Campus rec teams share data-driven insights and content strategies to strengthen engagement, increase awareness and drive participation among various platforms.
Social media plays a massive role in the lives of college students, with over 98% engaging with at least one platform daily. From Instagram to TikTok, campus recreation departments across the country are leveraging the popularity by making social media a central part of marketing strategies.
From building strategies going beyond promotion to using social media as a tool for community-building and engagement, campus rec teams from four universities share their approaches, offering best practices and key advice for departments looking to refine their own digital presence.
Platforms and Strategy
For these departments, the goals behind social media are largely the same — promote programs, engage students and make campus rec feel welcoming. Where each team differs is in the platforms they prioritize and the strategies they use.
Instagram is the most common across all four departments, serving as the primary channel for reaching and engaging students.
At Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic), the campus rec Instagram account is built around high-energy visuals. Reels, stories and informational graphics are designed to spotlight events and capture the atmosphere inside campus rec facilities.
The focus for Instagram at Youngstown State University (YSU) is more about personality. Billy Blaze, the coordinator of Membership and Marketing, said the platform is where the team works to establish connections.
“The main purpose of our Instagram account is to sell our identity and personality to our users, whether it’s through trendy short-form videos or simply showing off our student staff here,” said Blaze. “It’s great for putting fast updates on the story and helps to give an extra push to certain content, too.”
Alongside Instagram, several departments use TikTok as a secondary channel for more playful, trend-driven content.
At Willamette University, Quinn Nottage, the coordinator of Student Engagement and Leadership, said posting current, lighthearted content on TikTok — a platform increasingly popular with younger audiences — gives the department a new way to connect with students.
Western Oregon University (WOU) takes a similar approach, using TikTok for short-form entertainment while turning to YouTube for longer-form content when needed.
“Instagram is usually the most convenient for students, so we put our most interactive content there,” shared Brooke Rinard, the Marketing Specialist at WOU.
Florida Atlantic has also expanded into LinkedIn in recent years while moving away from X — a deliberate shift for the department to focus energy where engagement is highest.
LinkedIn has become a vital service for connecting with professionals, partners and alumni, while X no longer serves a meaningful purpose for many campus rec departments. The other three departments have made similar calls, phasing X out as engagement declined.
“On LinkedIn, we focus on the professional side of our department,” said Karla Alvelo, the social media intern for Campus Recreation at Florida Atlantic. “We plan to share our achievements, partnerships, leadership opportunities and initiatives that highlight the broader impact of campus recreation.”
Utilizing Data to Increase Impact
Across all four departments, engagement is the most valuable metric. Follower counts and views are easy numbers to fixate on, but what these teams actually want to know is whether their content is truly resonating.
For YSU, this means focusing on shares, saves and reposts over likes or reach. Blaze said he knows when a piece of content is resonating with the audience because of the share rate.
Alvelo echoes this mindset for Florida Atlantic, where saves, shares and comments are the metrics her team watches the closest. While follower count is worth monitoring, she described how it naturally fluctuates with the academic calendar, making it an unreliable indicator of how content is performing.
Beyond engagement, each department tracks specific metrics aligned with its content priorities.
At YSU, skip rate has become one of the most useful tools for evaluating video length. After a collaborative video with the university’s marketing team ran about a minute and a half and averaged a skip at around 10 seconds, the team shifted toward shorter content.
“The video got a lot of views and had a large reach, but the skip rate was around 10 seconds, so almost no one watched the whole video until the end,” explained Blaze. “After that, I recommended we keep the next video short and sweet. The information was direct, but the video was fun.”
The next video followed a trending format, ran nine seconds and retained nearly all viewers. This result ended up reshaping how the team approached video content going forward, helping them understand how shorter content performs better with their audience.
At WOU, the team reviews analytics at the end of each content cycle to plan the next one, tracking shares, views and reposts to identify what resonates.
When a post promoting an intramural ping pong tournament generated strong engagement and filled all available spots within hours, the department launched a second tournament to meet demand. For Instagram, the team looks at performance by content type to refine creative direction and strategy.
“Strong results on the explore page indicate broader reach, prompting us to replicate successful content styles and attract more new students,” noted David Ellis II, the coordinator for Campus Recreation at WOU. “For Instagram Reels, we closely track watch time and viewer retention. If we notice early drop-off, we adjust our hook, pacing or captions. When retention is strong, we analyze elements that made the content effective and intentionally incorporate them into future posts.”
For Willamette, the approach is intentionally simple. Nottage explained how deep analysis of data and intricate detail isn’t always realistic for a small team, so the focus remains on core metrics like followers, views and overall engagement.
Understanding what performs well on social media is one challenge, but translating those insights into consistent, effective content is another. For these departments, it comes down to experimentation, staying up-to-date and having a willingness to adapt.
Advice for Campus Rec Social Media
The most common piece of advice is to embrace trends often and not shy away from trying new formats.
“Embrace the social media trends and try to weave them into your marketing,” said Nottage. “It’ll allow you to reach various populations you may be missing out on and catch people’s attention.”
Alvelo echoed this, stressing how experimentation can keep content fresh and engaging. She also emphasized the importance of authenticity.
“Focus on showing what the student experience actually feels like,” shared Alvelo. “Engaging with various types of recreation users is important because not all students are group exercise or gym users.”
At WOU, one of the most valuable lessons the team has learned is the power of featuring students and making them feel seen. Content like photo dumps and event recaps allow students to spot themselves and their friends, naturally increasing engagement and shares.
Blaze added how balance is critical. While informational graphics can be useful, it’s student-centered content that ultimately drives participation.
“People will only commit to things when they can see themselves having fun doing it, so by posting pictures of students using the gym or participating in a program, you’ll get people not only engaging with your content online but your facility too,” said Blaze.
Ultimately, the most effective campus rec social media strategies aren’t defined by one platform, trend or metric. These habits are built on a clear understanding of student behavior, a commitment to being authentic and an enthusiasm for experimentation.
As student expectations and social media continue to evolve, teams that treat social media as more than just a promotional tool and instead as a space to highlight real experiences and build engagement will be best positioned to connect — both online and in their facilities.
