Instagram Stories for Small Shops, Utilize Your Student-Athletes

January 29, 2020

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Instagram Stories for Small Shops, Utilize Your Student-Athletes - Presented by the New Media Committee

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Tips & Tricks From the CoSIDA New Media Committee Archive

Part 1

by Blake Childers – Berry College, Director of Sports Information & Promotions; bchilders@berry.edu

Member, CoSIDA New Media Committee

At a small shop, you likely don’t have the time or energy to post a hype video to social for every event. But an easy way to push content to your Instagram story, specifically, is utilizing your student-athletes and coaches. I have a great deal of success using this method and feel that our fans are more likely to stop and listen to a student-athlete video than read through a graphic.

It is important to let your student-athletes be natural. Don’t force them to read from a cheesy script. Instead, encourage them to highlight the big event as if they are talking to their friends or teammates. Hit the high points, but have fun.

Jake was our leading goal-scorer this year and is heavily involved around campus. We shot this video in under five minutes promoting a big Friday night conference matchup.

Emily is another standout in our department. This is her promoting the team’s home-opener

Our women’s soccer coach has been at Berry for 20+ years and is from Italy. Before we shot this, he asked if he could be “super Italian.”

Here, we got help from two softball student-athletes to help promo our men's basketball game as we were trying to set an attendance record. This helps create a sense of community.

Lastly, grab a crowd shot or big moment from the event. This is your receipt. It is important to show the results of the promos because it helps drive attendance.

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Part 2

by Kyle Piercy – Centre College, Director of Athletics Communications and Digital Media; kyle.piercy@centre.edu

Member, CoSIDA New Media Committee

We use a similar approach at Centre, where we also face limited resources to execute creative content. One thing that is at the top of our checklist when brainstorming: How can we leverage our student-athletes? Like Blake mentioned, our followers would much rather hear from our student-athletes than from us when it comes to promotions.

We’ve also utilized this mindset to give fans behind the scenes access to our programs through Instagram Story takeovers. We planned out most of the takeovers in the summer, looking for unique trips our teams were taking. Each team got one takeover in the regular season, and it worked out to where we were able to showcase a handful of trips that involved plane rides (which is not usual for us, obviously) and other cool experiences. We lucked out during the fall: including Football practicing at AT&T Stadium during their Austin trip; Men’s Soccer defeating two good teams and running into Adrian Peterson in Philadelphia; Women’s Soccer and Field Hockey each beating ranked teams during their turns. Fans got to see all that through the lens of the student-athlete.

Takeover_AT

Takeover_XC

The winter months are a little slower, obviously, so we haven’t had a takeover since mid-December when both basketball teams were in Daytona.

Some of my keys to a successful takeover:

Find the right student-athletes. Responsibility is a priority, of course, but so is creativity. Hopefully you know which folks to target. Since we follow student-athletes on Instagram, we knew who was (a) active, (b) positive and (c) knew how to utilize all the features (polls, stickers, countdowns, etc.) of a story.
Announce the takeover. I made a template in the summer and use it each week, announcing the takeover the day prior to the actual takeover on both Twitter and Instagram. This is an easily-shareable post that your selected student-athletes will likely re-post to drive excitement.
Stick to the story. This is a personal preference for us, but we ask our folks not to post on the timeline. Like most departments, we’re selective about what goes on the Instagram timeline, and I simply don’t trust student-athletes to maintain our “brand” during the takeover.
Stress “behind the scenes.” The point of this is to show fans what they might not otherwise have access to. It’s ultimately up to the student-athletes, but I tell them to show bus rides, team meals, pre-game prep, locker room celebrations, etc.
Save the story. You can save stories! On your profile page, hit the little + button under the “Edit Profile” button to create a highlight. This is way to save the takeovers as a highlight on your page. Add Highlight
Change your password. Don’t forget when the takeover is finished to change your password…

Calendar

All Events +

Important Dates

06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M.
M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)

07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M.
W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)

06/07/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/08/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/09/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M.
Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

06/10/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M.
Softball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)

06/16/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M/W At-Large Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

06/16/26 / 11:59 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Nomination Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)

06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-District Released; National Voting Begins (NCAA, NAIA)

06/23/26 / 12:00 P.M.
Baseball Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)

06/23/26 / 11:59 P.M.
M/W At-Large Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

06/30/26 / 11:59 P.M.
M/W Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA)

07/07/26 / 12:00 P.M.
W At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

07/08/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M At-Large Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

07/14/26 / 12:00 P.M.
M Track & Field/Cross Country Academic All-America Announced (NCAA, NAIA)

06/07/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/08/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/09/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

06/09/26 / 11:59 P.M.
Baseball Academic All-America National Ballot Voting Deadline (NCAA, NAIA, College Division)

06/10/26 / All Day
2026 CSC Unite Convention in Las Vegas

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Berry College IG Stories - Video 4

Berry College IG Stories - Video 4 [College Sports Communicators]

College Sports Communicators

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