Strategize
What is your goal when using social media? Creating a social media strategy will help you focus on the objectives and allow for greater participation and increased engagement. Social media can be very time-consuming and maintaining more than one social network is difficult. Create a content calendar and use a social media management tool to stay organized.
Launch
Once your social media networks are established, add some content. When launched and ready for sharing, announce the new social media channel via traditional channels like email, newsletters and the department’s website. This can help increase followers and help amplify your message.
Engage
Social media is all about communicating and engaging with your audience. People visit websites and blogs for news and information, but social media is more about interaction and having a conversation. Respond to comments: Ask questions, share appropriate photos and links. Engaging with your followers adds value.
Monitor
Social media platforms are full of comments. Observe your posts regularly and reply when appropriate because it demonstrates that you’re listening to your audience. Depending on the social network, you can change settings to approve comments before they appear. Check the settings of each social network.
Make Time
Don’t start a new social media channel or a campaign unless you have the dedicated time and resources to create and maintain new content on a regular basis. New content is critical to thrive in every social media community. Without fresh content, your audience will shrink and engagement will become nonexistent.
Assess
Facebook has built-in analytics for Pages called Facebook Insights. Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok also provide their own built-in analytics tools.
Stay Connected
Help keep #UNHSocial updated and connected. If you’re using social media, fill out this form, which we’ll review and add to the UNH Social Media Directory.
Terms & Conditions
If your college, department, or organization uses social media, we recommend following the terms of service and conditions of each platform. Learn about the terms and conditions of the major social media platforms by visiting the appropriate link below.
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM | SNAPCHAT | LINKEDIN | PINTEREST
Keep the Social in Social Media
Encourage a sense of community by interacting with your audience and engaging with them through your social networks. Create a conversation by inviting comments and asking interesting questions, posting unique photos and can’t miss videos, and by delivering quality stories.
- Share useful information and links.
- Follow back, especially your fans and interesting people within your field or relevancy.
- Participate in networking events both online and offline. Appearing offline can help you connect with people and prove you’re not a robot.
- Don’t judge or condemn other people. Be respectful, accept feedback and criticism with respect.
- Interact with your audience. Create a conversation. Ask questions. Be engaging!
- Blogging or tweeting as a professional …or for UNH? Don’t let personal opinions get in the way. Be professional and let your fans comment or help steer the conversation.
- Share photos, videos and links to relevant stories in the news, along with your original content. It can help build an audience and start a conversation.
- Use a #hashtag about your topic and when appropriate, incorporate the @twitterhandle, Facebook page, or Instagram @username of the person or company you’re talking about. This will provide better amplification of your message and alert others that you’re talking about them.
Monitoring Feedback & Comments
If comments are enabled on your social media accounts, be prepared to devote resources to listening and monitoring feedback. It’s important to monitor and delete, or hide text that violates the terms of service of the platform. This can include outside interests trying to drive traffic to their own website. It’s also important that you embrace an open communications policy, allowing followers of your social media accounts to express their opinions. (SPAM, trolls, hate speech, harassment, violence should not be tolerated, but removed and reported if necessary.)
