Most virtual campus tours do their job – they show facilities, highlight academics, and cover the basics. But they’re missing the one thing prospective students actually want to see: what it’s like to be a student there.
You get the quad, the library, maybe a dining hall. But nothing that answers the real questions. Will I find my people? Does this place have energy? What’s it actually like when the cameras aren’t rolling?
Social media walls enhance your existing virtual tour by adding the human element that’s impossible to script. Instead of replacing your tour content, they complement it, showing not just what your campus looks like, but what it feels like to be part of your community.
Why Prospective Students Engage More With Peer Content
Here’s what makes peer content different: it answers questions your official tour can’t.
Your virtual tour shows the dining hall. A student’s Instagram story shows what it’s actually like to eat there – the long lines during lunch rush, the quiet study spots, and which food stations have the shortest wait times.
Your tour highlights the library. Student content shows how it really gets used – the collaboration spaces that fill up during group project season, the quiet floors where people actually study for finals, the coffee cart that becomes a social hub between classes.
Admissions teams consistently report that prospective students spend more time engaging with user-generated content than official tour videos. The difference is simple: peer content feels real, while branded content feels designed to persuade.
Prospective students aren’t just evaluating academics and facilities. They’re trying to answer deeper questions: Will I be happy here? Will I find friends? Will this feel like home? Student-generated content provides evidence that helps them answer those questions.
This isn’t about replacing your official messaging. It’s about giving prospective families the complete picture – your professional tour content plus the authentic student perspective that brings it to life.
How Social Walls Enhance the Digital Campus Experience
Your existing virtual tour covers the essentials. Social media walls add the context that makes those essentials meaningful.
Adding real-time campus energy
Your tour shows spaces. Social walls show those spaces in action. Prospective students can see what’s happening right now – late-night study sessions during finals, the excitement of game day, seasonal traditions they can look forward to experiencing.
Providing multiple student perspectives
Your official tour reflects the admissions office viewpoint. Social walls showcase voices from across campus – different academic programs, class years, student organizations, and interests. Prospective students get perspectives from students who might share their background or goals.
Demonstrating community connections
Students need evidence they’ll find their tribe. Posts from clubs, academic departments, and student organizations show them exactly where they might belong. A robotics team celebrating a competition win. An environmental club organizing a campus cleanup. A theater group in rehearsal.
Keeping content fresh
Your tour video captures a specific moment in time. Social walls refresh automatically with new posts, ensuring your virtual tour always reflects current campus life. No reshooting required when seasons change or new programs launch.
Best-Performing Content Formats for Virtual Campus Tours
Not all social content works for virtual tours. Here are the formats that resonate most with prospective students and families:
Student takeovers
Current students documenting their day from start to finish. Getting ready for class, grabbing coffee, walking across campus, attending lectures, studying in the library. These authentic glimpses help prospective students picture their potential daily routine.
Schools find that these everyday moments often generate more engagement than big events or major announcements. Prospective families want to see the ordinary Tuesday, not just the highlight reel.
Event highlights and traditions
Move-in day chaos that looks fun rather than stressful. Homecoming activities. Study abroad send-offs. Graduation preparations. Content that shows the experiences students will participate in throughout their college years.
Real dorm life documentation
Actual dorm rooms (not the pristine model units from housing brochures). How students personalize their spaces. Common area hangouts. Late-night study sessions in residence halls. Content that answers parents’ practical questions about campus living.
Club and organization activities
Meeting highlights from different student groups. Intramural games. Service projects. Performance rehearsals. Research presentations. Evidence that students are building communities and pursuing interests beyond academics.
Academic life behind the scenes
Labs in action with students explaining their projects. Studio work and creative processes. Group project collaborations. Faculty and students discussing research. Content that shows learning is engaging and hands-on.
Campus culture moments
Dining hall experiences during different meal times. Popular study spots and when they’re busiest. Campus traditions that make your school unique. Weather-dependent activities (snow day fun, outdoor studying in spring).
What to skip
Over-produced promotional content that feels like advertising. Outdated event information from previous semesters. Generic stock-photo-style posts. Heavy doses of official messaging that sound like press releases.
The goal is authentic yet appropriate content – real enough to feel genuine, polished enough to represent your school well.
Where to Embed Social Walls in Your Tour Journey
Strategic placement determines whether social walls enhance your tour or feel like an afterthought. Here’s where they work best:
Within your virtual tour flow
Don’t save social content for the end. Embed social walls between official tour segments. After showing the library in your formal tour, include a social wall with student posts about their favorite study spots. After highlighting dining facilities, show real dining experiences from current students.
As transition elements
Use social walls to bridge different sections of your tour. Moving from academics to student life? A social wall featuring students discussing their favorite classes creates a natural connection.
