Tips for students/clubs

Social media can be a great tool to promote your student club or organization ... but only if you do it consistently and in the right way. Here are some tips to make sure your club/organization is getting the most out of its social media use. 

• Want your social media post to be shared by our University-wide accounts? You can submit it by clicking here. 
• There's a better chance of your social media post taking off if you use correct and approved hashtags and accounts in your posts. For approved hashtags, check out this list. For official accounts, check out our social directory. 
• If you want tips for creating specific posts, click here for a checklist to produce the perfect post. 
• When creating and managing social media accounts, set up a separate email address (ex: [fraternity/sorority]@gmail.com). Do not link your organization’s social media accounts with a personal email account. This will make things easier when you graduate and have to pass the social media account information off to the next manager. 
  
• Try to use the same @handle when setting up accounts on different social media platforms. This makes it easier for people to find these accounts.
  
• When posting, keep it short and sweet.
  
• Showcase your philanthropy, volunteerism, etc. with many highly visual posts (AKA uses a bunch of photos and video).
• To add to that, think visually. Post as many photos as possible. Posts with photo or video content are at least two times more likely to be viewed.

• Shoutouts are a great way to build relationships with other people on campus and across social media.
  
• If you have an idea but aren’t sure it would be successful, ask your friends for input. They will likely be a similar audience to your followers on social media. If they think it'll flop, try something else. 
  
• Be conscious of grammar, spelling and acronyms. It may be obvious, but reading through your posts at least once before they go up can save you a bunch of time later on and allow for each post to be more successful. 
  
• If you also have a personal social media account on the same app, always check to see which account you’re logged into. Use different apps if you can, so you don't accidentally post from your club/organization account when you meant to post from your personal account. 
  
• If you're not the only one with access to the account, give your members guidelines (not rules!) for posting on social media ... feel free to reference this website to the other social media managers.
  
• Treat every social platform differently (Facebook ≠ Twitter).
  
• Don’t ask for retweets. If your content is strong enough, retweets will happen organically.
  
• Use some type of link-shortening product (like bit.ly). It frees up more space for your content.