Social Media

Share your RWU pride, with fellow and future Hawks! Social Media Ambassadors are representatives of the RWU experience, passionate members of the campus community, and active social media users.

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Social Media Best Practices

Social media is a powerful tool that helps to build brand awareness, raise visibility, and encourage conversation. A successful online presence requires time, focus, nurturing, and feedback. The following best practices will help you get started on the path to social success:

Before starting a social media channel, consider the following:

• Goal: What is the purpose of  the account?
• Audiences: Who are you trying to reach?
• Content source: Where will you get the content?
• Content types: What types of content will you need? (photos, videos, web links, user generated content, etc.)
• Management: Who will be the account administrator? Who is the backup if that person leaves?
• Cadence: How often will you post on your channel?
• Voice: What type of language will you use? Will your account take an informal tone or is it more professional?
• Success: What is the measure of success for the account?

TIP: When starting out, pick a platform that targets your primary audience and focus your efforts. A successful social media plan does not have to be a presence on all platforms.

Social Media Content Calendar

Consider using a social media content calendar to help you organize your upcoming content by detailing what and when you will post. 

A social media content calendar provides enhanced control over publishing and lets you focus on the big picture rather than day-to-day posting. If you would like a social calendar template for your accounts, please email socialmedia@g.rwu.edu.

TIP: Automating your social media efforts can help you save time and build a more strategic presence. Using a scheduling tool like Hootsuite, Sprout Social,and Buffer to publish your content helps you get more organized and consistent with your messaging across all channels.

Visual. Succinct. Consistent.

This is key when creating an effective social media presence. When posting, be sure to tailor your content and images to the platform and your audiences. If you plan to share the same content across multiple platforms, customize your messaging, update your image to fit each platform's sizing specifications, use relevant hashtags, and verify social media handles when tagging external sources.

Posting regularly and consistently is important for your success on social media. But it's not all about quantity—quality matters too! Spend time on each piece of content you post to ensure that it is interesting, relevant, and helpful to your community. 

Optimal Image Dimensions for Popular Platforms

TIP: Canva is an excellent resource for developing social media content and can help you instantly size an image for each social media platform.

Be Mindful Of Accessibility

Like any digital content, social media posts are more accessible when developed in a way that people experiencing an impairment or disability—whether permanent, temporary, or situational—can understand. 

While various social media platforms and applications may vary in terms of what modifications can be made, here are some basic steps you can take with your content to help improve accessibility.

Use plain language

When writing a social post, keep your information clear, direct and to the point. Remember that social media is meant to be a conversational form of communication and posts are usually skimmed.

Images and videos

When audiences can’t see or hear your content, you need to make sure they can still access and understand it. To do this, text equivalents are provided in the form of alt text, image descriptions, captions, and transcripts to ensure that people who can’t see or hear your content get the same information as those who can.

Alt text

When sharing images on your social channel, always add alt text to describe the image. Use straightforward, succinct language that describes the contents of the image. 

Videos

Captions help your video reach a wider audience by improving viewer comprehension. Captions should include important non-verbal information, such as music playing, ambient sounds, and laughter.

Emojis

Emojis are great for spreading a smile, avoid using emojis in access. While emojis are another popular way to make a message stand out, they are not compatible with most screen readers. Emojis are best used at the end of a sentence and not in place of words to indicate meaning.

Engagement and Monitoring

Engagement is important because it allows your audience to feel heard and supported. This can look like commenting, liking, and sharing relevant content with your audience.

Monitoring your social media channels is an important part of maintaining your presence on relevant platforms. 

TIP: Many social media scheduling platforms can provide the ability to set up a dashboard that tracks relevant keywords, hashtags, and media mentions.

Social Media Request

Questions? Assistance?

Contact Stacey Pacheco, Social Media Manager at socialmedia@g.rwu.edu.