Creating your social media plan
Clarify your objectives
When deciding to set up a social media presence, it is important to first establish a few key pieces of information. Knowing what you want to achieve is crucial to ensure efficient use of time and resource and clarifying your objectives is essential.
Objectives may include:
- Growing your reach/awareness of your work/research (journal publications, ongoing studies etc.).
- Increasing engagements/conversations around certain topics.
- Sharing news or events with a particular audience.
- Driving enquiries or traffic / clicks.
- Building a community.
Know your audience
Once you have clearly defined your objectives, think about your audience and where these people typically reside on social media. While it may not be possible to know this exactly, doing some research in advance can help you narrow down your choices to the best channels to focus on.
To do this conduct searches on the social network with key words to review the volume, regularity and quality of conversations that are happening on your topic or with your audience.
Provide value
Above all, any content you produce some sort of value exchange to your audience if you are to be successful in your efforts. Be it providing entertainment, information, networking opportunities or be educational. In the highly competitive social media landscape, producing content that cuts through the noise and delivers value to your audience should be at the heart of everything you do.
Content quality
Visual content needs to be in a suitable format and quality in order for it to display optimally on social.
- Images and graphics should be in j.peg or .JPG format and at least 72dpi.
- Videos in mp4 or .mov format.
The following resources can be consulted which contain always up to date information regarding technical specification of image and video content across various social media channels:
Please save/bookmark the above links to quick referencing.
For further guidance, please visit the Photography consent page.
Permissions for contributors
Please ensure written permission is obtained when featuring any individual that is personally identifiable. This includes images, video and text. The following downloadable model release forms can be used to help you record this consent.
Download Model Release form for email
Account Managers for service / faculty pages
Thinking about who is going to manage your social media accounts is key when considering your strategy. This person should have the necessary skill set and time resource to run your social media channel(s).
To run social channels successfully requires a good amount of resource for planning and posting content as well as effective social media monitoring of conversations. If there is not enough resource to do this, carefully consider whether running a Social Media platform is necessarily the right thing for you.
A non-active or semi active channel is harmful to the University brand and your overall objectives.
Best practices
- Share Relevant Content Regularly: Consistently post content that aligns with your goals. Highlight achievements, research, and community involvement. Keep your audience informed and engaged.
- Open Up for Conversation and Comments: Encourage dialogue with your followers. Respond to comments, messages, and inquiries promptly. Show that you value their input and are actively listening.
- Engage with Community Members Regularly: Interact with students, faculty, alumni, and prospective students. Showcase their achievements, stories, and experiences. Create a sense of community and foster connections.
- Cross-Promote Your Channels: If appropriate to your goals, leverage different social media platforms to reach a wider audience. Share content across platforms and encourage followers to follow you on other channels as well.
- Collaborate: Where appropriate, look to work closely with other university departments to create cohesive messaging. Collaborate on campaigns, events, and initiatives.
- Evaluate Platform Performance: Regularly assess the effectiveness of each social media platform. (more on social media measurement later in this document).
Remember, social media is a powerful tool for universities to connect with their community, and build a strong brand presence.
Please see our best practice and guidance document for staff use of social media. This document aims to offer more in depth guidance and direction on staff use of social media whilst working for the University of Stirling.
The guidelines cover:
- Freedom of speech and academic freedom.
- Social media use in learning, teaching and research.
- Social media use in personal life.
- Expected standards of behaviour when using social media.
- Use of the University’s brand.
- Responsibilities of staff using social media.
- Social media monitoring.
- Data protection and its successor General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Intellectual property.
- Cyber bullying via social media.
- Guidance on breaches and potential consequences.
- General Data Protection Regulations.
Measurement
Social media performance can be measured and evaluated. This allows you to demonstrate the value you contribute through your social media efforts. Most social media platforms provide built-in analytics tools. Facebook, for instance, offers valuable insights. Make sure to take advantage of this on a regular basis to ensure you are meeting the objectives you set above in the earlier steps, and optimise and adjust as needed.