SOCIAL MEDIA GUIDE FOR VALPO COLLEGES
KEY CONTENT THEMES
The best social media content is engaging and relevant:
a. Current students look for classmate cameos, ways to get involved in their college, and department news and events.
b. Prospective students are looking for ways they could potentially thrive as a student and a glimpse into the atmosphere of their future academic program.
There are countless different ways to touch on these values during the academic year - see our month-by-month recommendations below to guide content calendar planning for your college. In addition to key themes for current students during the academic year, this list also includes important messaging to incorporate for prospective students in support of the admission cycle between August - April.
Recommended Calendar Themes: Fall
August
a. Welcome Week
1. Events organized by the college, departments, or student clubs and organizations
b. First day of classes
c. Opening Convocation
1. Faculty awards and grants
d. Applications to Valpo are open as of August 1! Encourage followers to apply and link to valpo.edu/apply or via CommonApp
e. Schedule a visit to Valpo (high interest in August) - link to valpo.edu/visit
f. Fall job openings in the college for current students
September
a. Fall visit events for the college/University (high interest in September)encourage followers to schedule a visit and link to valpo.edu/visit
b. Homecoming and Family Weekend (any college or departmental events)
c. Scholarships specific to your college
d. Advice and reminders for new students from academic advisors
e. New rankings from U.S. News & World Report (if applicable)
October
3
VALE Campus Culture Committee Updated June 2025
a. Fall All Majors Career and Internship Fair
b. Fall research projects in your college
c. Graduate outcomes for your college (reference the latest stats at valpo.edu/about/alumni-success)
d. Schedule a visit to Valpo - pair with seasonal fall photos of your college building(s)
e. Halloween college or department activities
1. Family Trick or Treat (if college or departments are in attendance)
November
a. Giving Tuesday
b. Fall Internship and Research Symposium (FIReS)
c. Plus a follow-up post with student participants from your college
d. Scholarship deadlines specific to your colleges or departments (for fall applicants)
e. Thanksgiving wishes
December
a. Schedule a visit to Valpo - pair with holiday/seasonal photos of your college or the campus overall
b. Apply to Valpo - additional messaging before the holiday break
c. Christmas wishes and holiday events/activities in the college or departments
d. Finals week encouragement and well-being reminders
e. December graduation
f. Last day of the semester
Recommended Calendar Themes: Spring
January
a. First day of classes - welcome students back to campus after winter break
b. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
1. Feature student and faculty participation in service initiatives
c. Spring job openings in the college for current students
February
a. Upcoming Admitted Students Days and visit events
VALE Campus Culture Committee Updated June 2025
1. Highlight college-specific events or opportunities for prospective students
b. Apply to Valpo - link to valpo.edu/apply
c. Spring research projects underway in your college
March
a. Schedule a visit to Valpo (high interest in March) - link to valpo.edu/visit
b. First day of spring
1. Capture photos of spring on campus at your college building(s)
c. Spring Break service trips
d. Spring semester study abroad programs
1. Partner with students to share photos and content about their experiences
April
a. Apply to Valpo - gear messaging toward undergraduate transfer students and prospective graduate students, and link to valpo.edu/apply
b. National Volunteer Month
1. Showcase service in your college or departments
c. Valpo Day
d. Symposium On Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE)
e. Valpo Collaboratory
f. Reminder for admitted students to submit their enrollment deposit by May 1 - link to valpo.edu/enroll
May
a. Senior spotlights
b. Finals week encouragement and wellbeing reminders
c. Commencement and end-of-year events
d. Phi Beta Kappa inductees
e. Summer student research, internships, or study abroad
If your college has someone managing the social channels over the summer, consider spotlighting students' summer activities - such as research, study abroad, internships, or hands-on courses. These stories help keep incoming students engaged and excited to attend Valpo, leading up to fall enrollment.
VALE Campus Culture Committee Updated June 2025
Adding #HashtagHolidays
If you find yourself with empty slots in your content plan, another resource you can turn to are hashtag holidays (like #WorldEnvironmentDay and #NationalPetDay). Make sure the holiday connects to your overall message, is relevant to your department and Valpo's brand, and does not feel performative or like filler content.
Sharing Tagged Posts
a. When monitoring, keep an eye out for positive content from known or University-affiliated sources tagging the college's social media pages for opportunities to repost.
b. Follow the Valparaiso University brand pages, as well as pages for specific departments or programs within your college, to look for content to repost.
c. When sharing content, please be discerning of what accounts you repost from and what types of content they produce.
d. Instagram content can be reposted by sharing to Instagram Stories.
