I don’t know about you but I LOVE Instagram… it seems that there’s nothing ‘lo-f’i or ‘earlybird’ can’t do, improving even the worst photograph.  Now we all fancy ourselves as wanna-be photographers, whipping out our phone whenever we see the opportunity for an artistic snap. Although my own Instagram account is all pictures of food (I can’t resist taking a quick snap before tucking into dinner or a slice of cake!) I enjoy following a whole range of people, from friends to celebs to my favourite cafes and shops.

I was therefore very excited this week when we took the leap and set up our own Durham University Retail Office Instagram account. We will be using this, not only to post photos of the merchandise we have on offer, but also to showcase our outlets throughout the city. We are very lucky to have some beautiful shops including Palace Green Library Shop, The Oriental Museum, the World Heritage Site Visitor centre, and the Botanic Garden.  Although these shops are fabulous enough as they are, there’s no harm in adding an Instagram Filter to get even more stunning results!

I have really enjoyed the social media element of my internship, managing the Facebook and Twitter pages, and now this blog. Both Pintrest, which we also recently set up, and Instagram complete our continuously expanding Social Media presence. Although I use all these platforms in my personal life, during this internship I have been learning how to use Social Media in a professional setting; to connect to our customers and staff and generally increase knowledge of who we are and what we do. When I first started here I did quite a bit of research into how businesses can increase engagement with their social media pages, acting on some of this advice has also made me think about how I interact with other pages personally. What attracts me to like/comment on a post made by a business or to favourite a Tweet made on Twitter? As I scroll through my Facebook newsfeed on my lunch break what makes me stop and actually take notice of, a perhaps respond to, a particular post? Pictures, competitions and interesting articles are an immediate hook, but other things can also draw us in depending on our personality, take a note of your own behaviour and you might be surprised with the results!

So, please do follow durhamuniretail on Instagram, we’ll be getting creative and adding lots more pictures in the next few weeks!

I’ll leave you with our very first Instagram pic! #UniMug #DurhamUni…