Social Media

Your takeover should showcase all elements of your Brandeis life, including classes and faculty, residence halls, clubs and sports, excursions into Waltham and Boston, study abroad or internships and more. Most importantly, everything is shown from your voice to show your perspective.

Our Instagram channel is followed by not only your peers, but also prospective students and alumni who are interested in seeing what life is like at Brandeis. Consider what you might have wanted to know about Brandeis before you arrived, and what you might want to know about what is going on after you leave.

Post visually interesting content. Some examples:

• People in action instead of a group shot. 
  

• What you see from where you are sitting or standing instead of a selfie. 

• A short video or Boomerang instead of a still image.

Remember that some of the people viewing your posts have never been to campus, so images of campus, your residence hall, dining halls, labs, studios, the library or other spaces help prospective students understand what life is like on campus. Take the viewer on a tour of your dorm, classroom, dinging experience, etc. Show us a "day in the life" of a Brandeis student. 

Do you need help figuring out what kind of content you would like to send us? We are happy to meet with you to brainstorm and come up with a plan!

We want you to promote what matters most to you at Brandeis! If you are interested in taking over the Instagram account on behalf of an event, organization or program there are a few things to keep in mind.

• There is a maximum of one photo of panels or a posed group shot. Show people in action⎯ doing, engaging, being Brandeis! 

• Not everyone is familiar with your organization or event, so make sure that what you are sharing with the Brandeis social media team helps people understand who you are and what you do.

• Showcase the behind the scenes efforts that go into planning and organizing your event.

• What makes your organization or event fun and unique? Show us through photo and video.

• Tell a story.

So you've decided that you'd like to take over the Brandeis IG? Great! Your application will be reviewed by a member of the social media team. If you have a specific time or event in mind, please apply as soon as possible. While we try to schedule everyone who shows interest, we cannot guarantee your preferred scheduling time. Some weeks/days fill up months in advance!

The social media team will review your content plan and your existing social media accounts. We may ask additional questions or request more information before we reach out to schedule your takeover.

If you are selected to take over, a member of the social media team will contact you with an email address and phone number to which you will be able to send all the takeover content as well as the 2 to 3 images that could be used as permanent posts. The social media team will be there to help you throughout the process and will gladly provide you with content ideas and any other additional support! 

Please note that while we call this collaboration an Instagram Takeover, you will not have access to the Brandeis Instagram account. Instead you will shoot your Stories from your own device and share the assets with the Brandeis social media team. Stories will be live for 24 hours.

Requirements

• Shoot a variety of assets, including photos, videos and Boomerangs

• Vertical photos/videos only

• Videos should be less than 15 seconds

• 5-8 assets

• Feel free to send us as many options as you’d like but be aware that we reserve the right to limit what we share.

Frame-by-frame Guidelines

1. The Intro. For the first frame of the story, introduce yourself or the organization you are representing. We want our followers to know who is posting and what to expect from the next set of story frames. Tell us your name, class, major, etc. This introduction can be a video of you speaking directly to our followers, or it can be a photo or a Boomerang to which we will add text.

2. The Story. Here is where you will show us your Brandeis experience. Feel free to be creative and to be yourself. Use images and videos to capture your story. Show us different aspects of your day. Please remember, do not use vulgar language, make reference to politics (i.e. no direct references to politicians), post anything illegal, anything naked, or anything you wouldn't want your mom or President Liebowitz to see.

3. The Wrap-up. This frame will serve as a conclusion slide. Thank the Brandeis community for following along and feel free to give yourself or your organization a shoutout!

The Brandeis social media team will add all text, tags, geotags and hashtags. We recommend holding off on tagging yourself, your organization, or using hashtags and reserve that for the Brandeis social media team. This helps to ensure that the tags are clickable within the story for the viewer. If there are any specific tags, hashtags, geotags and or text you’d like to use, please let the social media team know, and we will gladly incorporate them! 

In addition to your IG Stories takeover, you will have the option to provide us with 2-3 permanent posts for our Instagram feed! Similar to the takeover, these images will be shot on your personal camera phone and shared with a member of the Brandeis social media team, who will then share the posts with your customized caption and tags. 

Specifications for Images 

1. Quality is everything. When shooting a photo or video, make sure you are aware of the lighting and composition. Does everyone or everything fit into the frame? Is it crowded or cluttered? Are objects or people in focus? These are all little nuances that can make or break how your post performs on Instagram. Always remember that the Brandeis social media team is there to help you in any way possible during your takeover! If you are unsure about the quality of the photo, you can always send us multiple photos and we can help you edit them.

2. Be honest, but appropriate. We want you to be creative and, most of all, to be yourselves! Just please keep in mind that you are also representing Brandeis as a whole, so no use of vulgar language, reference to politics, politicians, anything illegal, naked or anything you wouldn't want your mom or President Liebowitz to see.

3. Capture life on campus.  Show us the Brandeis you see every day. Feel free to take pictures of the campus, dining halls, dorm rooms, etc. We want the Brandeis Instagram feed to represent our community and capture real life moments. What would you want an applicant or incoming freshman to know or see? What would you want an alumnus to know?

4. Captions are key. Once you have your photo, you are halfway done! The last step is to think of your caption. Try to make sure your captions explain what is happening in the photo so that it is clear to the viewer. Your caption, along with the attached photo, location and any other relevant tags, will then be messaged to a Brandeis social media team member, who will then post the image with the appropriate caption, geotags and hashtags.