BUILDING A SOCIAL MEDIA PROGRAM THAT PROVED ITS VALUE
Project Overview
Helping students develop entrepreneurial skills was at the heart of this university affiliated entrepreneurship program. While the program already had a strong reputation on campus and valuable partnerships throughout the community, it was missing one important way to connect with students where they spent their time every day: Instagram.
The team knew social media would help increase awareness, strengthen relationships with partners, and encourage more students to engage with the program. The challenge was finding the time. With a small team already managing events, partnerships, and student programming, creating a consistent social media presence simply wasn't realistic.
Hop Skip Marketing became an extension of their team, building an Instagram program from the ground up while allowing staff to stay focused on supporting students.
Entrepreneurship Organization
BACK TO PORTFOLIO
- Instagram strategy
- Content planning workshop
- Content creation
- Graphic design system
- Photography
- Video production
- Reels
- Community storytelling
- Performance reporting
- Marketing analytics
WHAT WE DID
WHEN YOU DON'T HAVE TIME FOR MARKETING, YOU NEED A PLAN THAT DOES
Keeping it active with thoughtful, engaging content every week while balancing everything else the organization was responsible for was.
The team also needed confidence that investing in social media would actually support the program's goals.
The strategy needed to:
- Increase awareness among students
- Strengthen engagement with community partners
- Tell authentic stories about the program
- Drive traffic back to the website
- Demonstrate measurable value
Rather than simply publishing posts, we built a strategy that connected every piece of content back to the organization's mission.
The challenge
Building a Content Strategy Around Real Stories
During a collaborative planning workshop, we worked with the team to identify the questions students were asking, the stories worth sharing, and the experiences that made the program unique.
From there, we built a structured content strategy around three themes:
- Helping students learn
- Highlighting opportunities
- Celebrating community success
This gave the organization a repeatable framework, rather than leaving it wondering what to post every week.
Showing the People Behind the Program
One of the biggest opportunities wasn't promoting events.
It was showing the people who made the program meaningful.
Our team visited campus to capture students, staff, mentors, and partners on camera and on video. Those authentic moments became Instagram reels, stories, and posts that gave prospective participants a genuine look at the program.
We also partnered with Indigenous creators to produce content that reflected the diversity of the entrepreneurial community.
Letting the Data Shape the Strategy
Every month, we measured what was working.
Instead of relying on assumptions, we used performance data to refine the content strategy, identify engagement trends, and focus on the stories that resonated most with students and community partners.
