Portland State University supports the use of social media by employees to connect with students, fellow faculty and staff, alumni, fans, colleagues and more. Social media tools enable the university to share what is happening on campus with the world and hear directly and immediately from our core audience about what is important to them. This "conversation" is what makes social media different from traditional forms of one-way institutional communication.
These principles provide guidance on how to devise a social media strategy and run a social media account effectively, safely and within university guidelines on behalf of a group, department or unit.
Strategy
Before creating a social media account for a school/college, group, department or unit, please take time to develop a social media strategy.
Your strategy should include details on frequency, and there should be a balance in how often you post. Posting at least once a week, year round is the minimum requirement for engagement, audience growth, and brand development. But posting every day can overwhelm your audience by making your content feel redundant or irrelevant. A good balance is to post 1-3 times a week, alternating between videos and photographs, while keeping graphics to a minimum. That said, you should moderate your comments, tags, content and messages every day.
Using each platform’s internal data tracking tools, you’ll be able to monitor when your audience is most engaged. Plan your posts around the days and times your audience is most likely to engage with your content.
If you don’t have the time or resources to engage with your audience regularly, we recommend forgoing social media for a communication or marketing tool that better suits your needs and available time.
Audience
A significant part of developing your content strategy is identifying who makes up your current, potential, and target audiences. Understanding who receives your department’s communications can help guide the type of content you create.
Consider your audience. Are you posting for alumni, current students, donors, the greater Portland community, or all of the above? What are their interests? What are their connections to PSU and your department? Which platforms and types of content will you leverage to reach each of these audiences?
If you’re a subdivision of a larger department, speak to your department chair or lead marketer to decide if it makes sense to create an individual account, or if an account for your group or department already exists. It is possible that your content is better suited for your department’s primary account.
Making too many accounts within subdivisions of a larger department can divide and confuse your audience, create an unnecessary workload, and run the risk of duplicating profiles (which can lead Meta’s algorithm to shadowbanning or deleting your account).
Brand Identity
Brand identity encapsulates your department’s voice, community, and mission.
Develop your account’s brand identity by exploring the following questions with your leadership team: How can you best represent your department? What is your new account’s perspective? What information is unique to your account? How would your audience best receive this information? How does this voice support the overall tone and brand messaging at PSU?
Once your department has a solid foundation for your account’s brand identity, you can reach your audience through the development of your brand’s voice.
One of the benefits of social media is that the individuals running sites on behalf of their department or unit help personalize large and complex institutions like PSU. Use your own voice and be real to your department’s faculty, staff, student body, and mission.
Build trust with your audience by communicating with them in an authentic voice. Your audience will more likely connect and relate to you if you engage with them genuinely. When promoting an event or a program, be mindful about your tone. Try not to leave any room for ambiguity or misunderstanding. State your real intent and goals and let your department’s personality shine.
Safety
Online safety is of the utmost importance. Please make sure that you’re up to date on Portland State’s annual cybersecurity training. Any slip in security can lead to a leak of private information, account hacks/losses and irreparable damage to Portland State’s brand.
Keep track of who runs and creates your accounts and pass their information onto the Director of Content & Social Media Strategy at University Communications. Make sure to store all your passwords somewhere safe and accessible to your department, for all time. Do not create duplicate accounts. This often leads to sites shadowbanning, restricting or deleting accounts.
Do not let students run your social media accounts. This can lead to easy hacking, loss of access and lack of quality control. While students can create content and even moderate some aspects of your account, they should not be the primary executives of your accounts. Again, if you do not have the resources to have a staff member run your social media accounts, we do not recommend that you create one.
Confidentiality
Do not post or share confidential or proprietary information about Portland State University students, employees or alumni. Respect university policies and federal requirements such as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects students' information in educational records.
Ownership
As a representative of PSU, what you publish and share online is ultimately your responsibility. But remember, anything you post in your role as a PSU employee reflects on the institution. Exercise common sense and don't forget that what you publish will be public for a long time — treat each post with care and respect.
Accuracy
Before posting, make sure you have all the facts correct by first verifying content with a credible source. Cite and link to your sources whenever possible — doing this builds credibility. Also, review your content for grammar and spelling mistakes. If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly. Facebook's "edit" feature, for example, allows you to revise an original post.
Brand Alignment
While running your department’s social media accounts, you are the face of the university. Always remain professional and in good taste, and protect PSU’s institutional voice by aligning with the university’s brand and policies as a public university. As a representative of the university, avoid pranks and postings that could be misinterpreted.
The PSU logo cannot be modified or used for personal endorsements, and the PSU name cannot be used to promote a product, cause, political party or candidate. When in doubt, please contact the office of University Communications.
Consult with your supervisor or the Office of University Communications if you are unsure if any of your content risks being misaligned with the university.
Community Building
The essence of community is the idea that it exists so you can support others and they, in turn, can support you. Balance talking with your audience by listening and responding.
Connecting to others on social media and online builds credibility and community, but could also give the unintended impression that you or your group endorses a certain cause, group or person. Consider carefully who you “friend,” “follow,” link to or allow into your site, and to what extent you will allow comments.
You can also help the PSU community stay connected by linking back to the PSU homepage and other PSU social media sites when posting. When possible, link to a PSU news source instead of an outside source to keep the audience in the PSU ecosystem.
Social media sites are designed for two-way communication, and content contributed to a social media site may encourage comments or discussion of opposing ideas.
Per PSU's social media comment policy, you may remove comments that are libelous or offensive according to the standards of the PSU community. You are encouraged not to censor posts with which you personally disagree. Also, avoid criticizing other people and institutions. Doing so may alienate you from your audience, reflect poorly on PSU or escalate into a conflict.
As a social media administrator, you can and should respond when relevant, but consider how your response may reflect on you, your department and the university. If you are unsure about posting something or responding to a comment, ask your supervisor or email the Director of Content & Social Media Strategy at: ruben4@pdx.edu