Case Study: Albuquerque Academy
Two-year engagement. Main Instagram account and four auxiliary programs: Think Summer, Albuquerque Academy Racquet Center, Charger Aquatics, and the Levanta Institute for Music & Creativity.
The Situation
When Albuquerque Academy first reached out in 2024, they weren't starting from zero. They had active accounts and talented staff. Social media strategy is its own discipline, and nobody had been hired specifically to do it.
Albuquerque Academy is one of the most highly regarded independent schools in New Mexico, consistently recognized across academics, athletics, and the arts, plus a set of revenue-generating auxiliary programs that serve the broader Albuquerque community. None of that was reaching prospective families or coming through in a way that told a coherent story to anyone on the outside.
What followed is two-plus years of work across their main account and, eventually, four auxiliary programs: Think Summer, the Albuquerque Academy Racquet Center, Charger Aquatics, and the Levanta Institute for Music & Creativity.
The Strategy
I built the initial social media strategy for the school's main account in April 2024. The work covered brand direction, content pillars, target audience profiles, competitor analysis, and a posting framework the team could realistically implement. It was designed for the following school year, meant to give the account a real sense of purpose so that individual posting decisions stopped being made in isolation.
The school had two goals they wanted social media to support: growing enrollment and increasing giving.
The content strategy organized everything around five pillars, each targeting a different audience and a different moment in the decision-making process: prospective families, current students, alumni, and the broader community. Each pillar had a distinct job.
The Head of School later told me the process forced conversations the team needed to have and hadn't been having: about goals, about what they were actually trying to accomplish with their social presence.
The Results
I was brought in again in the fall of 2024 to help with execution. Three posts per week for the full school year, working in conjunction with the marketing department. The aim was consistent, strategic execution over time.
By the end of that school year:
Reach: up 251.5% (34.9K accounts)
New followers: up 2,000% (838 new)
Likes, comments, and shares: up 100% (37.3K)
Link clicks: up 6,900% (633 total)
Instagram's own benchmarking showed Albuquerque Academy outperforming similar schools in both content volume and engagement. The growth was steady and compounding across every timeframe measured, not driven by any single post or push.
A few things changed in how the account operated. The visuals came first. We made the content genuinely beautiful: cleaner imagery, more intentional composition, posts that looked like they belonged on the same account. Instagram is a visual platform and people decide in under two seconds whether to stop. Once the visuals were working, the engagement followed.
The content got more creative. The Head of School described the shift as letting the outside in: making the school's real character visible to people who hadn't found it yet. Their team developed Puente on the Path, a weekly series that ran through the school year. The idea was theirs.
Two posts from that year make the point. One was a Reel about lunch at the Academy: an ordinary daily experience that has now reached 12.4K views. The other was a student highlight carousel with over 10K views: real photos, text layered on top, one student's story at the center. Both worked because they were specific and human. They showed the school rather than argued for it.
Enrollment and giving
The strategy was built to move two needles: enrollment and giving.
On giving: Day of Giving participation grew 22% from 2024 to 2026. On their record giving day, the school received 816 total gifts, 10% over their previous highest. First-time donors increased 38%.
On enrollment: net tuition revenue increased and attrition decreased over the same period. As the Head of School put it, a single new enrollment more than pays for an entire year of this work.
Enrollment and giving are shaped by more than social media. Two years of consistent content meant the school's story was reaching prospective families and alumni well before the ask arrived.
The Programs
In December 2025, Albuquerque Academy brought me in a third time to work with their four auxiliary programs. The work here is different from the first two years. Rather than creating content for them, I'm coaching each program team to manage their own accounts. The goal is real capability, so each team can run their social independently and keep it going. The approach is customized for each program because each one operates differently.
Think Summer is the most active of the four and where the work goes deepest. When we started, the account had 558 followers and was reaching fewer than 190 accounts over a 90-day period. In early 2026, the program brought in a first-time social media manager and I coached her through building the account: strategy, voice, content creation. By mid-season, followers had grown 19% and individual posts were regularly reaching 800 to 1,400 accounts. One post produced nearly eight times the total reach of the entire 90-day period before we started.
The Racquet Center needed fundamentals: guidance on creating posts and Reels, and templates for consistent visual identity. Levanta took what I gave them and largely runs it themselves, with feedback from me as needed. Charger Aquatics had been dormant on social for a while: I built a full strategy, including content direction, posting cadence, and a Stories and highlights plan, and they're in implementation now.
All four programs are at different stages. The work is ongoing.
In Their Words
"Hiring Garin as a social media consultant for our school has been an incredibly positive experience. From the outset, Garin demonstrated a deep understanding of our needs and tailored the strategy to align perfectly with our goals. She took the time to understand our school's unique culture and values, ensuring that all social media communications were consistent with our brand. Garin provided us with valuable insights and analytics, helping us understand our audience better and refine our strategies accordingly. We could not be happier with Garin's work and approach, and we will continue to employ her as a consultant moving forward."
— Julianne Puente, Head of School, Albuquerque Academy
Garin's ability to translate complex program goals into high-impact, creative strategies has significantly boosted our digital presence and engagement. She possesses data-driven insight and creative flair that have truly elevated our work around social media. I cannot recommend Garin highly enough for any school or organization looking to turn their social media channels into powerful engines for promoting their mission and growing their impact."
— Amy Eglinton Keller, Director of External Relations, Albuquerque Academy