How Colleges and Universities Use Instagram

July 1, 2013

Universities and colleges around the nation are using Instagram. They've found a few ways to take advantage of this every-growing platform, so I thought I'd give you a tour of higher education instagramming. These methods are not only for main university accounts, but can be used by specific departments, labs, programs, and offices. Ways to spice up your department's Instagram account:

Show a different point of view

• Looking down on the number 2 at MIT
• UPenn spherized
• Harvard captures a unique view of flowers at HBS chapel.
• At Cornell, there's a bird on Willard Straight Terrace.
• This is what the party looks like from outside the Yale alumni tent.
• Ellsworth Kelly's 'Dartmouth Panels' seen inside a drop of spring rain at Dartmouth College.

Look back on history

• Rotch Library
• BU's homemaking course
• Florida State's Class of 1900
• Yale's celebration of Walt Whitman's birthday
• University of Utah's Bill "The Hill" McGill
• Dartmouth College in
• An aerial photo of Johns Hopkins from 1920
• Baylor University staying cool in the 1940s
• University of Michigan's Angell Hall

Show off the campus

• MIT has many nice spots on campus
• It's a beautiful evening at Boston College
• Northeastern has heart-shaped leaves
• Stanford flaunts four campus shots
• At Yale, all is calm and all is bright
• Good morning Dartmouth

Show off students

• MIT students singing in Lobby 7
• Northeastern's solar car designs
• University of Utah's snurf_gordon on Mount Olympus
• Yale's Bulldogs Racing
• Johns Hopkins University: Friends. Graduates
• Finishing up final projectsat UPenn

Show off alumni/ae

• MIT Class of '78hard at work at the Tech Challenge Games
• Basie Bales GitlinYale '10) loves history
• Jane Marie Lynch (Illinois State University '82) can be seen backstage
• Angela Kinsey (Baylor University '93) is congratulated for her success

Have fun

• MIT:
• Also at MIT: Can't grow a mustache? Take one.
• UPenn: "If you are in Van Pelt and things start to look like this, take a break."
• Boston College's petting zoo
• A pet pig named Bobby at Northeastern
• You give us cardiac dysrhythmia from Johns Hopkins
• Sometimes biology can get a bit yucky at Baylor University
• University of Michigan's Zombies!!
• At the University of Oregon, The Pioneer gets in the holiday spirit
• The daily life of a  Upenn squirrel (video)

Start a hashtag

• MIT's Commencement: #MIT2013
• Baylor University: #mybaylorsummer
• University of Oregon: #UOspring and #UOgameday
• University of Kansas: #KUgrads

Spotlight others' photos (with permission)

• The view from MIT's Building W20 by ammcready
• Harold Shapiro's #Yale2013 photo
• Wasatch view by Adam Barker Photography
• University of Michigan  hot air balloon by kalicuffs

Challenge your followers

• MIT often posts a "Guess where" challenge.
• Arizona State University: Where is this fountain?
• University of Michigan: How many fairy doors have you found?

Share a quotation

• The holy grail of physics at MIT
• Yale: education improves the soul
• "Those who stay will be champions" at the University of Michigan

Celebrate special days

• It was Valentine's Day and 12-12-12 at MIT
• Happy Earth Day at Duke
• Boston College celebrated Commencement
• Florida State celebrated the first day of summer
• Baylor University wished everyone a Happy Father's Day

Focus on the details

• At MIT, "even our trees have metadata
• Harvard gives a glimpse of a South American giant sloth skeleton
• At BU, they are #BUStrong
• Cornell shows what it's like to prepare the chimes
• Illinois State University spies red bird heads

Capture an extraordinary moment

• MIT's human chain from the MIT Police Department to the Sean Collier memorial
• Rainbow over the Citgo sign near BU
• Boston College's walk to honor and remember Boston Marathon bombing victims
• Northeastern - nature's love
• The Dalai Lama at the University of Oregon 

P.S. Sometimes it's just creepy how similar some universities are. 

• Where on campus would you find a lion door-knocker? You might find it at MIT or at the University of Utah.
• Reflections of buildings in water is apparently a favorite, as evidenced by Baylor University, Duke, Boston College, and Harvard.