Social media is a great way to connect with and communicate with younger generations. This is why digital signage for schools displaying live social media feeds is a genius idea. These displays will help bridge communication between students, staff, and anyone in between.
You might think that social media will distract students, but it’s quite the contrary when used wisely. Digital signage for schools makes it easier for students to connect with you and each other.
Take a look at the following ideas and examples you can replicate to boost engagement at your institution.
Engaging content ideas for digital signage for schools
Walls.io makes turning students into ambassadors — via harnessing the powers of user-generated content — easy.
Bringing together over 13 social media platforms — with the ability to curate and control this content (they are still students, after all) — gives campuses a never-ending supply of relevant, contemporary, and engaging content. Who better to keep students engaged and informed than the students themselves?
But, gathering this content isn’t enough. It has to be the right content, visible to the right people at the right time for it to be of any use, and ideally apt to display on college campus digital signage. Here are 5 engaging content ideas for digital signage in schools.
1. Promote being a student ambassador
If we think of a University as a business, then as happy employees make great brand ambassadors, students can do the same thing. Likewise, enriching ‘on-the-ground user-generated content can empower your overall communications strategy – if shared correctly.
Get a social wall to show content from student ambassadors
2. Encourage engagement via competitions
One way to get more people to look at your screens is to involve them first. For example, holding a student competition to show off their best shots around campus can help create a bank of user-generated – and free – marketing materials. Schedule these to show other branded posters and signs to enhance your communications offering to current and prospective students.
3. Help out freshers
Introduce professors, promote upcoming events and live stream keynote speakers to help keep your new cohort informed. Have current students share their first-week survival tips and even film how to locate difficult-to-find classrooms; screens are also an excellent wayfinding tool, especially for last-minute room changes.
4. Build team spirit
On game days, show player highlights, introduce the team, have player social media takeovers, replay previous matches, and have a countdown to build excitement and make everyone part of the team.
5. Ask for feedback
One way to find out if your screens have the right effect on your communications strategy is to ask. For example, run a social media campaign asking for feedback (or even content ideas) and have students’ responses shown on screen to incite conversation and positive change.
Real examples of digital signage for schools
Actions speak louder than words. Therefore, we rounded up some of the best real college and university examples using digital signage for schools.
1. City, University of London
City, University of London is running a social media wall that includes various social media sources, spanning the Twitter accounts of multiple departments and the university’s main Instagram account. As of recently, it also includes the uni’s TikTok profile.
They’ve been quite prolific on TikTok, posting content introducing the university and showing what’s happening around campus, career advice from alumni, and content created by current students.
Esen Bozdagli, the Social Media Officer at City, University of London, told us a bit about the content City produces and how they display it on digital signage at their school, web pages, and events.
Esen: The videos look fantastic displayed on the walls and are a great way to liven up webpages, digital signage, and group content for our social channels. With short-form video being a key priority for us, having the ability to display this effectively across numerous channels and platforms is really important. We’re thrilled to be able to do this with Walls.io.
2. Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University is a private university in Cleveland, Ohio, which counts 16 Nobel laureates among its alumni. Despite being a university with a long-standing tradition, it doesn’t shy away from employing modern methods to keep students, staff and alumni engaged.
Every department on campus posts cool and exciting content on their events and research. The Tinkham Veale University Center is somewhat of a central hub for the whole campus. Since so many people pass through the building, they wanted a way to display all of this information to everyone in an innovative and relevant way.
Their media wall, on which two social walls are displayed, is designed to keep the Case community informed and connected to all happening on campus and in the greater Cleveland area. It’s the very first thing you see when you walk into the “Tink.”The social walls are the perfect way to enact the mission of the Media Wall.
Get an info hub for your institution
3. State University of New York: SUNY’s Got Your Back
SUNY’s Got Your Back is a university-wide initiative launched in 2016 that aims to support victims and survivors of sexual and interpersonal violence. People who seek help from shelters, hospitals, and so forth often arrive with little but their clothes on their backs. The idea behind the initiative is to assemble bags that provide those people with the most essential personal care items.
They use social media to raise excitement for events, but more so, they use it to engage students and community members in a positive way, both for information about the program and information about the resources available to victims of crime.
They use a Walls.io social media wall at SUNY’s Got Your Back assembly events. Students and community members post photos and messages, which are then rotated on the screens. This helps their attendees engage individually and collectively with the program in real-time.
4. University of Florida
UF uses digital signage for school-wide events, such as graduations. A social wall is a great tool for collecting all the impressions on graduation day in one place and presenting the joyful event from multiple angles. Proud parents and students can share graduation pics and see them pop up on the social wall.
Since UF chose an arena as their venue, it was only fair for them to set up huge digital signage screens in the middle of the place. Students and relatives alike enjoyed seeing themselves on the displays.
5. Champlain College
During Orientation, Champlain College runs a social wall on digital signage across campus and encourage students to share their orientation and move-in photos. They also invite departments and offices across campus to post using the #Champ2025 hashtag to welcome new students to the Champlain community.
When orientation is not in session, they use a second wall for their #ChampVisit campaign, encouraging prospective students and their families to take photos during their tours and other campus visits (open houses, etc.). During their big in-person visit events, they also display this social wall on a few of their campus digital screens.
Digital signage for schools is a game changer
By teaming up social media with digital signage, you are offering your students and staff the best opportunity to engage with timely and relevant information, leading to a better overall experience on campus.
We hope the content ideas and examples of digital signage for schools and higher education institutions help you understand the wonders of pairing a social wall with screens.