Le Moyne has found a new way to connect with prospective students by allowing them to view campus life for a day through “Instagram takeovers”.

According to Michelle Tarby, the director of interactive contact strategy at Le Moyne, the takeovers are when a current Le Moyne student uploads pictures and videos from their day to the Le Moyne Instagram page. The purpose of the takeovers is to reach potential students and their families, showing them a brief look into life at Le Moyne.

The first takeover occurred last year in conjunction with Giving Day February 2018, however, the idea did not take off and the takeovers did not occur regularly until the current 2018-2019 school year.

“We like to pick students that we know and trust,” Tarby said. “That are involved in a lot of different things, so they can show different sides of campus life.”

The most recent take over was done by Mia Franko, a junior. Franko chose to do a majority of her take over on Le Moyne’s Instagram story, which expires after 24 hours, rather than a permanent post on the page. “What is posted and how it is posted depends on the student,” Tarby said.

Franko explains that she began the day by giving a tour of her room, and continued by showing her time with the Jazzuits, her two work-study jobs, classes, the dining hall and finished by giving information about the school’s Explore program for incoming freshman.

“I really enjoy doing and watching takeovers because I think it allows previous, current, and prospective students to get a genuine glimpse into life at Le Moyne,” Franko said. “As much as we enjoy regular posts, I think people like being able to get a Phin’s eye view.”

There have been four takeovers during this school year, and according to Tarby, the goal is to do

them more often. Tarby explains her idea by saying, “I would love to get somebody at the summer welcomes, but I haven’t come up with a plan yet for how often is a good frequency.”

Tarby said that although the Instagram takeovers “have been engaging and popular,” it is difficult to translate that into whether or not they actually led students to apply or attend the school. Tarby also said Le Moyne has implemented tracking onto their website that ties into the system that Enrollment Management uses, which shows if posts on social media prompt the viewer to go to the school’s website.

A.J. Petty, a prospective student for Le Moyne’s class of 2023, started tuning into the takeovers after he visited the college in the fall.

“I like the fact that LeMoyne allows their students to take control of the page for a day,” Petty said. “It really allowed me to get a better understanding of what Le Moyne has to offer.”