Starting an account
Questions to consider
Before creating a new account, ask yourself: What value will this social media presence add to your communication strategy? Carefully assess your resources to ensure you can maintain an active account. Use this calculator to estimate how many hours your unit should dedicate annually to social content creation.
Begin by establishing a strategic content plan and reviewing answers to the following questions with your unit director.
What is your primary objective? There are three marketing objectives at the center of all social media strategies:
- Brand awareness. Use your social media profiles to get in front of new faces and continue to build affinity among your current followers.
- Engagement. One of the things that sets social media apart from other channels is that it is a two-way communication tool with the ability to encourage social interaction from your audience. Engagement refers to the number and type of interactions your followers have with your content. Maybe you want to drive comments on your content, or maybe you want your followers to share your content with their own audience or send your post to a friend.
- Conversions. Getting people to take a certain action usually involves leaving the social platform for another destination — perhaps a website, an app, or an invitation to an event. Unfortunately, organic social content is not the best channel for driving conversions because social media platforms want users to stay on their apps. However, paid social media can really shine if you’re looking to drive conversions.
Your unit likely communicates with a variety of audiences through different channels. Select a primary audience for the particular social platform you’re considering. If necessary, you can include up to two secondary audiences. Narrowing down your target audience will help you choose the best platform and create intentional content while maintaining your account.
When deciding which social media platforms are right for your unit, think of your audience first. Different demographics favor different social platforms, so it’s important that you select the platforms that align with the behavior of your main audience.
It’s also important to consider the resources and expertise of your team when choosing the right mix of social media platforms. Some platforms are better suited for text posts, while others are made specifically for photo or video content.
Review these platform best practices to determine if the platform you’re considering is a good fit for your intended audience and whether your team can effectively create content for these platforms.
We recommend concentrating on one channel before expanding your presence. Take the time to perfect engagement, collaboration, and execution before extending your social media strategy to other platforms.
Outline a plan for building your account’s following while focusing specifically on your primary and secondary audiences. Consider promoting these accounts in newsletters, in email campaigns, and on your website. You can also grow your audience by engaging with content within your niche, using relevant and appropriate hashtags, collaborating with other KU accounts, and using paid social to promote your profiles or boost specific pieces of content.
Brands should keep their social accounts active by posting at least once every month, and official KU accounts must be able to publish content on a weekly basis.
There is no magic number when it comes to the frequency of posts. We recommend that, rather than focusing on the quantity of posts, you focus on building a plan that allows you to publish high-quality content on a consistent basis.
If you don’t think you’ll have enough content or resources to consistently publish content that adds value to your audience, consider collaborating with other accounts to share your content instead. Review this directory to find other KU accounts you may be able to partner with.
Maintaining active social media profiles requires significant time and dedication. Use this calculator to estimate how many hours a year your unit should dedicate to social content creation.
KU accounts should be owned and maintained by staff or faculty members. Student employees and interns can be tremendous collaborators on social media initiatives, but they should never “own” official KU social media accounts or profiles.
Creating an account
It’s important that you review the answers to these questions with your director and develop a social media strategy. Once unit leadership has reviewed your proposal and provided approval for the new account, you’re ready to create your account!
Next steps
Identify an email address to be associated with all your social accounts. All official KU accounts must be registered to a shared or general email address accessible by more than one staff or faculty member. Use an email address that is already established for customer service — for example, socialmedia@ku.edu. If you need to create a new departmental email account, follow these instructions provided by KU IT.
Create and share a secure password. Passwords and logins should be known and maintained by all page administrators and direct leadership. Review KU’s policy on password security.
Choose a name and handle for your account. The name and handle associated with your accounts should complement each other. The name of your account should be the name of your unit or the name of the entity you represent.
The handle should be a short, recognizable distillation of the account name. Pay close attention to how your handle reads without spaces. For example, the School of the Arts may prefer to use @schoolofthearts instead of @schoolofarts.
- Create and upload your profile image. It’s important to choose a profile image that works consistently across all major social platforms. Official KU accounts should use the provided branded social avatar templates, which come in a variety of designs and feature key brand elements. If you choose to include your unit’s name in your profile image, keep it short — ideally under 10 characters. Abbreviate or use acronyms when possible. (You’ll have plenty of space in your platform’s display name to feature your full title.) If you cannot fit your unit’s name in our branded social avatar templates, we recommend downloading one of our KU-themed avatars.
- Complete your profile. Make sure to include everything required by the platform to complete your account such as header photos, backgrounds, biographies, contact info, and website links.
- Notify KU Marketing.Fill out this short form so that we can add you to the directory and start following your accounts.
- Start publishing content and growing your audience. Review our tools and guidance for maintaining social accounts.