Great Facebook and Instagram Idea: Building Anticipation

Promoting small events. The bane of any social media manager's existence. Getting hounded by countless departments and student groups to promote endless lectures and film screenings and panel discussions? Kill your EdgeRank, or be the person who says "no" all the time. Either way, it's never a fun place to be.

Promoting big events? It's difficult to define and even more difficult to pull off, but building a real sense of anticipation for something is one of the coolest things you can do with social media. Creating buzz. Tapping into emotions. Implementing a thoughtful, powerful communication plan. Mmm hmm. That can be as good as it gets sometimes.

So just take a look at this pic from LSU, and tell me you don't get a little bit goosebumpy just thinking about what the atmosphere must be like on a big game day, and how much it means to the community: 

Yes, soon. But first, coffee. (I don't even drink coffee. Tea. Earl Gray. Hot. for me... and Captain Picard.)

I mean... come on. Such a powerful image that elicits real emotion, in such a simple package. The proof is in the engagement: more than 7,000 likes and now more than 2,000 shares - clearly this resonated with the LSU community.

Also - notice how they are square-shaped and optimized for Instagram, always a good thing to keep in mind when creating visuals like this.

What I like most about this idea is how versatile it is. Yes, it lends itself particularly well to athletics, but it could also easily be used with photos from move-in weekend, a major concert or event, holidays, etc. Really, anything that people can get excited about and look forward to can be promoted in such a way.

This is one of those examples that is usable pretty much across-the-board, and it even is a great way to create some content during the slower summer months. You could easily do a week's worth of posts with these or post one every week leading up to school starting. LSU has posted a few different ones - here's another example:

I could totally jump that high if I wanted to, but I just chose not to.

This is a good one, dear readers. Use it and be merry!  Oh, and Geaux Tigers!