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Social Media in Higher Education: 13 Essential Tips
Social media usage is now the standard for higher education institutions. From student relations to recruitment to fundraising to crisis management, it’s a powerful communications tool for post-secondary institutions of all stripes.
That’s why we’ll be digging into the expanding role of social media in higher education in this post. Read on to learn how to use social tools to build your institutional reputation and foster a sense of collegiate community.
Bonus: Read the step-by-step social media strategy guide with pro tips on how to grow your social media presence.
It can seriously benefit higher education institutions to understand how social tools work. If you work in the post-secondary world, here are some of the main advantages of learning the tricks of the social media trade.
Promote your values and achievements
Social media use in higher education is significant in setting the tone on campus. Promote and represent the kind of culture your school aims to cultivate by making your institution’s mission and values known.
It’s a way to show students (past, present, and future) that you share values with them. This is critical, given that value alignment can inform everything from small purchases to major life decisions.
Tufts shared its commitment to democracy with a video series spotlighting its faculty.
Whether you’re broadcasting commitments to sustainability, investments in the community, or advances in medical research, bragging isn’t just a chance to show off. It lets prospective students, faculty, and partners know they’re welcome and supported. It can communicate the types of behavior that won’t be tolerated, too.
Promoting your achievements also gives your current class and alumni a chance to take a little pride in their alma mater. So go on: show off! Take followers on a tour of your state-of-the-art labs, announce award-winning research, highlight student accomplishments, or rally school spirit by celebrating athletic victories.
The University of British Columbia, for instance, shared its recent collaboration with clothing brand Lululemon, highlighting its innovative research into technical fabrics.
Connect with alumni and boost fundraising efforts
If you work in higher education, you already know that alumni are a major source of fundraising contributions. And if you’re looking to connect with graduates, social media is here to help.
Colleges and universities can use social networks to maintain connections to graduates. In fact, there are plenty of schools that maintain social accounts that are specifically geared to alumni relations—for instance, Facebook accounts to bring together alumni from specific cities.
Social can also be a great publicity tool for fundraising events, like Columbia University’s annual Giving Day campaign.
Social fundraising campaigns are a way to empower alumni, students, staff, and faculty to be active advocates for the school. Integrate these social campaigns with a CRM system. This will allow you to attribute funds, measure ROI, and see the cold-hard proof that your big Instagram push was a success.
Take advantage of UGC (user-generated content)
Your campus is jam-packed with digital natives. On TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, and beyond, students are creating content around the clock. In other words: you’ve got a wealth of authentic student posts at your fingertips to help boost your institution’s profile.
Take advantage of all this juicy content with a hashtag like the University of Alabama’s #wherelegendsaremade. And encourage students to use it as they share photos and videos across various social media platforms.
You can even repost the best ones (crediting the authors, of course) on your official channels.
Social media contests encourage students to share content you can use. Simple rewards like university logo clothing work well as motivational prizes. Plus, those promotional clothing items will likely appear in later posts, organically promoting the university.
Develop new learning opportunities
Social media in higher education presents powerful opportunities for creative thinking and presentation. As important as traditional information sources like books and academic journals are, social media can be a valid research or communication tool. Maybe students could use a course-based hashtag to collect Tweets and discuss their impact or meaning, or dive deep into Facebook for a critical look at misinformation and propaganda in the 21st century.
This Memorial University course used Twitter as a discussion forum: students discussed readings and research for their Human Kinetics and Recreation 1000 course using the hashtag #HKR1000.
#HKR1000
Term Assignment #1 is due today by 3:59pm (NL time)!You need 21 days of mood checks (MC); submit your mood heat map, total # of MC bar graph, and 250-300 word analysis of your moods in 1 docx. Look for patterns!
Submit early to mitigate any technical issues!
— Laura Squires (@MUNles162) October 26, 2021
The A. Holly Patterson Library at Nassau Community College provides resources for instructors to incorporate social media education in assignments. These include guides on information literacy and spotting fake news.
Social media is a prolific and popular communication tool in our modern society: the way most people in the Western world build connections and exchange information. More than 4.6 billion people around the world use some form of social media—that’s more than 75 percent of the eligible global population.
Not every university should feel compelled to run out and start a TikTok account. But to ignore social media overall is to miss an opportunity to quickly and easily share important messages, build community, and expand your institution’s profile.
New York University, for instance, uses Twitter to share news about expanding their campus, exciting academic publications, new scholarships, and more. These posts reach 184,000 followers.
We couldn’t resist SPRINKLING a little SWEETNESS around campus as students head into the final stretch of the semester. 🧁 Study well, NYU! 💜 pic.twitter.com/susnKNjDPC
— New York University (@nyuniversity) December 13, 2022
Social media is flexible and approachable. It brings people together, and offers a platform for sharing important information.
If your job as a higher education institution is to educate and inform, consider your social media accounts to be digital classrooms. They are spaces where all are welcome to come and learn more about you, your accomplishments, and your values.
Here’s how higher education institutions can make the most of their social media accounts.
Attract new students and staff
A recent study by Niche Partners found 73% of aspiring students use social media to research schools. Make it easy for students to picture their future at your university. Showcase college life with virtual tours (like this one of Wegner Library from Harvard) and student takeovers.
Feature the clubs, communities, and social opportunities attendees can get involved in. Show off the campus, or a super-fun football game (wee see you, U or Idaho Vandals!). Help them understand the benefits your institution offers beyond academic study.
