Although social media is a fun space to work in, embarking on social communication on behalf of the College should be part of a comprehensive communication strategy.
Before you create a social account for your department, office, center, or athletic team, you should consider these important questions.
Who is your audience? Just as you would for other communication channels, identify and prioritize your social audiences. Understand how they consume information and use social tools as one facet of a targeted, integrated communications and marketing strategy that reaches across multiple communication platforms.
What are your communication goals? Social media is not a one-size-fits-all solution and it's best used as an audience engagement tool rather than a broadcast medium. Clearly articulate your goals and develop a social content strategy that supports those objectives.
How will you measure outcomes? Strategic communications and marketing plans should always include an assessment component. Develop a set of measurements, select an analytics tool, and follow an assessment schedule. Plan to analyze your results and apply lessons learned to your communications strategy.
Who will manage your account? Someone must be responsible for monitoring, moderating, and managing your account seven days a week, 365 days a year, including weekends and holidays. Social media never rests, and a social manager must be attentive to their community. You should identify a primary social manager and a back-up manager as well, and agree to a monitoring and on-call schedule.
How will you handle a social crisis? It's inevitable: Someone will post something negative on your social account. If you encounter a post that is deemed slanderous, obscene, soliciting, or in conflict with the College’s social media policies and guidelines, you have every right to delete it. If you encounter a post that is threatening in nature, please take down the name of the person who issued the post, its content, and contact Campus Safety at 562.907.4211 and the Office of Marketing & Communications at socialmedia@whittier.edu immediately after the post has been deleted. In the event of a campus-wide emergency, the Office of Marketing & Communications will distribute official news and updates via its own social media channels.
