TABLE OF CONTENTS

Social Media Directory

School of Architecture Official Channels

Academic Accounts

Affiliated Accounts

Student Groups

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University Resources

University Marketing and Communications Social Media Guidelines

Guidelines for Social Media Managers

Additional Resources: UMAC Wiki

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Social Media Tips

Before establishing a new social media page, you must coordinate with UTSOA Communications. We will: 

• Discuss communications needs and determine if social media is the most appropriate platform to meet those goals
• Help define strategies and processes, track results, and monitor the use of the unit’s social media
• Maintain information about each page, including administrators and credentials, to ensure page sustainability
• Amplify social media efforts across UTSOA and the university as appropriate

Elements of a Social Media Strategy

Identify Resources: Social media is a dynamic form of communication and requires regular updating. Identify who will oversee, update, and monitor your account, and record log-in credentials and a list of administrators to ensure continuity of access.

Develop Goals: Program and unit social media goals should align with the mission and goals of UTSOA and the university. 

Identify Your Audience: Social media reaches a broad group of people, but it is also important to reach the people who would most benefit from the information you are sharing. Your target audience will guide your content, tone, choice of social media platforms, and success metrics.

Identify Your Platform: Determining your target audience and goals will help you determine which social media platform is the best fit. Each social media platform is unique in use, audience, and content type. 

Create an Initial Content Strategy: Content should help you achieve your social media goals, whether those are broad goals like increasing awareness or more specific goals like promoting an event. It is also important to post on a consistent basis. Content calendars and content planning tools are recommended, so you can plan content in advance rather than having to come up with it on the spot. Here is a sample content calendar.

Promote Your Social Media Efforts and Create Engagement:

• Coordinate with UTSOA communications to share news of your page with the greater UTSOA community
• Use UTSOA, university, and other hashtags to connect your audience to related topics of interest
• Tag @UTSOA to illustrate affiliation with the school and drive traffic to our central accounts.
• Follow other university accounts and appropriate external accounts.
• Foster relationships with partners, organizations, and media outlets by tagging their official handles in relevant posts. Using @mentions and tagging accounts alerts users about posts related to them and encourages sharing, which, in turn, broadens our reach and increases engagement

Measure Your Success: Regularly reviewing your page and post analytics is important in determining whether your social media is effective. Monthly or quarterly reporting will help you determine what steps you may need to take to increase reach and engagement. Consider questions like: How many people are you reaching? Are people engaging with your content? Do certain messages create more interaction than others? If so, what can you learn from that? Is one platform outperforming the other?

Sustaining Your Efforts: Social media pages are not typically used as a temporary means of communication. Consider long-term sustainability when developing your strategy. What are the long-term goals? Are there resources to continue for an extended period?

Policy Considerations

Accessibility: All university-managed social media sites should meet the university’s Web Accessibility Policy. University pages on third-party social media sites should make the best effort to follow web accessibility guidelines. For tips to help ensure accessibility, visit this page.

Information Security: All University of Texas at Austin-managed social media sites should meet the university’s Information Security Office standards.

Copyright: Follow all copyright and fair use laws. Secure the right to post all social media content to do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. Due to the functional nature of certain social media tools, a Twitter “retweet” or Facebook “share” automatically provides attribution to the original post.

Privacy Notification: Only public information may be submitted to social media sites. Be aware of and follow the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 protecting students’ personally identifiable information in educational records. Protect confidential or personal information from The University of Texas at  Austin and of students, faculty or staff members.

Public Information Act: Posts and comments on any UTSOA social media site are public record and as such, may be subject to an open records request under the Texas Public Information Act

Branding: The university’s brand guide helps schools and programs produce materials that are consistent and immediately recognizable at The University of Texas at Austin. We encourage you to use this brand guideline as you develop communications and materials for your unit and as you produce content for social media.

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Best Practices & Resources

• All posts should include strong visuals and relevant tags. By tagging relevant accounts, you are increasing reach and engagement
• Post consistently, but not overwhelmingly. Specifics depend on the audience and account, but as a general rule posting at least 3 times per week is ideal while posting more than 2-3 times per day can become excessive.
• Add captions to videos and alt-text to photos for accessibility
• Use links to redirect to content on the UTSOA website or external media. For Instagram, we use Linktr.ee to aggregate links.
• Reshare user-generated content when applicable.
• Social media is a form of two-way communication. Monitor and respond to comments. Engage with followers when relevant. 
  
• Use insights and analytics to adjust content and timing. Each platform has built-in analytics that will show when users are engaging, how posts are performing, etc. 
• Most platforms also allow you to schedule posts or create drafts in advance. Reach out for more specific guidance. 

Links to Resources: 

• Canva: A free-to-use graphic design tool 
• Linktr.ee: Free link aggregator
• UT Austin Giphy: Branding Gifs
• Social Media Image Size Guide
• Content Calendar Template
• Royalty Free Image Options: Unsplash, Creative Commons

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