@uidahovandals POV your first home football game 🏈 Too many things to love about it. What’s your favorite? ⬇️ #vandalfootball #kibbiedome #uidaho #vandals
Listen as much as you share
Social media is a powerful broadcasting tool, but it can be a great space for listening, too.
Students are conversing, interacting, calling out their profs, airing complaints, participating in trends, critiquing cafeteria food, and engaging in rousing debate. This chatter can offer some intriguing insights into life on campus or highlight issues that are bubbling under the surface.
All this makes it essential to conduct active social listening, monitoring key accounts, hashtags and keywords to keep yourself in the loop.
Here’s an intro to social listening using Hootsuite streams.
Establish social media guidelines and policies
With so many people and accounts involved, it’s important to establish guidelines and policies to keep everyone on track. Solid documentation helps streamline onboarding, promotes best practices, and maintains a unified voice across channels.
Your complete set of higher education social media guidelines should include:
- A social media style guide
- Guidelines for dealing with negative messages
- A crisis communications and emergency management plan
- Social media policies
- Social media compliance agreements
- Contact information for relevant members of the social team
- Links to social media training opportunities
- Mental health resources
It may seem like a lot of ground to cover. But thorough guidelines provide crucial support to social managers. They also empower students and faculty to participate in an independent and authentic way. As a bonus, they reduce the need for support from the core team.
Share important updates in real time
No one hopes for crises or emergencies. But it’s important for institutions to plan for them. People increasingly look to social media for real-time updates and information, so social should be a key part of your crisis communications plan.
Think ahead about how you might address faculty drama, on-campus criminal activity, or even natural disasters, so that your communications team isn’t caught off-guard when the unthinkable happens. Rumors travel fast on social media, so ensure you take charge of chaotic situations with clear, concise messaging to help quell concerns early.
Even something like a bad snow day—like the one Simon Fraser University faced recently—may require a public announcement. Social is a great place to spread the word about the status on campus, or safety precautions.
All SFU campuses are open today, Dec 1. Remember to exercise caution and give yourself extra time as you make your way to campus. Visit https://t.co/rkT0MxjdGS for transit alerts and check https://t.co/s9I0q6OhCb and the SFU road report for the latest commuting conditions. pic.twitter.com/hkyFiDebba
— Simon Fraser University (@SFU) December 1, 2022
Crisis communication can go beyond an on-campus scandal or weather disruption. It’s expected, in 2023, that institutions and corporations alike respond to social movements as well. Social media can be used to share concrete action plans to address social or institutional issues as they arise.
Streamline your social media operations
Higher ed social media operations tend to involve a lot of people… even more channels. Bring everyone and everything together with a central hub. With the support of a tool like Hootsuite, a core team can monitor all channels from a central dashboard.
This makes life easier for often under-resourced social managers. Use the dashboard to assign tasks, approve and schedule posts, coordinate content from contacts across the campus, and mobilize in the event of a crisis.
Engage students on and off-campus
A key advantage of social media in higher education is that it allows students to connect. That might be from home, different campuses, work study programs, or at a conference.
Not all students live on campus. That doesn’t mean they’re less motivated to engage and participate in student life.
Create a social media group to rally students. Base them on wide-ranging topics, interests, experiences, and activities. For instance, University of Chicago runs a Civic Engagement page to bring together students looking for community service and activism opportunities.
UChicago Medicine has debuted a new Simulation Mobile Unit! It will be used for community outreach as well as…
Posted by UChicago Civic Engagement on Monday, December 5, 2022
Livestream campus life
Nearly a third of all internet users report watching at least one video live stream each week.
And can you blame them? Live streaming is authentic, engaging, and—we won’t deny it—a little bit thrilling. Social media makes it incredibly simple to broadcast campus life to the world.
Whether a private livestream just for students of a particular class, or putting a commencement speech up for the world to see, it just takes a few taps to livestream on most social media platforms.
Check out our full guide to livestreaming on social here.
Develop a social media strategy
Behind every successful social media channel, there’s a strategy at play. Add more channels to the picture, and the need for strategy increases. But so do the challenges.
It’s an enormous challenge to create a strategy for a multi-channel organization, but it starts with creating an overarching social media marketing strategy for the institution itself. Then, each individual department or account should align its specific strategy back to the university’s core objectives. This creates a clear business case for social media and allows managers to better allocate resources.
Pore over your analytics
Sure, you might be able to gauge student sentiment on campus by measuring the number of sweatshirts sold from the gift shop, or eavesdropping in the cafeteria. But social media analytics offers accurate data to help you understand your audience quantitatively.
Maybe you’re hoping to drive more traffic to your website or reach a specific demographic of potential students. With social media metrics, it’s clear as day how close you’re getting to your goals.
Reviewing your engagement, reach, and audience data can help you understand just how successful your communications have been—and guide you towards obvious areas for improvement in the future.
Hootsuite Analytics can package up intel from your various social platforms with one-off or regularly scheduled reports.
Use social media as a message board
Social media can act as a great hub for feedback or conversation for the community at large. It’s also a natural place for connection for specific classes, clubs, or identity groups.
Instead of spending time and money building a student portal no one is going to use, embrace the platforms that are already known and loved (or at least, tolerated) by the community.
Here are some ideas for digital gathering spaces for the campus community:
- Facebook groups for students seeking housing
- Twitter threads collecting input for the new student center
- Hyper-specific Instagram accounts dedicated to the experience of international students
Of course, social media’s messaging potential doesn’t have to be limited to social activities: professors can use hashtags to generate and track class discussions, too.
