Account Management
Refer to these general best practices for help with managing successful social media accounts. Specific best practices vary across platforms. For platform specific questions, please reach out to socialmedia@tulane.edu for support.
Determine clear goals. Make sure you have asked yourself these questions before you become active on social media. Having clear qualitative and quantitative goals will help you create engaging social media content.
Have a strategy. Consider your audience, messaging, and goals before you start posting. Document your strategy in a written format to facilitate content ideation, creation, and reporting.
Stay active. Managing a successful social media profile means staying active. Post consistently, at least a few times per week, and plan ahead to avoid long periods of silence.
Monitor comments. Social media is a place for communities to engage. Your audience will leave comments or messages, and it is important to monitor these conversations. Respond to positive and negative comments when appropriate. Refer to the Tulane Community Guidelines for more information about comment monitoring.
Promote your accounts. Make sure people can find you by utilizing recognizable imagery and branding on your profiles. Include links to your accounts in newsletters and other communications, and make sure your accounts are registered on the Account Directory.
Measure your success. Utilize tracking tools or in-platform analytics to measure the success of your social media content. Establish a process and cadence for reporting and consider these metrics when planning future content.
Content Creation
Consider these tips to streamline the content creation process.
Determine content buckets. Content creation is much easier when you know what types of stories you want to tell. Based on your strategy and goals, determine “buckets” of content to pull from. This could be faculty spotlights, student takeovers, campus beauty, and more.
Create a content calendar. Maintaining a content calendar will help you keep track of your content and see the bigger picture. It allows you to determine content gaps, content opportunities, and posting frequency. A good content calendar will include dates, platforms, key message, visual assets, and copy.
Collaborate across the University. Collaborating with other University departments on social media is a great way to expand your audience and effectively tell the story of our interdisciplinary institution.
Visual Content
Content on social media takes many forms, from photos to videos to graphics. Keep these best practices in mind when creating visual content.
Photography
Image ratios vary depending on platform, but an image that takes up the most vertical space on screen is usually a good choice. Only use photography you have permission to post. If you do not have access to the University’s image library, you can apply for access here.
Video
Attention spans on social media are limited, so focus on creating brief, engaging videos. Most social media videos are watched on mobile devices with the sound off, so ensure that captions are utilized if the video includes speaking. If you are using music in your videos, ensure you have the rights to the track to avoid copyright infringement.
Graphics
Use graphics sparingly and only when necessary. Limit the amount of text on your graphic, and include additional information in your caption. Ensure that all graphic posts are accompanied by alt text for accessibility.