On department-specific tour pages
Targeted feeds perform better than generic campus-wide content. Pre-med students want to see biology lab experiences and research opportunities. Business majors care about internship posts and networking events. Create focused social walls for each academic area.
In virtual open house presentations
Use social walls as dynamic backgrounds during live virtual events. They give families something engaging to look at during Q&A sessions and provide natural conversation starters.
Bonus Tips
Driving meaningful interaction
Add prompts that encourage prospective families to engage: “Questions about dorm life? Ask our students!” Include clear calls-to-action that connect social wall content to next steps in the admissions process.
Technical considerations for optimal placement
Fast-loading social walls work best above the fold on key pages. Juicer’s optimized embed codes ensure social content enhances page speed rather than slowing it down. Grid layouts work well for overview pages, while carousel formats highlight featured content effectively.
Making Student Voices the Centerpiece of Your Tour
The most effective virtual campus tours don’t just include student content – they make student perspectives the primary narrative thread that connects your official tour segments.
Structuring around student experiences
Instead of leading with facilities and following with student life, weave student voices throughout. After showing the engineering building in your official tour, let engineering students share what it’s actually like to work in those labs. After highlighting dining options, show students’ real dining experiences and recommendations.
Encouraging natural content creation
Students should post organically, not perform for recruitment purposes. Create hashtag campaigns around authentic experiences: #MyDormLife, #StudySpots, #CampusEats. The best content comes from genuine moments, not staged photo ops.
Featuring diverse student perspectives
Include content from students across different academic programs, class years, backgrounds, and interests. Prospective students need to see themselves represented in your community. A first-generation college student’s perspective carries different weight than a legacy student’s experience.
Balancing student and official content
Let student voices dominate while using official content for context and logistics. A 70/30 split works well – mostly student-generated content with administrative posts for important updates and event information.
Creating response opportunities
Don’t just show student content – create ways for prospective students to engage with it. Include prompts that encourage current students to answer questions in the comments. Set up virtual Q&A sessions based on popular social wall posts.
Setup Guide: From Content Curation to Going Live
Ready to enhance your virtual tours with social walls? Here’s how to implement them effectively:
Start with a focused content strategy
Choose one area to perfect first – student life or a specific academic program work well. You can expand to other areas once you’ve established effective content curation and moderation processes.
Select your content sources strategically
Instagram captures student life naturally. YouTube provides longer-form content from departments and student organizations. Juicer aggregates content from 15+ platforms into a single, manageable feed. You can combine school official posts with UGC using hashtags.
Create meaningful hashtag campaigns
Organize content with specific, purposeful tags: #StudentLife, #DormLife, #BiologyMajor, #CampusEvents. This makes content filtering much easier and helps you create targeted feeds for different tour sections. Motivate students to use specific hashtags to help you pull out the content you want.
Set up smart content moderation
Use Juicer’s filtering tools to flag content needing review while maintaining authenticity. Focus on removing inappropriate material rather than over-sanitizing student voices. High-visibility tour placements deserve manual approval.
Choose display formats that support your tour goals
Grid layouts showcase multiple posts simultaneously and work well for overview sections. Carousel formats highlight individual posts and work effectively for featured student content. Slideshow displays work well during virtual events and presentations.
Test integration before full rollout
Start with one section of your virtual tour or a specific virtual event. Gather feedback from current students and prospective families before expanding across your entire digital presence.
Optimize for performance
Juicer’s embed codes are optimized for fast loading, ensuring social walls enhance rather than slow down your tour pages. Choose embed locations that complement rather than compete with your official tour content.
Expanding Your Social Wall Strategy
Once you’ve successfully integrated social walls into your virtual tours, consider these additional applications:
Accepted student orientation – Help new students connect with current students before arriving on campus.
Alumni and parent engagement – Keep families connected to campus life throughout each semester.
Regional recruitment events – Create location-specific feeds for recruitment in different cities or states.
Academic department showcases – Develop targeted social walls for specific programs or majors.
Quick Implementation Checklist
✅ Identify key moments in your virtual tour that need student perspectives
✅ Select content sources
✅ Create hashtag campaigns for different campus areas
✅ Set up a Juicer.io account and configure content feeds
✅ Design moderation workflows for high-visibility placements
✅ Choose display formats that complement your tour design
✅ Test with a small audience before campus-wide rollout
✅ Monitor engagement and adjust content strategy based on feedback
Virtual campus tours serve an important purpose – showcasing facilities, academics, and official information. Social media walls enhance this foundation by adding authentic student perspectives that help prospective families envision themselves as part of your community.
Schools that succeed with this approach don’t necessarily have the largest social media followings. They prioritize authentic student voices and strategic placement over follower counts and engagement metrics.
Ready to enhance your virtual tours with real student voices?
See how Juicer makes social wall integration simple →
