With the fall semester winding down, my internship with the English Department’s social media team is also coming to a close. Looking back on our collaborative efforts, I feel confident that each of the interns achieved what we separately set out to do with the @duqenglish Instagram page.
Despite having three different editors, we have managed to maintain a consistent design throughout our social feed promoting several events, courses, and programs that Duquesne’s English department has had to offer these past few months. Our Halloween-themed posts similarly balanced a variety of mediums, bringing together long-tenured professors and PhD students to share their horror or horror-related favorite films, novels, urban legends, myths, and more, adding a personable, accessible social media presence for students looking to get more involved with the department in the future. Our promotion of coffeehouse readings, new course offerings, and study abroad opportunities saw some of the highest user engagement that the page has ever had, growing the account’s likes and followers since our taking over of the account.
As with anything, there are always ways to improve upon our work and lessons I have learned throughout this experience. Originally, I had in mind an even more unified, cohesive color palette or style to the posts to create a traditional appearance, complete with consistent fonts, colors, and layouts. However, I think employing the multiple collaborators to run the page has created a patchwork quilt of various styles, interestingly representing the many backgrounds and pathways that make up the English department.
This experience has been challenging at times, but most of all rewarding. The opportunity to see how much teamwork and effort go into running a social media page has provided great insight into the world of social media promotion, and I have learned practices and skills I plan to take with me into my next career opportunity.
Building Bridges 