Browse school-related Instagram accounts these days and you might find posts like this recent one:
“ITS FINALLY THAT TIME OF YEAR‼️ If you have any interest in playing school soccer at all come to the meeting!” paired with a black and red graphic screaming “GIRLS SOCCER INTEREST MEETING” on it. The post is an example of one of the Instagram-focused advertising strategies that teams have adopted to raise awareness and increase participation.
Currently, most school teams have moved their advertisements to a central Instagram account where they post graphics displaying team schedules and game results, advertise for fundraising events as well as provide photo coverage of games.
One such account is the boys’ volleyball Instagram account (@toga_mvb), run by junior Emerson Pak. She took over the account last spring at the request of her brother — sophomore Brennan Pak, who is on the team — and now works to increase the account’s activity.
During volleyball season, Pak updates the account’s story after every game and posts graphics to promote home games. She also often creates player profiles, posts that highlight individual players on the team, as well as game-day reminders themed in the school’s red colors.
The job may seem simple, Pak said, but it can often take hours to make graphics for the account, depending on the photo and the theme she’s going for. However, she said she enjoys editing the photos and putting the content on social media.
“It can sometimes be difficult if I have to push out graphics very quickly, but it’s not that bad, because it’s something that I like to do,” Pak said.
The girls’ soccer team’s Instagram (@saratogagirls_soccer) is run by senior Katelyn Fritz, a player on the team. The account consistently reports game dates and game results on its story. As the season begins, the instagram account starts with posts raising awareness about team tryout dates and later begins pumping up attending key games.
The instagram was created in December 2018, and it posted more than once a week during that season. However, during the past three seasons, the account wasn’t as well maintained and offered few posts. After Fritz took over at the beginning of this season, she has been trying to increase its presence.
Compared to previous years, posts on the girls’ soccer Instagram are now receiving an average of around triple the likes in previous years.
As years go by, most active accounts have gained a greater number of followers. Followers of the accounts have found that the social media accounts are indeed a helpful reminder for the school home games.
Said sophomore Bill Huang: “During the fall season, I would occasionally get posts from Toga6thman. Originally, I wasn’t going to go to the games, but then I was sucked in by the graphics and ended up going, and it was really fun.”.
Some other active Instagram accounts include girls’ water polo (@toga_ballhandlers_), girls’ volleyball (@togagirlsvolleyball), dance (@saratogadanceteam) and Saratoga 6th Man (@toga6thman).
Toga6thman, also run by Pak, features several of the school’s sports teams — such as football, boys’ tennis, boys’ basketball and girls’ soccer — and works to create more awareness for games and other sporting events. The account usually posts graphics around once every week throughout the school year.
Pak feels that Toga6thman has also been successful in bringing in people to watch and cheer for teams during home games.
“I think that pushing out posts and stories about the games consistently really helped more people to know when the games were. I also think that being more active on the social media account helped boost school pride and interest in cheering for the team,” Pak said.
