Research at Lehigh
Social media campaign I pitched and developed this campaign to showcase the breadth of research happening at the university—to make (prospective and current) undergraduate students aware and excited about the distinctive opportunities that exist at Lehigh. Because Instagram is a veritable goldmine of analytics, I used this campaign as an opportunity to A/B test how best to leverage the Instagram story platform to connect with LehighU followers about research work.
SpecsClient: Lehigh University
Scope: Concept, copywriting/copyediting, design and animation
Recognition:CUPPIE Awards | Digital Media, Social Media Campaign (Silver)
A/B TestApproach ‘A’
Multi-panel Instagram stories that were abridged versions of long-form news stories. To make the content feel relatable, artwork featured the researchers and the spaces where they conduct their work.
A/B Test Approach ‘B’
Single-panel Instagram stories that functioned like posters—with catchy headlines, brief descriptions and a link to the long-form news story. Artwork for this approach was more graphic in nature, with vibrant colour palettes and bold typography bringing energy to layouts.
Findings
In terms of sheer views, approach ‘B’ (single-panel stories) appeared to perform better. However, because the multi-panel approach of ‘A’ allows the viewer to better understand whether or not the content is relevant to them, this presentation showed better, deeper, more sustained engagement.
The LehighU Instagram audience is willing to engage with longer (multi-panel) stories—they’re interested enough that the vast majority of viewers will stay till the end of a 6-panel story.
Regardless of a story’s length, most of our audience is not interested in following/tapping on the last panel’s call to action, which leads to the webpage with the full news story. This was true in both the single- and multi-panel versions.
Outcomes
Instagram stories continue to be used to talk about research—taking care to include the most important details within the story. This is to ensure that readers who don’t tap-the-link-to-learn-more won’t miss anything vital about the research and/or the people and infrastructure involved.