Try to post on weekdays during school hours. Aim for 1-3 posts a day but no more.
According to HubSpot's 2020 Instagram Engagement Report, educational organizations gain the most consistent traction during weekday hours from 11 AM to 4 PM. While peers check Instagram during class, in the halls or at lunch, Instagram posts will likely attract more attention and spread. Posting on weekday evenings is also recommended. Avoid posting on weekends unless it is breaking news, in which case you should post as soon as you can confirm.
Aim to post on Instagram at least once a school day to establish consistency. Try not to post more than 2-3 times a day. When narrowing down which stories to post, consider which have a larger potential audience.
Stories can be posted at any time during the school week since they will remain viewable for 24 hours. You should have 1-5 panels in your story at any point during the school week.
When to post
News is relevant to a large portion of the student body.
Because anybody can share a public Instagram post on their story, news that is relevant to many students should be posted rather than storied.
You want a broader reach of a story.
Odds are the entire student body isn't following your Instagram account. If you want an article to reach more than your general audience, post it so writers, editors, and other students can share it on their Instagram stories.
When to story
You don't want the article to be on your feed for longer than a day.
If the news is only relevant for a small period of time, like the score of a game or information about an early release day, keep it on your story.
If you know you will be posting multiple times in one 24-hour period.
For any event for which you plan on updating your followers multiple times in one time span, stick to the story. For example, story instead of posting multiple times in one night about the score of a game or performers at a talent show. Once the event is over, pick out some highlights from the night and turn that into a post that will be permanent on your feed.
You only want those mentioned in the story to share it.
Others can only share an Instagram story if they are mentioned in it. If you are posting about the drama club's musical and only want the drama club to be able to repost it, @ the club's account on your story. If you want the entire cast to be able to repost it, post it on your feed.
You want to take advantage of story features.
Instagram stories offer features not represented on conventional posts. Polls can be used to increase engagement on opinion pieces. Gifs and stickers can be used to animate a text-heavy story. The "Questions" tool is a great way to collect article ideas, hear and share input from students, and reinvent "Letters to the Editor."
Rather than posting solely photos or screenshots of text, combine the two to make for a visually appealing aesthetic. Use either Photoshop or Canva.com, a free, easy photo template/editing tool, to add text and photos to a square post.
Since Instagram squares are pretty small, use at most one large, horizontal/square photo. If the article leans itself to several smaller photos or 2-3 vertical photos, decide that as you design it. If the article has no photos, include a short quote or headline as block text (shown here) and expand in the caption.
Made by Rachel Schonberger with Canva
See the "Keeping an Aesthetic" section below to learn about font/color palette selection.