Build and empower communities
Create hashtags the student body can rally behind online. Develop an accessible intake program so students and faculty can apply to create and manage accounts. Let students and their creativity take over — it pays off.
The University of New Hampshire has an application form so any student can apply to take the reins of their social channels for a limited period of time.
Student takeovers are a powerful view into authentic campus life, whether you’re sharing the work of one dedicated creator or are sharing user-generated content from a various community members.
@livheim A day in the life a second year architecture student at penn state during covid 😍😍😍 #pennstate #psu #fyp #covid #zoomuniversity
The point is, the more people who share content, the greater your institution’s reach and social share of voice, so invite in ambassadors to help whenever you can. With Hootsuite Amplify, faculty, staff, and students can share vetted, on-brand content and increase reach.
Adopt a platform-specific approach
Did you check out the social media directories we mentioned above? If so, you’ll notice the social platforms used vary across departments, faculties, and other areas of university life.
Does admissions need a LinkedIn page? Does information aimed at parents need to go on TikTok? It’s important to consider which platforms are most likely to reach the right audience.
But remember: You’re not just talking to Gen Z. Your audience includes students and potential students, of course, but they may not all be in their late teens or early twenties. In public four-year schools in the U.S., 90% of students are under 25. But for private for-profit four-year institutions, 66% are 25 or older.
Beyond mature students, you’ve also got to reach plenty of other adult audiences:
- parents
- corporate partners
- other institutions
- faculty and potential faculty
- Staff
Get to know each of your social audiences. Look for trends in age range, gender, location, and, if available, occupation, education level, and interests. With these findings, tailor and personalize messages for each different audience.
For instance, LinkedIn may not be the best platform for recruiting undergraduates. But it could be the ideal place to market continuing education programs or recruit new instructors.
TikTok might be a good channel for admissions content, or recruitment. Just look at how University of Florida entices potential students with this 15-second campus tour.
@uf 15 second campus tour. #gogators #universityofflorida
(It can also be a platform to experiment and simply build community in the inexplicable way that only TikTok can.)
Stay on top of platform and demographic trends to identify where your communities are most active. This allows managers to focus on channels that drive the most results. Management tools like Hootsuite make it easy to compare how channels stack up against each other.
Invest in building a team
Social media for higher education is not a one-person job. Nor is a job that should be left to interns. (Although it is a great idea to include student interns or work placement positions on your social team.)
Don’t yet have a full team? Create strategic alliances with other departments. You’ll gain access to more information and resources than you could on your own.
You can also maximize the time of a small team with a social media management platform like Hootsuite. Create posts in advance, schedule them for the best posting times, and upload batches of posts in bulk. You also don’t waste time logging in and out of different platforms.
There’s really no denying the benefits of social media for modern higher education institutions, as well as for students, alumni, and faculty of those institutions. But if you need to prove to higher-ups that you require more budget for social media, come prepared with plenty of information about your current return on investment, like a social media report.
Save time managing your social media presence with Hootsuite. From a single dashboard you can publish and schedule posts, find relevant conversions, engage the audience, measure results, and more. Try it free today.
Book a demo to see how Hootsuite helps universities and schools:
→ Drive enrollment
→ Boost student engagement
→ Raise new funds
→ Simplify social media marketing
![how-to-schedule-tweets-[3-methods-+-bonus-tips]](https://www.social-ping.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/133227-how-to-schedule-tweets-3-methods-bonus-tips-400x240.png)
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Responding to messages quickly is a huge part of social media customer service—and it’s no different whether you’re dealing with messages on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. Luckily, Instagram has an easy-to-use option that can cut down on your team’s time responding to questions.
With Instagram auto reply, you can easily set auto-responses to common questions and messages. This feature cuts down on the time your social media support team needs to spend monitoring and replying to customers.
In this article, we’ll talk more about the Instagram auto reply feature, how it can be used, and a few message examples for inspiration.
Bonus: Get a free, easy-to-use Customer Service Report Template that helps you track and calculate your monthly customer service efforts all in one place.
What is Instagram auto reply?
Instagram auto reply is a feature available in your Instagram message settings that allows you to send automatic responses to frequently asked questions.
For example, if you regularly get a question like, “Do you offer free shipping?” your team can set up an auto reply that will answer the question instantly rather than forcing the customer to wait for a real person to respond.
There are a few different ways you can do this:
- Instagram tools: Set automatic responses for frequently asked questions or craft canned messages that your team can easily send out via Instagram DM.
- Meta Business Suite: Set up messaging automations for both Instagram and Facebook.
- Third-party inboxes: Use tools like Hootsuite Inbox to easily monitor and manage your Instagram direct messages and comments.
Learn more about how a social inbox like Hootsuite’s can help streamline your social media communication in this video:
There are several ways to take advantage of Instagram’s auto reply feature. Here are just a few types of automated responses you might consider setting up:
- Welcome messages
- Away messages
- Frequently asked questions
- Share contact information
- Share business hours of operation
- Provide shipment and payment details
- Offer discounts
- Explain wholesale pricing information
- Tell customers how to handle issues with their orders
- Share links to additional resources
Pros and cons of using Instagram auto reply
So why use Instagram auto reply? Is it the best option for creating automated responses and freeing up your team’s time? As always, it depends on your needs.
Let’s cover some basic pros and cons to help you decide.
Pros
- Make a good impression. Instagram shows your followers how quick your team is to respond. A faster response time is a better look for your business.
- Answer questions before they’re asked. Create an auto-responder that gives your customers a clear idea of when they can expect to hear from a real person—unless your auto replies can give their answer immediately.
