My jaw dropped when I added up the numbers.

I had never seen that kind of Instagram engagement.

  • 114,668 interactions
    • 114,236 likes
    • 432 comments
  • 1,307 new followers

That is what we did on the USTFCCCA Instagram account in May.

May is typically a big month for us across the board when it comes to our social media accounts and website (After all, it is #ChampionshipSzn in collegiate track & field). Just a few years ago, I drove +27K link clicks through Twitter to help us hit our first non-fall month with +500K page views. That doesn’t happen without a dedicated action plan, though.

Here are some lessons I learned from that huge month, where we really took our Instagram engagement to the next level.

Here is that Twitter thread in full, if you don’t wish to click through…

๐—œ๐—ณ ๐—”๐—ฝ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—น ๐˜€๐—ต๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐— ๐—ฎ๐˜† ๐—ณ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ … ๐—ช๐—ต๐—ฎ๐˜ ๐—ฑ๐—ผ ๐— ๐—ฎ๐˜†๐—ณ๐—น๐—ผ๐˜„๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€ ๐—ฏ๐—ฟ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด?

"Pilgrims" was the answer I always heard growing up โ€“ but, recently, I found that May flowers blossom into a record-breaking month on IG for @USTFCCCA.

(1/x)

๐—•๐—ฌ ๐—ง๐—›๐—˜ ๐—ก๐—จ๐— ๐—•๐—˜๐—ฅ๐—ฆ

Here is a closer look at May 2021

โœ… 1,307 new followers
โœ… 114,668 interactions, as defined by @crowdtangle & @opendorse (H/T @SkullSparks)

(2/x)

๐—ช๐—›๐—”๐—ง ๐—” ๐—–๐—ข๐— ๐—˜๐—•๐—”๐—–๐—ž!

Our #NCAATF x #TheCentury post about @USC_Track_Field's amazing victory at 2019 @NCAATrackField Outdoor Championships played a notable role in those numbers.

โœ… 16% new followers
โœ… 8% interactions
โœ… 137,902 Reach

https://www.instagram.com/p/CPBglWcrDiK/

(3/x)

But I learned the importance of…

๐—–๐—ฎ๐—ฟ๐˜ƒ๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ข๐˜‚๐˜ ๐—” ๐—ก๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ต๐—ฒ

I want @USTFCCCA to be THE place for collegiate track & field fans to turn when they want to understand the historical significance of a moment. Anybody can post results, but we add context behind it.

(4/x)

๐—จ๐˜€๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด ๐—ฌ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐—ฟ ๐—ฉ๐—ผ๐—ถ๐—ฐ๐—ฒ

Ever since I saw an initial boon, I maintained the same voice throughout all of our posts that I can. If someone sees something on IG & reads the caption, I want them to know it's coming from the @USTFCCCA without seeing the account name.

(5/x)

๐—ฆ๐˜†๐—ป๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐—ด๐˜† ๐—œ๐˜€ ๐—˜๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜†๐˜๐—ต๐—ถ๐—ป๐—ด

Our IG account would be nowhere near as successful over past 16 months w/o Lauren Ellsworth being able to bring my ideas to life after I do my best to articulate them. She has been invaluable. (Canโ€™t find her @ any longer)

(6/x)

Originally tweeted by Tyler Mayforth (@tylermayforth) on .