How I Posted 100+ Pieces of User-Generated Content on Instagram in One Year

As a one-person faculty comms team, there’s never enough time to do everything, and finding time to regularly create social media content can be difficult. To help ensure we have a regular stream of content on our student-focused Instagram account (@uvicscience), we’ve developed a strategy focused on user-generated content (UGC), where students across the faculty send us photos and captions to share.

In the span of one year, we posted 100+ pieces of user-generated content, from 100+ different students, which made up almost two-thirds of our feed posts. This strategy has allowed us to showcase our students’ experiences conducting research, on field trips and field schools, attending conferences, on exchange, with student clubs and events, and more, with a minimal time investment on our part.

Learn about how we find UGC opportunities, convince students to send us content, repurpose UGC content to amplify the reach, and the impact this strategy has had (spoiler: impressions are up 350%, engagement up 33%, and followers up 30%, year over year).

Nicole, in a pink sweater, leans forward on a rock with a rocky beach and water behind her.

Communications Officer, Faculty of Science, University of Victoria

Nicole (she/her) is currently the Communications Officer for the Faculty of Science at the University of Victoria (UVic), where she the oversees and implements the communications strategy for the Faculty, including web, social media, storytelling, media relations, marketing and more.

Prior to this role, Nicole worked in orientation and student life at UVic, where she supported students via several different communications tactics, spearheading an online orientation program, launching an Instagram account focused on supporting first-year students during the pandemic, and creating a new all-student newsletter. Nicole completed her M.Ed in Educational Technology at the University of Victoria in 2021.