Mules on Instagram: Talking to Colby's Micro-Influencers

Type “Colby” into the Instagram search bar and you’ll see the predictable results: the College’s official account alongside various pages for different College-sponsored clubs and activities. Scroll a little further, though, and you’ll find a seemingly endless amount of unofficial, student-run accounts, parodying and poking fun at Colby and its students.

There’s @colby.missed.connections, for example, which according to its Instagram bio, is “just some mules trying to help our friends find love” — although anyone who follows the account knows that it features pleas to return lost AirPods and complaints against fellow students as much as it does flirtation. 

Then, there’s accounts like @realcolbydining which tells students to “follow for the hottest takes on what the Princeton Review has described as ‘the most technically edible food ever served to college students’” and features a profile picture of President Greene in a chef’s hat. The account largely consists of various memes complaining about the lackluster quality of dining hall food.

Of course, we can’t forget about the classic @colbyposting, which describes its content as “memz and stuff.” They post a variety of satirical content, both created by the owners of the account and by student submission. 

All of these accounts have well over a thousand followers and yet, no one knows who is behind the curtains. While all accounts wish their identities to remain secret, The Colby Echo was able to conduct a series of interviews via Instagram DMs to shed a little light on what it’s like to be a Colby micro-influencer. 

“It feels awesome to be able to interact with so many people in a humorous way,” @colbyposting wrote. “There are old graduates, upcoming students, staff, and faculty following the page.”

“We absolutely love it when people interact with us or share our posts,” @realcolbydining wrote. “Just seeing people putting our posts on their stories is enough motivation to continue running the account, but we’ve received many messages from people who enjoy our content. Every bit of support means the world to us, and we are glad to continue making content as long as people are happy!”

Many of the account owners expressed that they never expected the accounts they made for fun in their free time to amass as large a following as they have.

“I started [Colby Missed Connections] one night hanging out with friends talking about how sad being single is, and never expected it to grow as it has,” @colby.missed.connections wrote. “Only a small group of close friends know I run the account, so I don’t feel like a celebrity or anything. But I do always feel a little pride when the account comes up in conversation!”

While submission-based accounts like Colby Missed Connections get their content entirely from the student body, other, more satirical accounts such as @colbyposting and @realcolbydining face the challenge of creating enough content to keep their followers entertained. 

“Honestly, any minor inconveniences or literally anything food related that we can make fun of, we try to make a joke out of,” @realcolbydining wrote. “We’ve recently tried to broaden the scope a little bit, as there aren’t a whole lot of jokes you can make about three Colby [dining halls] (I mean there are, but we already made them), so pretty much anything the school does that we can make fun of we try our best to make a meme out of it.”

“I usually get inspired by the events happening around campus —  things that I find weird or frustrating are things that I can laugh about,” @colbyposting wrote. I sometimes observe people so I can joke about something that they can relate to even if I don’t. Other times I find inspiration from new memes going around the internet. Unexpected ideas pop in my mind and I think to myself ‘yeah, this could make a good post’ and then I get to work.”

Another major challenge for these student run Instagram accounts is making sure they are catering to their audience and posting appropriate content. 

“There are some people that have used [@colby.missed.connections] to share missing items, call out actions like lack of masks or harassment, and share funny or frustrating experiences unrelated to finding a connection,” @colby.missed.connections wrote. “However, there are other people who are offended by these messages or prefer to focus on connections only. I do my best to make the account one for the students, so it can be a struggle to accommodate these different desires.” 

“The biggest challenge of running a page like this (or any other social media page for that matter) is the pressure of having to meet the expectations of your audience,” @colbyposting wrote. “When I first started the page, my posts were what I would call more ‘niche’ stuff that I wouldn’t expect people to find funny … now the page has grown more than I could imagine, I don’t think I can post such things.”

Certainly, what all of these pages share is a desire to bring the Colby community together and provide them with an outlet for their frustrations and worries as well as for their laughter. Even when direct messaging @realcolbydining for the interview, its owner kept the tone rather tongue-in-cheek, finishing off their answers to the questions by switching the DM’s theme to “Love” and sending me a winky face.

“At the end of the day, my goal is to put a smile on as many faces as I can,” @colbyposting wrote. “If it works out, that’s great; if not, then I try to think about it and search for better material.”

~ Sarah Warner `21