MacDuffie’s Instagram page is practicing a new trend called “Social Media Takeover Days” starting from Sept. 10th, which allows students to take control of the school’s social media profile for one day.

MacDuffie actively develops and improves the engagement of students in the school’s life through social media. One of the latest updates for it was #TakeoverTuesdays which is overseen by Director of Communications Allyson Morin.

“I think social media is a great innovation for The MacDuffie School! With students and parents on social media, our channels are a wonderful living document to show what we are up to on a daily basis,” she said. Morin also added, “Social media is a great way for us to celebrate and share the many successes, big and small, that happen at school on an everyday basis.”

Social media, in general, is not only a way of increasing communication but also a way to develop marketing and advertising.

“The MacDuffie School wants to show its students’ life in the most authentic way possible,” Morin said.

There are three main goals that MacDuffie wants to achieve throughout #TakeoverTuesday: first, increase participation of the school page’s followers, second, gain more followers (by students, parents, etc) and third, drive traffic to the school’s Open Houses by mentioning those dates with specific hashtags.

The way #TakeoverTuesdays are working is simple and easy to follow. The chosen students gain control of Instagram in the morning using a temporary password. The student will also have some guidelines to follow, for example, specific hashtags (#TakeoverTuesday, #ComeBe PartOfOurFamily, etc.) or an agreed number of posts in the gallery of the page. At the end of the day, the password changes as a student log out.

When asked about the rules of this event, Morin said, “In terms of rules, it takes trust and mutual respect to give control of our Instagram to a student! The rules are pretty simple: don’t post or say anything that would warrant a conversation with Ms. Cox.”

Students have a variety of thoughts and ideas about Social Media Takeover Days. Angel Le, a boarding student at MacDuffie said, “I like the idea, because sometimes you would get to see the school from different perspectives. This is an interesting event, and it gives a more realistic look to what Macduffie is like; however, it mostly depends on how the students use the opportunity.”

In conclusion, Morin said that the future of #TakeoverTuesdays is, “really in the hands of the students.”

“I hope that as the Takeover Tuesday days go on, kids will build upon what others have done before them and innovate with their own fresh ideas,” Morin said.

Students also have some suggestions. “The school could use the page to promote upcoming events and other things so that students would know rather than having only parents as the target audience,” Le said.