- Save your team time. Stop writing the same reply over and over again. Automated messages give your team more time for escalated messages and other customer support issues.
- Never miss a message. You don’t have to worry about time zones when you enlist auto reply. Even when your team isn’t working, customers can get answers as soon as they send a message.
Cons
- Only for Instagram and Facebook. Instagram/Meta’s built-in features only work for these two platforms. You’ll have to enlist the help of external tools for other social media platforms—don’t worry, we’ve got more on that below.
- You have to connect your Facebook and Instagram pages. In order to access some of the more advanced tools, you must use Meta Business Suite, so you’ll have to connect your Facebook and Instagram pages.
Reduce response time (and your workload)
Manage all your messages stress-free with easy routing, saved replies, and friendly chatbots. Try Hootsuite’s Inbox today.
15 Instagram auto reply message examples
Not sure what types of auto replies to set for your Instagram messages? Here are 15 examples to help inspire you.
Welcome message
Send one of these options to all new incoming Instagram DMs whenever your team is unavailable for a quick response:
- Thank you for getting in touch! Our team is available from 10am-3pm CT. We’ll get back to you within those hours!
- Hey there—thanks for reaching out! Your message is important to us. Someone on our team will get back to you within the next 12 hours.
- Sorry we missed you! Our team is currently unavailable, but we’ll be back around 8am GMT.
Basic business information
Use one of these when someone messages you on Instagram to ask about hours of operation or contact information:
- Our hours of operation are 11am-11pm ET Monday through Saturday.
- To get in touch with a representative directly, please give us a call at [###-###-####].
- To learn more or request a demo, email us at sales@company.com.
- Our offices are located at 1234 Business Street.
Frequently asked questions
Here are a few common questions and answers you might want to incorporate into your Instagram auto replies.
How long does shipping take?
- You can expect your items to arrive within 3-5 business days of your order.
How can I cancel my plan?
- To cancel, go to the “Account” section of your dashboard and find the “Cancel plan” button.
- We’re sad to see you go! To cancel, please call one of our representatives directly at [###-###-####] or send an email to cancellations@company.com
Do you offer any discounts?
- We love that you asked! Use promo code INSTA for 10% off your purchase.
What services do you offer?
- We offer accounting services for small businesses.
How much do your services cost?
- We work on a monthly retainer basis. Packages start at $1,000/month and go up to $15,000+ depending on your needs.
Are you taking new patients?
- Yes, please head to our website to fill out the form for new patients.
- Unfortunately, our therapists are fully booked at the moment. Please check back next quarter to see if any spots have opened up.
There are two ways to set up auto replies on Instagram. The first is pretty easy—do so right inside the Instagram app. The second involves digging into the Automations option in Meta Business Suite.
We’ll walk you through each process.
How to set up auto replies via the Instagram app
First, open the Instagram app. Tap the messages icon in the top right corner of the home feed. Then, tap on the ellipses in the top right corner of your messages dashboard and select Tools.
Here, you can set either saved replies (canned responses your team can tap on to send manually) or auto replies for frequently asked questions.
Tap on Frequently asked questions to access the auto reply feature. Instagram will typically include a few starter questions. You can customize these or use them as is—just add answers.
Add as many questions as you want. You can even show these questions in chat, so customers who want to message you have options to choose from.
How to set up auto replies in Meta Business Suite
If you have your Facebook Business Page set up and optimized and your Instagram business profile connected, you can use Meta Business Suite to create automations like this.
First, head over to your Facebook Business Page, then click on Meta Business Suite in the left-hand sidebar.
You’ll then be taken to the Meta Business Suite dashboard. From here, click on Inbox in the right-hand sidebar.
This inbox section will hold all messages and comments from Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. If you’re looking for a single place to manage these, Business Suite is a great place to do so. The biggest downfall is that those are the only platforms you can monitor here (more on that later).
To set up your auto-reply messages, click the atom icon to access Automations.
Here, you can set up a number of automations relating to your direct messages across all of Meta’s platforms. If you haven’t previously set up Frequently asked questions, it will appear as one of the Suggested for you options. Click on it to get started.
Select your Instagram account from the list of places you want to turn this automation on. Then, start adding questions. You can preview them in the left-hand sidebar.
Once you’re done, click Save changes and toggle this automation into the On position. And voila! You’ve got your frequently asked questions set up.
Other automations you can create are:
- Away messages
- Instant replies
- Follow ups
How to auto-respond to messages and comments on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn
We mentioned that Meta Business Suite is great for managing your messages and comments on Facebook and Instagram. But if your brand uses other platforms, like X (formerly known as Twitter) and LinkedIn, you’ll need additional support.
Good news—you’re in luck! With Hootsuite’s Social Inbox, your entire social media and customer support team can monitor, manage, and respond to messages across all social media platforms in one space.
You can store information about various customers so you never start a new interaction as strangers, helping customers feel seen and valued. Assign messages and interactions to certain team members so the most-equipped person can handle each specific issue.
Use Hootsuite Inbox as your social media help desk, resolving messages as soon as they’ve been responded to and keeping notes on customer issues.
Create auto-responders for every social media platform you manage with Hootsuite.
Book a free Hootsuite demo and try Inbox today
Why should you use Instagram auto reply?
Instagram auto reply is a great way to minimize wait time for frequently asked questions. If you know common questions your audience has, and there’s a set answer you can provide, set it as an auto-response.
This saves your team time and ensures your Instagram followers don’t have to wait for a response.
