall mission, “We tell the University’s stories and position the University to succeed,” this storytelling approach is at the heart of everything we do, helping us stay focused on our main goal: boosting CSU’s profile and inspiring students to find their energy.
Audit and analyze past content for strategic insights with clear metrics and monthly reports
A comprehensive audit of your past content is crucial in understanding what resonates with your audience. At CSU Social, we continually analyze the performance of our posts to ensure that we are creating engaging content that aligns with our core brand pillars.
Tracking success is not just about follower count—it’s about understanding how our content serves our strategic priorities. By measuring key metrics such as engagement rates, impressions and video views, it’s awesome to see how we’re boosting CSU’s image and making a positive impact!
Daily: How did yesterday’s posts do? How did people respond?
Weekly: What topics are our community engaging with this week?
Monthly: What are our top performing posts? Where are our opportunities for growth?
Quarterly: How have we influenced our community? What impact are we having on our community?
Through this lens, we are able to adjust our strategy using data to drive decisions and ensure that our content reflects the principles of collaborating, creating, and being accountable.
Showcase authentic student experiences
Students want to see content that feels authentic and real. It’s this authenticity that fosters a deeper sense of connection and belonging among our audiences. Here are a few recent examples of authentic student-centered content:
President Amy Parsons asks students who their favorite professor is
View this post on Instagram
View this post on Instagram
The journeys of real first-generation students at CSU
View this post on Instagram
To keep in step with our mission of building community and sharing in a meaningful way, it’s important to highlight what the real CSU experience is all about. Students’ day-in-the-life posts, behind-the-scenes looks at campus events, and spontaneous campus snapshots not only highlight the student experience but also reflect our intention to create impactful content.
Engage actively with your audience
Engagement isn’t just about likes and comments. It’s about fostering meaningful relationships, listening deeply and building community. This means responding to comments, resharing user-generated content, and participating in real-time interactions that show our followers that we value their input and participation.
While we’ve made progress, there is still room for growth in prioritizing this kind of audience engagement. We are forever committed to enhancing our approach, making sure that two-way communication becomes a central focus. This is critical for building trust and ensuring that our audiences, whether students, alumni, or community members, feel seen and heard. By continually improving our efforts, we aim to create even stronger connections within our community.
Leverage platform-specific features and trends
To keep your content fresh and engaging, it’s important to stay updated on platform-specific trends and features. At CSU Social, Instagram is our go-to for highlighting university culture and campus beauty, while TikTok* allows us to showcase the playful side of student life. Each platform serves a different purpose, and we tailor our content accordingly to meet those needs.
Our team’s goal to push the envelope means we’re always trying new things while ensuring that our content stays on-brand. This kind of innovation is super important for strengthening CSU’s brand and making sure we stay engaging, relatable, and impactful.
The Social Media Summit reinforced many of the strategies we’re already executing at CSU Social, but it also gave us new insights into how we can further elevate our content. By focusing on authenticity, community-building and innovative storytelling, we continue to fuel our fans’ sense of belonging and showcase the value of a CSU education.
As we move ahead, CSU Social’s strategy will keep pushing boundaries, inspiring action and building connections.
*It’s starting to look like TikTok will be banned in the U.S. at which point, we’ll readjust our social strategy.