In 2018, I established the Instagram account for the A. James Clark School of Engineering and built our followship from the ground up. Prior to launching the account, I wrote a plan for how I would generate several types of recurring content in order to jumpstart follower growth. One of the early content features that I established is called #TakeoverTuesday: members of the Maryland Engineering community take over the @umdclarkschool handle for the day and share about their experience as an engineer at the University of Maryland. Current students are most frequently featured, but alumni, faculty, and staff members also occasionally take over the account.
In order to protect the integrity of our Instagram account and to ensure content aligns with our institutional brand, the takeovers are not conducted in real time. I crafted a process for content creators to submit their content in advance of their takeover date.
The takeovers proved so successful that other colleges and units on campus reached out to inquire about the process for acquiring user-generated takeover content on such a consistent basis. The Instagram takeovers have also made their way into print—several takeover students were featured in the Spring 2023 issue of Engineering at Maryland magazine.
© 2025 Kristen Marie Byers