Before you consider using social media in a professional context you should familiarise yourself with how the University is using social media. Look at the University’s accounts that are already established.

We're always on the lookout for new and exciting content to share to our wide audience – so get in touch to discuss how we can collaborate!

Read and adhere to the University's Staff Social Media Policy, which covers key information about usage and data protection.

Understand the social landscape

Survey the landscape. Listen to the current conversations on Facebook.

What are the thought leaders in your field saying and sharing?
Are there people, or organisations, with a similar profile to ours that are active on social media

Monitor and evaluate what they do. Get comfortable with the terms used and the conventions of interacting in these spaces to ensure you can use them naturally and effectively.

You don’t need to be a particular age or type of person to excel in using social media. You simply need to enjoy communicating and understand how social media fits in the context of your professional role. It is important to remember that you are part of an organisation. What works on personal accounts might not work or be appropriate on accounts that represent the University.

Think about purpose and objectives

Social media should never be undertaken as an end in itself. Your social media activity should be linked to the business objectives of your team or department, as you would with any other marketing or communication plan. Having 500 Twitter followers is not an objective, but building an audience base to market to on Twitter may well be an important tactic in the bigger picture of student recruitment. Social media will rarely be the end goal, but it can form an important part of the journey that you are measuring.

Consider the overarching communication and marketing objectives of your department or your team. How can you use social media as part of the range of tools available to help you meet your existing objectives?

A note on paid-for advertising through social media

Only the University’s main social media accounts managed by the Department of Marketing and Communications can run paid advertising through social media.

Know your audience!

Before setting up an account, we recommend that you check that your intended target audience wants to engage with you through social media. Get some real evidence to prove this! Talk to your target audience, conduct a survey, or meet with them to understand their needs.

Who is your target audience?
Which social channels do they use?
Who do you intend to promote your account to, and who would you like to engage with?

Understanding the audience and what will appeal to them – and when – is also incredibly important. For prospective students, understanding where they are in the application cycle should lead messaging:

For example, highlighting the UCAS deadline in January
Pushing accommodation when it opens in March
Posting information about Clearing when it starts in July.

Carefully consider administration and resource

Running an effective social media presence requires considerable time and hard work. The commitment shouldn’t be underestimated. You must discuss this within your team and with your line manager and the department of Marketing and Communications. With adequate planning and support from colleagues, you could utilise an established social media platform at the University and work collaboratively with other teams. If you set up an account you can ensure you will integrate social media communications into your workload effectively and efficiently.

Working out exactly how much resource you require to maintain a social media account will become easier once you have clearly identified your objectives.

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