CHANNEL BEST PRACTICES
Best practices across a variety of social media platforms are outlined below as a resource; however, it is not essential to be active on all of these to be effective! Optimizing even just one account is a stronger strategy than operating multiple without the resources to do so well.
Start by choosing one to two social media channels to focus all of your resources on. We recommend prioritizing based on your primary key audiences and objectives.
VALE Campus Culture Committee Updated June 2025
Feed Posts
a. Connect with current and prospective students: Be relevant and seasonal during the year.
b. Focus on photos and video: Show students in action, experiential learning, research opportunities, and an authentic look into our campus culture.
c. Use photo carousels when possible to provide a deeper look into an event, academic programs, a student’s experience, and more. (Each social media platform allows a maximum amount of images in a carousel, so be mindful of how many pieces of content you can share!)
d. Use short, vertical videos that are no longer than one minute in length (ideal goal is 15–30 seconds). Showcase facilities, faculty, and student life.
e. Tag other Valpo accounts when relevant to encourage cross-promotion and bolster our digital community.
Instagram Stories
a. While posts are the place to share information, Instagram Stories are all about increasing engagement with your followers. Engagement is all the ways users interact with your content (likes, comments, clicks, etc.).
1. High engagement increases brand visibility and builds your relationship with your followers; algorithms favor content with high engagement!
b. Stories disappear after 24 hours, allowing you to post regular updates without oversaturating your page. Use them to remind followers about events, highlight activities in real-time, share posts from other Valpo accounts, and more.
c. You can add stickers on stories to encourage followers to engage further (for example, using countdown reminders, polls, questions boxes, etc.).
d. Note: While links are not clickable in Instagram post captions, they are clickable via stickers on stories!
Content Inspiration
POST COPY
Nothing to see here … Just photos from some of our illuminating ✨ English classes ✨ (Swipe for an inside look!)
Here in the College of Arts and Sciences, English dives deep into the mediums that express human emotion – from game design and cinema to creative writing and life-changing literature. You’ll learn everything you need to read, write, and relate!
Declare your major, add a minor, or add exploratory classes to your spring schedule at the link in our bio. ��
a. Write for your audience: Connect with parents, alumni, and community members.
b. Highlight faculty stories and recognition, academics, experiential learning, student success, and alumni testimonials.
c. Use multiple photos (2-5) in posts when possible to catch more attention in the feed.
d. Feature photos: A graphic can be created for the visual in the post, but photos tend to perform better.
e. Can share vertical videos created for other channels, like Instagram, but update the caption to speak to your audience on Facebook.
Content Inspiration
POST COPY
Here in the College of Nursing and Health Professions, we strive to offer our students an unparalleled learning experience grounded in excellence. Our direct-admit bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) program is one of U.S. News & World Report’s highest ranked in the nation. We’re known for our real-world learning experience, access to cutting-edge facilities, and a community grounded in compassion.
Our nursing graduates go on to lead at top healthcare institutions, lending their light to patients and their entire communities. Explore a bright future in Valpo’s nursing program at valpo.edu/nursing-major
X (formerly Twitter)
a. Highlight news, stats or numbers, events, faculty speaking engagements, community partnerships, experiential learning, and student activities.
b. Use short, to-the-point copy (must be 280 characters or less).
c. Use multiple photos (2-4) when possible to help capture attention.
d. Note: Outside of official University-affiliated handles, do not tag other handles in posts on X, unless approved by University Marketing.
1. This is to avoid potential incorrect tagging or tagging organizations that are not affiliated with the University.
Content Inspiration
POST COPY
It’s #InternationalWomeninEngineeringDay! We’d like to thank our wonderful students, faculty, and alumni who are changing the world through innovation –here on campus and across the world ✨✨
Learn more about Valpo’s Society of Women Engineers valpo.edu/swe!
a. Focus on content to connect with alumni and prospective graduate students.
b. Prioritize highlighting graduate programs and certificates, student success stories, and college and department success.
c. Direct post copy to alumni and ask questions to spark engagement with them (e.g., Calling all Valpo alumni!).
d. Celebrate faculty and student achievements (e.g., research, publications, internships, awards).