How do you turn Instagram auto reply off?
There’s no quick on-off toggle for Instagram auto reply. Instead, you’ll have to go into your Instagram messaging tools and remove any frequently asked question responses you’ve input.
What is a saved reply on Instagram?
A saved reply is a similar tool to auto replies. Instead of sending instantaneously, though, saved replies are simply stored in your Instagram messaging settings for your team to manually send out. This works if the question someone asks has different answers depending on the time of year. You can save replies for a quick response, but you don’t want to have the response be automatic.
Keep your customers happy with faster message responses, thanks to Hootsuite. Respond to questions and complaints, create tickets from social conversations, and work with chatbots all from one dashboard. See it in action.
Save time on social messaging with automated responses, smarter workflows, and friendly chatbots — all in the Hootsuite Inbox.
Ever seen an Instagram emoji fail IRL? Maybe your grandma used an eggplant emoji in a… compromising place. Or, your uncle was trying to be funny and added the poop emoji to his bio.
Yikes.
Whatever the case, emoji etiquette exists. Understanding the meaning and placement of emojis is essential to avoiding terrible, embarrassing communication mistakes.
Here’s everything you need to know about Instagram emoji meanings.
BONUS: Want to learn more ways to wow your fans on social? Check out our article on secret TikTok emojis.
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Instagram emoji translator
Pro tip: if you’re stuck with emoji translation, we’ve got the perfect tool for you. Hootsuite’s emoji translator is free to use and will help you crack the code on any emoji string.
Not only does the translator break down each pictogram’s meaning, but it also details how viewers typically react to the combo. Super helpful if you don’t want to send an unintended message!
Please note: This tool may display inaccurate or offensive material that doesn’t represent Hootsuite’s views. You’re solely responsible for use of any content generated using this tool, including its compliance with applicable laws and third-party rights.
What are Instagram emoji?
Instagram emoji are pictograms, icons, or small images used to express an emotion, idea, or feeling. Some emoji are universal (most people know that the heart symbol means love), while others have their own unique interpretations based on regional culture and language.
Popular emoji symbols include:
- Smiley face
- Sad face
- Clapping hands
- Thumbs-up
- Heart
- Fire
There are literally thousands of emoji characters available on Instagram—from dragons and lizards, people exercising, and even ice cream cones. You can find Instagram emojis in two places: your native Instagram app and the world of third-party keyboard extensions.
What are Instagram reactions?
Instagram reactions are a way to quickly express your feelings without typing out a response. For example, if someone posts a funny meme, you can tap the laughing face emoji reaction instead of typing out “lol” or “haha.”
Instagram reactions are generally used as a reply to Instagram Stories and Instagram direct messages.
When watching a Story, click on the Send a message box to reply. You’ll then see a pop-up of six popular emoji to choose from.
You can also choose your own emoji by clicking on the small smiley face icon on your keyboard.
To use Instagram emoji reactions for direct messages, hold your finger down on the sent message, and a list of emoji will pop up. Choose from this list, or click the plus button to use your own emoji.
Where can you use Instagram emoji
You can use Instagram emoji in comments, captions, direct messages, as replies to Stories, and even in your Instagram bio. Basically, anywhere that allows for text input.
When you’re in a comment thread or writing a caption, a list of your most-used emojis will appear at the top of your reply.
If you want more, tap the smiley face icon to access Instagram emojis. If you’ve recently used an emoji, it will usually appear at the top of the list so you can easily select it again.
Bonus: Download a free checklist that reveals the exact steps a fitness influencer used to grow from 0 to 600,000+ followers on Instagram with no budget and no expensive gear.
Stuck at home thinking, “Why can’t I react to Instagram messages with emojis?” No worries. You may need to update your messaging app. Follow Instagram’s easy how-to here.
How to change your emoji reaction
Wondering how to react with emoji on Instagram? There are six default Instagram emoji reactions:
- Crying face
- Wow face
- Heart eyes
- Laughing face
- Clapping hands
- Fire
If you use custom emoji, they will show up in your reactions, allowing you to choose from a larger selection.
To choose a custom emoji, tap the smiley face icon on your mobile keyboard. Scroll through the list of options and tap to select the emoji you want. Once selected, it will appear in your reaction selection.
BONUS: Check out our full list of Snapchat emoji to snazz up your snaps.
Instagram reaction meanings
To avoid any potential misinterpretations, it’s important to remember the meanings behind Instagram reactions.
Here’s what each emoji reaction stands for:
- Crying face (😢) = Sadness, disappointment
- Wow face (😮) = Surprised or amazed
- Heart eyes (😍) = Love or admiration
- Laughing face (😂) = Funny or humorous
- Clapping hands (👏) = Encouragement or applause
- Fire (🔥) = Approval or agreement
Remember, the reactions you use should be appropriate for the context. For example, don’t express sadness at a funny meme. Similarly, don’t use a fire emoji to comment on your teacher’s vacation beach photo.
Popular Instagram emoji meanings
Tired of deciphering the meanings of emoji for Instagram? Here’s a quick reference sheet to keep on file.
- Thumbs up (👍) = Positive sentiment.
- Thinking face (🤔) = Curiosity, pondering ideas.
- Laughing with tears (😂) = Something is so funny you’re crying.
- Red heart (❤️) = Love, affection.
- Puke face (🤢) = Disgust or disapproval.
- Skull (💀) = Death, danger, or something is so funny you died.
- Hot face (🥵) = Passion or admiration.
- Smirk face (😏) = Flirting, teasing.
