Best Practices

Students taking a photo for social media.

Are you new here?

Launching your own social media channel isn’t as simple as having good intentions or sharing exciting news and events. There is a lot that goes into it!

Scheduling, collaborating, and monitoring... these are some of the essentials that go into your favorite social media accounts. It's important to think about what will work best for your needs and abilities as you begin. 

We’re here to help you take the first steps in creating an effective social media channel for your department, student organization, or office. Reach out to start a conversation, get involved, and understand some of the important pieces of what makes a handle successful. You can also find a lot of helpful information online. Do some research and take notes!

CONTACT
Location: Boynton Hall
Office Location: 3rd Floor
Phone: 508-831-5305

The following tips apply to all posts, regardless of channel.

  • Purpose: Ensure you have enough relevant content to post regularly, with specific audiences and goals in mind.
  • Frequency: Be sure to understand when and how often you should be posting—refer to individual channels for more information.
  • Voice and Tone: You’re speaking on behalf of WPI, so make sure your posts are clear and succinct without sounding too institutional.
  • Call to Action: Is there a clear action you’d like your followers to take after reading your post?
  • Accuracy: Make sure you have all relevant details before posting a status updating or sending a tweet—and if a mistake is made, fix it through a follow-up post, comment, or replacement.
  • Responsiveness: Always respond to questions or comments from your followers within 24 hours or less.
  • Follow the 60-30-10 “Golden Rule”: That’s 60% posts that engage with shares and retweets, 30% that share content conversation and responses, and 10% that focus on announcements and events.
  • Measure Your Success: Decide how you’ll measure your results, and schedule time to reevaluate, make changes, and incorporate what you learn.
  • Plan Your Content: It’s important to engage in real time, but don’t forget to create a content calendar to help you repurpose your existing content and schedule monthly campaigns.
  • SEO: Make it easy for future followers to find you in a search—be sure your profile includes your organization name, relevant keywords, and a URL to your site or blog.
  • Visuals: Humor, memes, etc. can be used to great effectiveness, but can also offend some in your audience. We suggest not using memes and be very tame with attempts at humor.
  • Guidelines: Please make decisions on social media posts similarly to how you would post on your university webpages. Refer to university policies (https://www.wpi.edu/about/policies) for more detail. 
     

Looking for a social media scheduling tool?

Do you want a scheduling tool that can help you build out your content calendar and save time? Check out the article from Sprout Social. 

Preview

Need help with designing your graphics?

There are several tools to help you level up your design game and make your social media posts stand out. Check out this article to see the products available to best suit your needs. 

Preview