In late September, San Joaquin Delta College reached 10,000 followers on its Instagram page. The announcement was made through a post on the account which has the second highest number of followers behind the college’s Facebook page, which has gained 19,000 followers since its July 2011 inception.
The Instagram account launched in April 2016. Delta College also has active accounts with X (formally Twitter), YouTube, and TikTok that are used to spread information to students and the community.
“It’s a pretty wide community that we have; potential students who are looking at our pages, current students that we have, employees at Delta, staff and faculty and then we have all of the community members,” said Victoria Gonzalez, Director of Digital Communications. “So just making sure that we’re engaging with everyone, reaching out to everyone, and sharing content that might be worthwhile.”
The accessibility of social media posts is a trend students at Delta favor. In a fast paced educational environment, students can have all of the resources Delta has to offer at their fingertips with speed.
“People won’t look at a website but they will look at a social media post,” said Ashley Aguilar, a third-year Criminal Justice student. “It’s just there…quick and easy.”
The opportunities for campus organizations to connect with students also exist.
Various clubs and departments at Delta also have social media accounts that are available for public viewing such as @deltacollege_atheltics, the public account for the Athletics Department, where students can see the latest updates on sports events and teams.
Delta’s engagement with students is lively and its monitors are open to interacting with students via social media.
Posts are published on the daily and comments with questions are answered.
To Erica Hamilton, a third-year Psychology major, the social media page serves to, “…inspire more students to come here and learn…to have Delta as an option.”
As Delta looks to the future, it sees it in bluelight. Being one of the largest colleges in northern California, according to Community College Review, Delta hopes to shine a light on its strong sense of its mission.
Gonzalez said her hope for the Delta pages is to “let people know that they are welcome at Delta…and that we’re here to help support their dreams.”
Delta is not alone in the social media sphere. Since the rise of online social networks, educational institutions have created accounts to connect with students in addition to the traditional forms of communications such as bulletins, emails, websites, and simply passing on the word.
Being connected is more important than ever as the user numbers continue to grow with their main additions being young adults and college aged students. In the latest data collected by DemandSage, as of 2023 the United States has 302.35 million active users, with Facebook being the leading platform and Instagram as the follow-up.