- Poop (💩) = Joking around.
- Party popper (🎉) = Celebration.
- Cat (😸) = Cuteness or someone acting like a cat.
- Drooling face (🤤) = Desperation, wanting something badly.
- Nail polish (💅) = Girl power.
- Sunglasses (😎) = Coolness, acknowledgement of a job well done.
- Eyes (👀) = Watching or paying attention.
- See-no-evil monkey (🙈) = Embarrassment or hiding something.
- Money bag (💰) = Wealth, success, or materialistic desires.
- Smiling devil face (😈) = Naughtiness or reckless behavior.
- Hugging face (🤗) = Appreciation, affection.
- Wink (😉) = Flirting or playful teasing.
- Silly face (🤪) = Fun or being goofy.
- Nerd face (🤓) = Intelligence, nerdiness.
- Confused face (😕) = Bewilderment or uncertainty.
- Money mouth (🤑) = Greed or wealth.
- Handshake (🤝) = Agreement, making a deal.
- Fist bump (👊) = Support or agreement.
- Woman dancing (💃) = Joy or celebration.
- Man dancing (🕺) = Letting loose, having fun.
- Tropical island (🏝️) = Relaxation or vacation.
- Plane (✈️) = An upcoming journey.
- Rainbow (🌈) = Optimism, happiness, pride.
- Globe (🌎) = Unity, the world coming together.
- Praying hands (🙏) = Asking for blessings or help.
- Rocketship (🚀) = A great success or achievement.
- Disco ball (🪩) = Partying or having a good time.
- Peace sign (✌️) = Affirmative, agreement, or a sign of peace.
- Heart (💖) = Love, care, and affection.
- Cat with heart eyes (😻) = Happiness due to love.
- Birthday cake (🎂) = A celebration of life.
- Star (⭐️) = Stardom, achieving greatness.
- Four-leaf clover (🍀) = Luck or fortune.
- Sparkles (✨) = Magic, beauty, and awe.
- Trophy (🏆) = Accomplishment or success.
- Shooting star (🌠) = Wishes coming true.
- Lightning bolt (⚡️) = Power, energy, and excitement.
Looking for fun emoji to use on Discord? Check out our full list of Discord emoji, complete with customizations and tricks.
Instagram emoji caption ideas
If you want to get creative with your Instagram bio, here are a few cute emojis for Instagram bios:
- Chasing dreams and sunshine. ☁️🌈
- On a seafood diet: I see food and I eat it! 🍣🍕🍔🍰
- Life’s a game 🎮, and I’m the master of figuring out the rules as I go 🤷♀️.
- Bringing a little sparkle wherever I go. ✨
- Hoping for a year where all my socks find their soulmates. 🧦❤️🔍
- Sunkissed and heart full of joy. 🌞❤️
- Nature doesn’t hurry, yet everything is accomplished. 🌲🕰️🌳
- Collecting memories like seashells. 🐚📸
- Plotting world domination 🌍, one project 📁 at a time.
- Life’s a blend of chaos ⚡, caffeine ☕, and a pinch of serendipity ✨.
- Lost in the pages of a good book and a happy heart. 📚❤️
- Radiating good energy, one smile at a time. 🌟😊
- Exploring new places with a skip in my step. 🗺️💃
- Happiness blooms from within. 🌻🌱
- Living life unapologetically and loving it. 🌟💖
- Sunset state of mind. 🌅🧡🌴
- Embracing adulting like… wait, how do you adult again? 🤷♀️👩💼
- I take mirror selfies because my reflection understands me. 🤳👯♀️🪞
- Wearing my invisible crown and ruling the day. 👑💁♀️🌟
- Professional napper and aspiring world traveler. 💤✈️😴
- Dressed to impress 💃, ready to conquer deadlines 📊 and dance floors 🕺.
- Spreading positivity like glitter – it gets everywhere! ✨😄💫
- Slaying the day one caffeine molecule at a time. ☕⚡️👊
- Living that “I’m not a morning person” stereotype proudly. 🌅☕😴
- Exploring the world, one food coma at a time. 🌍🍔🍟🍦
- Absolutely loving the sunshine on my face. ☀️
- Embracing the little moments that make life big. 🌟
- Laughing at my own jokes like… 😂
- Dancing through life’s ups and downs. 💃🕺
- Finding joy in the simplest things. 🌼
- Balancing dreams 💭, goals 🎯, and the occasional pizza slice 🍕.
