Social Media Considerations

Setting up a profile in social media is easy and often free. But just because you can do it, doesn't mean that you should particularly if you can't maintain it.

The following five questions are set to ensure that by creating a social media profile, you are also creating a positive profile of your area within the University and don't go into the social media world blindfolded.

Five questions to ask before setting up a social media profile

Before setting up a profile, make sure you can answer these questions at a minimum.

1. What is your blog/Facebook/Twitter/social media profile's reason for being? What is your objective?
2. Who is your audience?
3. Is this an existing audience? If not, how will you get them there?
4. What types of content are you planning to add and how often will it be updated?
5. Who is going to do the updating? Is it one person or do you have a team of contributors?

If you don't have clear answers to these questions, then starting a social media profile is not likely to enhance your organisations presence.

Setting up multiple University social media profiles (particularly Facebook and Twitter pages) dilutes the brand and confuses our audience.

If you don't have the resources to setup and maintain a profile in social media, think about having your content included on the main Facebook and Twitter page instead. These have an established following that you can tap into for your content.

To find out more about how social media is being used at the University, visit the Social Media Blog.