Content Inspiration
POST COPY
Whether you’re a Valpo alum or a working business professional, the door to our classrooms is always open. Our master of business administration (MBA) program is designed to take business graduates to the next level – and has a reputation for doing so.
The Valparaiso University College of Business was recognized as offering the best MBA program in Northwest Indiana and has continuously earned a spot on U.S. News and World Report’s list of best Online MBA programs.
We’re here to help you achieve – at your own pace, in your own place. Learn more about the Valpo MBA, see rankings and credentials, and discover your path forward at valpo.edu/mba.
TikTok
University marketing does not recommend campus partners to open TikTok accounts due to the platform’s legal ambiguity and algorithmic demands, though we do maintain a presence and are happy to collaborate with campus partners to post relevant video content.
To reach a video-hungry audience, you can:
a. Create trendy videos that highlight your programs, professors, learning spaces, events, and more.
b. Send all video clips, a muted version of the final video muted, and a final video with audio to Lexy Berry (lexy.berry@valpo.edu) to feature on the University’s TikTok account; this will help your videos reach a broader audience.
c. Share videos on Instagram Reels instead; please note TikTok trends do not always transfer over to Instagram.
In TikTok-esque videos, it’s okay to be trendy and have fun! However, we still try to make sure even our trendy content has a tether back to Valpo and what we offer our students. Remember that we are an institution of higher education and, at times, trends will not align with our brand or offerings.
ENGAGING WITH VIDEO
Why Video?
Social media content consumption habits continue to get faster and more visual. Users across platforms increasingly want to consume their media in appealing video format – even LinkedIn now has a video component!
Video is a strong way to “show” instead of “tell.” For example, you say you have state-of-the-art learning facilities or a vibrant campus or hands-on learning experiences – show students, as well!
Vertical is Key
The majority of social media platforms that are exceedingly popular with current and prospective students (think Instagram, YouTube Shorts, TikTok) feature vertical scrolling patterns, with the videos taking up the entire screen.
This is an intentional move to keep users scrolling on the platform for longer periods of time. Because of this, algorithms will prioritize vertical videos that fit this mold.
Additionally, if your video is horizontal, black bars will fill the top and bottom of the screen. This aesthetic backlash, coupled with the fact that horizontal video would be harder to see, increases the likelihood that a user will scroll past your video instead of watching it.
How to Shoot Vertical Video
a. Hold your cell phone or camera vertically
b. Enter the camera app and tap the screen to focus the shot; if using an iOS device, navigate to the upper right-hand corner, change HD to 4K, and 30 frames per second to 60 frames per second for the clearest shot
c. Record using a steady hand or a tripod
And that’s it! ✨ For a more detailed guide on filming and producing vertical shortform content, see our standard operating procedure (SOP).
Video Quick Tips
While a more detailed approach to creating short–form video can be found linked on the previous slide, here are some pocket tips to carry with you as you film:
a. Try to get strong lighting when possible by filming opposite of the strongest light source – it makes videos look cleaner and the subjects easier to see ✨
b. Closed captions are your best friend – and easy to add in a number of social media and editing platforms; captions help make videos more accessible, and reach a growing audience of users who prefer to watch videos muted �� (Just make sure to double-check spelling!)
c. To accentuate your video, add audio directly from the platform where you’ll be posting it – like Instagram’s music library ✨ (Be sure to check for foul or offensive language if lyrics are present!)
d. Keep your video under one minute long, if possible – we strive for 15–30 seconds ✨
Video Content Ideas
Need some ideas to get your video library started? View the links below for some evergreen ideas to add to your feed:
a. Facility or building tours
b. Upcoming department or college events
c. Faculty spotlights or relatable content
d. Trends that are angled to highlight college/department values
e. Faculty and staff engaging with students in trends
f. ‘Valpo on the Street’ student interviews
g. Research, projects, and community impact
h. Holiday spotlights in the college or department
i. Unique learning experiences
j. SOURCE, FiRES, and SiRES student spotlights
k. Special student moments
l. Unique departmental activities and experiential learning – like a meteorology balloon launch
m. College and departmental recaps
n. ‘Day in the Life’ videos of college/department students
o. Class trips and experiences
p. Fun or celebratory announcements from deans or professors
University Marketing Collaborations
If there’s ever a video you would like the University accounts to collaborate on, please don’t hesitate to reach out! The content prospective and current students most want to see often comes directly from the source – the colleges and departments they are interested in or are already part of. We are happy to help lift this content across our platforms.