- Hiking trails and chasing sunsets – that’s my kind of therapy. 🥾🌅🏞️
- Adventures and smiles, that’s my kind of therapy. 🌄
- Savoring the sweetness of today. 🍭
- Life’s a puzzle 🧩, and I’m collecting moments 📸 to complete the picture
- Living life with a little bit of sugar, spice, and everything fried. 🍔🍟🍦
- Spreading positivity like confetti. 🎉
- Collecting memories around the world, one destination at a time. 📸❤️
Life’s too short for a boring adventure. Let’s get lost! 🌟🌍 - Living in a world of filters, but my personality is 100% real! 😂📸🙌
- Lost in a world of good vibes. 🌈
- Living for the moments that steal my smile. 💖
- City lights and late nights. 🌆🌙 Chasing waves and dreams. 🌊🌌
- Living life in full bloom. 🌸🌼
- In a world full of trends, be a classic. 👗👓
- Sweatpants enthusiast with a PhD in Netflix. 📺👖🍕
- Taking each day one cup of coffee at a time. ☕❤️
- Exploring art, one brushstroke at a time. 🎨🖌️
- Adventures are calling, and I must go. 🌄🌍
- Counting memories, not calories, on this vacation. 🏖️🍕📸
- Finding joy in the rhythm of everyday life. 🎶😊
- Living life like a work of art in progress. 🎨🌟
- Weekend warrior on a quest for relaxation. 🌴🌴
- Capturing moments that make my heart skip a beat. 💓📷
- Trying to adult, but my snacks keep distracting me. 🍕📚🤔
- Chasing goals and catching smiles along the way. 🏃♀️😄
- I’m not procrastinating, I’m just giving my ideas time to marinate. 🤔🍳🧠
- Flipping my hair and conquering the day. 💁♀️💪
- Exploring the great outdoors and my own backyard. 🏞️🏡
- Celebrating life’s beautiful mess one day at a time. 🎉🤹♀️
- Making my own sunshine because I can’t find the remote. ☀️📺🤷♂️
- Happiness is homemade, and I’m the chef. 🍳👩🍳
- When life gives you lemons, add tequila and have a party! 🍋🍹🎉
- Living life like a perpetual DIY project – mostly Pinterest fails. 🛠️📌😅
- The only drama I enjoy is in my lashes. 👁️🗨️😂
- Current status: Coffee in one hand, confidence in the other. ☕🙌
- Facing challenges with the determination of a honey badger 🦡 – fearless and a little bit sassy 💁♀️.
- My bed and I have the perfect relationship – we’re always in a good sleepover. 🛏️💤😴
- I’m not arguing, I’m just explaining why I’m right. 💁♀️🗣️🤣
- Taking life one cup of coffee at a time, with a splash of sarcasm. ☕️🙃
- “Adulting” was a typo, and I’ve been trying to “adult” ever since. 🤦♀️👶👩🍳
- When in doubt, add more glitter. And then some more. ✨✨✨
- Living life like it’s a marathon, but I’m definitely built for sprinting. 🏃♀️🍕😅
- Behind every great person is a pile of laundry they’ve been avoiding. 🧺🤷♂️👑
- I put the “elusive” in exercise. 🏋️♀️🤷♀️😆
- My superpower? Turning pizza into energy. 🍕⚡️🦸♀️
- If I were a superhero, my power would be finding the last piece of chocolate. 🍫🦸♀️
- My horoscope said I should do something crazy today. So I wore mismatched socks. ♒🧦😜
- I’m not clumsy, I’m just participating in the floor’s obstacle course. 🤸♀️🤦♂️😂
- Too glam to give a damn, but not too glam to eat leftovers. 💅🍛😉
- When life gives you lemons, trade them for coffee. ☕🍋🤝
- My life is basically a series of unfinished DIY projects. 🛠️🙈🤷♀️
- Life update: Still using “adulting” as a verb, still unsure how to do it properly. 🤷♀️👩💼📆
- I’m not lazy, I’m in energy-saving mode. 🛌💤💡
- Currently taking applications for a personal chef, laundry fairy, and motivation guru. Any takers? 🍝🧚♂️🧘♀️
- Life’s a rollercoaster, and I’m the one screaming in the front seat. 🎢🙀🤪
- I run on caffeine, chaos, and a dash of lipstick. ☕💄🌀
- Wander often, wonder always. 🚶♀️🌍🤔
- Trading WiFi for wide-open spaces and unforgettable moments. 📶🏞️📸
- Counting down ⏳ to Friday like it’s a rocket launch 🚀 to the weekend.
- Juggling tasks like a circus performer 🎪 – except with more coffee ☕ and fewer acrobatics 🤹♀️.
Start building your Instagram presence using Hootsuite. Schedule and publish posts directly to Instagram, engage your audience, measure performance, and run all your other social media profiles — all from one simple dashboard. Try it free today.
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Have you ever heard the phrase, “all sizzle, no steak”? It’s the perfect “meaty” metaphor for social media vanity metrics.
It can absolutely be exciting to rack up the likes or see your follower count jump. Of course you want to shout your reshare rate from the rooftops!
But be careful. any social metric can turn into a “vanity” metric if you’re bragging about it without any context.
Social media metrics are incredibly important for a social media manager and shouldn’t be ignored. They can be key performance indicators: numbers that inform and measure your social media strategy and help your team see where you’ve been and where you’re going.
But here’s the thing. Not all social stats are created equal. For a metric to be meaningful, it has to tie back to your business objectives.
Lucky for you, we’re here to help you cut through the vanity-metric hype to find those beefy, meaty metrics that help you prove the true value of your social media marketing.
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What are vanity metrics?
A social media metric is a number that quantifies a particular action or behavior related to your social media account. A vanity metric is a social media metric that looks impressive at a glance but doesn’t necessarily indicate a company’s overall success in reaching its goals.
In the words of the all-mighty Hootsuite glossary:
A vanity metric is an analytics item that can be measured but is not a signifier of real return on investment. Examples include the number of followers, likes, or comments on social media posts. These metrics are best contextualized by more concrete numbers such as click-through rate or visitor-to-lead conversions.
For example, the social media manager at the Acme Alarm Clock Company might be able to show the CEO that there are 200,000 followers on the brand’s Instagram account. But the goal of the company is actually to sell alarm clocks. And sales haven’t improved at all with this growth in followers.
So, in this case, follower count is actually a vanity metric. Sure, it sounds good on paper, but ultimately, it’s not helping the CEO move those clocks.
The moral of the story: any social media statistic from any social media platform can be a vanity metric, depending on the situation.
