Before you post to your social channels, be sure to follow this checklist to optimize your content and make it soar!
Does this content promote UB and move the university forward?
As communicators speaking on behalf of the university, we have an obligation to make sure that all posts made from UB social accounts reflect our institutional values and move the university forward. Be sure that your content is accurate and ties back to your account’s social strategy. Not sure if your post reflects your account strategy? Use your bio/about section as a litmus test. Make sure everything you post from your page ties back to that statement.
When positioning content, always think about the audience. Consider:
- What’s in it for them? What are they going to get out of reading this? If we want our audience to engage with our content, we have to provide value or position it in a way that is meaningful to them.
- Would YOU want to click on this post? Does the copy make you care or feel excited about the content?
- Does the image or video help tell the story? Is it engaging?
- Have you considered adding either a call-to-action or engagement opportunity to encourage conversation on your post?
- Is the content inclusive and does it accurately reflect our community? We want to make sure that our diverse university population is represented in an authentic way. Step back and look at your content from the week and consider whether or not the language, the people and the photos you are featuring reflect an inclusive community that is a reasonable representation of your unit and/or our community as a whole.
Keep these tips in mind when writing content for social media:
- Hone in on the benefits: It’s not always about what UB did. It’s about what UB, and our community collaborations, did for others that matters to our audience.
- Frontload your copy: We need to capture our audience’s attention fast or they may scroll past our content. Try to put the most compelling information first.
- Avoid PR talk: We don’t want to sound like a press release. How can we create more of a connection for our audience and make it relatable, fun or engaging?
- Handle with care: Although we don’t want to sound like a press release, we also don’t want to be insensitive when it comes to serious subject matters. Posts that touch on an individual’s health or beliefs, especially, should be treated delicately and positioned in a way that provokes empathy or discussion.
- Think Local: We love our city. We can appeal many stories to the WNY audience by positioning our content to show how it impacts the local community.
- Establish credibility for your source if they aren’t a household name.
- For example, the audience may not care that an alum is offering career advice, but they will if we note that the alum is a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
- Don’t include full names unless the ‘source’ is a household name. Use ‘this alum’ or ‘this professor’ and include context
- Start a conversation: Is there an opportunity to build engagement into the post? How can we talk WITH our audience instead of AT them?