Timothy J. Holloway
STORYTELLER
Social Media Coordinator for the Harding University
College of Arts and Humanities
(COAH)
I had the privilege to work on the Instagram for the Harding University College of Arts and Humanities (@harding_coah). This is a page dedicated to that work.
Our goal for this page was to develop a post strategy and content that encouraged more engagement from both the student body and potential students. The way we decided to pursue this was to provide themes for the students to get invested in each month. Some of these themes have utilized the incorporation of current members of our community such as professors and students into our posts. This has allowed students to see people they care about and love on our page and encouraged the sharing of these posts to their own pages.
Enacting this strategy along with a more consistent posting schedule afforded an increase in overall account engagement by 161% within the first two months of implementation.
Theme 1
Black History Month
My first full month in this position was February. Otherwise known as 'Black History Month', we saw this as a perfect opportunity to start with a theme that was already established in our university and our nation. In addition, we found it important since our campus is located in the south in Arkansas and has been steeped in Southern culture for a long time. We want to make sure every person of every colour is appreciated for their efforts in the arts we love and in their lives beyond.
Theme 2
Women's History Month
My second month in the job just happened to coincide with March, and with March being Woman's History Month it was the perfect time to build on the precedent of our Black History Month posts. With the number of female to male students at Harding being nearly a 2:1 ratio, we knew that we would have a large portion of the student body who would not only appreciate, but potentially relate to some of the women in the arts that we highlighted in this month long post series.
Theme 3
Professor Spotlights
Just about every student at Harding has a professor that they will always recommend to their friends, take when they have the chance, or reminisce about their class in those more dull classes. This series of posts was to appreciate our professors and to encourage the students in the arts to share the spotlights of their favorite professors.
Theme 4
Administrative Assistant Spotlights
Often the unsung heroes of our departments, we decided our COAH Administrative assistants needed to be spotlighted. This held to our strategy of creating posts of people that students and parents would recognize. While our Admin Assistants are not the most known in face, by name they are practically famous. Every time a student needs an override for a class, help with scheduling, or a meeting with a professor-they will likely receive an email from one of these esteemed women, or end up meeting them upon arriving in the office. To the right you can see one example of this type of post.
Theme 5
Student Intern Spotlights
The best motivator you can give for a student to share a post, is making the post something about something cool their friend is doing. That is what we achieved with these posts. Harding has students who intern all over the country and by highlighting them we caught the interest of their friends as well as perspective students who are curious about what they could do with COAH.
Theme 6
College Events and News
These are the posts that didn't fit perfectly with the various monthly themes, but fit with our strategy of posting things that may be important to the community. This includes announcements of theatre performances, student showcases, encouraging messages, and general announcement that our community should know about.
My personal favourite in this batch is the set of posts about an April-Fools joke we did announcing a group of "New Majors" for the fall semester.