The number of likes on a TikTok video isn’t meaningful if your target audience isn’t on TikTok.
The number of comments on your Instagram Story doesn’t mean much if they’re all from spam accounts.
A brand’s follower count can skyrocket, but if those followers aren’t engaging with your content, what good is that? (Which reminds us: never buy followers. Trust us.)
In other words, a “vanity metric” for one brand will be totally different from a vanity metric for another brand. It all ultimately depends on what business success you’re hoping to get from your social media strategy.
Vanity metrics vs. actionable metrics
Now that you’re crystal clear on what a vanity metric is, you’re probably curious about what an actionable metric might be. Don’t be embarrassed, it’s only natural.
Actionable metrics are social media metrics that are all meaningful — important social media metrics that help you measure, analyze, and strategize. Actionable social media metrics provide concrete insights and can be directly tied to specific actions that drive business growth. Really, an actionable metric is just the opposite of a vanity metric.
While much of life exists on a spectrum, for social media metrics, a number is either pure vanity or truly actionable. But what side of the binary any given social media metric sits on, of course, will depend on the social media account. We’re all beautiful flowers, et cetera, et cetera.
Vanity metrics examples
We’ve said it before, but we’ll say it again: It’s important to note that any metric can be a vanity metric without proper analysis. And any metric can be meaningful when presented in context with the proper analysis. That being said, the following metrics are most commonly prone to being viewed as vanity metrics for any given field.
Vanity metrics in social media marketing
In social media marketing, vanity metrics include follower count, likes, and comments. Sure, these numbers can offer a quick ego boost, but the truth is, they often fail to reflect the true engagement and influence of your brand on your business’s bottom line.
This might lead you to ask: so, what are the actionable metrics for social media marketing? Engagement metrics like engagement rate are probably meaningful numbers that can offer you and your team some insight. Shares also say more about whether your content is resonating with your audience than likes (try putting your posts through Rachel Karten’s shareability test).
But at the end of the day, it really depends on what your specific goals are with social media and your business.
Bonus: Get a free social media report template to easily and effectively present your social media performance to key stakeholders.
Vanity metrics in digital marketing
Digital marketing encompasses a wide range of channels, including social media, email marketing, and advertising, so this is a pretty tough one to identify vanity metrics for. In some cases, vanity metrics for digital marketing could be likes; in another case, it could be page views.
If you’re tracking the ROI of digital marketing, you need to identify vanity metrics specific to each channel to make sure that you can prioritize actionable metrics that align with your unique business goals.
Vanity metrics in content marketing
Social media can be a great tool for driving traffic to your blog posts, articles, whitepapers, or research docs… and content marketing, in turn, can be an effective conversion or branding tool. This leads many people to assume that pageviews or click-throughs are the metric for measuring success. In reality, these can be vanity metrics.
Is your bounce rate low? Is the time spent on the page high? Those are numbers that can provide context to the pageview stats and let you know if those views are actually valuable. (Metrics like conversion rates, in this case, can be far more informative about the impact of your content on audience behavior.)
Vanity metrics in email marketing
People are opening your emails! That’s wonderful news!
But are they actually reading those emails? Are they clicking on your links?
Is anyone actually buying any of those alarm clocks you’re still trying desperately to sell? If not, your high open rate might actually not be that impressive after all. (Sorry!)
Open rates and click-through rates are commonly mistaken as the ultimate indicators of email marketing success. But the truth is that conversion rates and revenue per email are more actionable metrics that reveal the true ROI of your email campaigns.
Vanity metrics in advertising
The online advertising industry is built on the back of impressions. After all, if Meta tells you you’ve reached 300,000 people, that certainly sounds like a good use of $100. But impressions and click-through rates in advertising can be deceiving.
A more concrete way to measure the success of a social media advertising campaign would be to concentrate on metrics like cost per acquisition (CPA) and return on ad spend (ROAS). These are stats that will more accurately allow you to assess the profitability of your advertising efforts.
Vanity metrics in brand management
While they can be really important and helpful, metrics like social media reach and sentiment scores can also be misleading out of context.
Just because someone has seen your post doesn’t mean they care for your brand or products. Just because you have a positive sentiment score doesn’t mean that your target audience likes you more than your competitor. (Oof.)
To gauge brand perception accurately, consider metrics like brand awareness, customer lifetime loyalty, and Net Promoter Score (NPS). But, again, a meaningful brand management metric really will vary from brand to brand, depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with your brand management strategy.
Vanity metrics in search marketing
You’d think measuring the success of search marketing efforts would be simple: did people find you when they searched for you? But metrics like rankings and organic traffic numbers can be surprisingly superficial.
Instead, focus on metrics like organic conversion rate and keyword ROI to measure the actual impact of your SEO efforts. (Psst, while you’re here, maybe brush up on your social SEO skills?)
Vanity metrics in public relations
In the PR world, metrics like media mentions may seem like an obvious mark of success. But that number is really just a surface-level impression of the success of your efforts.
To really see the impact of public relations work, you might be better off focusing on metrics that demonstrate the impact on your brand’s reputation and credibility — think sentiment analysis and share of voice.
So there you have it: everything you ever wanted to know about vanity metrics for social media. Please, please, no need to thank us. Just go forth and practice analysis with all this info!
Go beyond vanity metrics and track the real value of your social media performance with Hootsuite. Publish your posts and analyze the results in the same easy-to-use dashboard. ROI has never been easier to prove. Try it free today.
All your social media analytics in one place. Use Hootsuite to see what’s working and where to improve performance.
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