Please send all video clips, the finished (muted) video, and the link to the video (if already posted) to Lexy Berry at lexy.berry@valpo.edu to discuss next steps.
You’re also welcome to tag us in your videos and invite @valparaisou as a potential collaborator on Instagram.
IMAGERY AND GRAPHICS
Focus on Photos
a. Candid photos showing the authentic joy of students and faculty on campus perform well on social media. Highlight these! (See examples on next page)
b. Leverage University photography resources:
1. Use Photoshelter (Valpo’s photo archive): Search by keyword or browse recent archive folders
2. For important events specific to the college, submit a marketing photo request at least two weeks in advance
c. Take photos on your phone! Prospective students want to see an authentic view of campus. Keep good lighting in mind, ensure photos are in focus, and strive to feature a variety of different students.
d. Do not add logos on photos. Instead, consider selecting photos that include branding naturally within the visual.
Optimizing Images
The image sizes shown below should be used to help optimize the display of social posts with a single photo. Using multiple images in a post can also make feed posts engaging; test the display before posting.
Alt text makes visual content more accessible and should always be added when uploading posts. Write alt text that describes what’s in the image in a concise way.
a. Example: Valparaiso University nursing students practice skills in a laboratory on campus.
Guidance on Graphics
a. Limit the use of graphics in social media posts – photos are recommended.
b. Check Valpo’s template portal, marq.com, for social media graphic templates if needed, such as for promoting event information.
1. Check with the college’s administrative assistant(s) for Marq login credentials.
2. For login help or template troubleshooting, email marq@valpo.edu
c. Because social media content has a shorter lifespan and relies on engagement to be successful, logos are not required in imagery.
WRITING FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
Writing Strong Captions
a. Think about your audience: Are you writing to connect with prospective students? Current students? Parents or alumni?
b. Vary your post copy across social channels based on the college’s primary audience on each platform.
c. Keep it short: Limit posts to 100-150 words to better engage social media users who are scrolling quickly through the feed.
d. Review Valpo’s brand guidelines to ensure captions are written to naturally incorporate the brand voice. The tone should be guided by Valpo’s personality traits outlined in the brand guidelines.
e. We encourage you to write within Valpo’s editorial style guidelines (see also, this quick reference).
Additional Writing Tips
a. Always include a CTA in posts (call to action):
1. Learn more at …
2. Discover more at …
b. Use hashtags sparingly, primarily just on Instagram and X.
c. Emojis can help catch attention and connect with students, but guidelines below must be followed:
1. Emojis showing people or hands may only be used with the default yellow skin tone (�� ✨ ✨)
2. Emojis showing people should use the gender-neutral version (✨ ⚕️✨✨)
3. If the heart emoji is used, the brown and gold hearts must be used together in this order: ✨✨
June 2025
a. Valpo is known as the “Brown and Gold” so this order is Emoji use should be limited - keep to 1-3 emojis per post
Mix in posts with short captions –they stand out as users scroll quickly in the feed.
Connect to your audience in the first sentence.
Campus Culture Committee Updated June 2025
Caption Inspiration
Start with a question or an interesting stat.
Use emojis as bullets to break up caption text (only on Instagram or X).
VALPO COLLEGES: LIST OF SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS
College of Arts and Sciences
a. Instagram: @valpo_cas
College of Business
a. Instagram: @valpocob
b. Facebook: Valparaiso University College of Business
c. X (Twitter): @ValpoCoB
d. LinkedIn: Valparaiso University College of Business
College of Engineering
a. Instagram: @valpocoe
b. X (Twitter): @ValpoCoE
College of Nursing and Health Professions
a. Instagram: @valpoconhp
b. Facebook: Valparaiso University College of Nursing and Health Professions
Christ College
a. Instagram: @valpocc
b. Facebook: Valparaiso University Christ College – The Honors College
c. X (Twitter): @valpocc
d. LinkedIn: Christ College – The Honors College
UNIVERSITY MARKETING CONTACTS
Lexy Berry
Digital Marketing Manager
Social Media Lead
lexy.berry@valpo.edu
Nicki Kollar ’18, ’26 MBA
Director of Marketing and Brand Management, Social Media Strategist
nicki.kollar@valpo.edu
Claire Kutanovski
Academic Marketing Manager claire.kutanovski@valpo.edu