The following information is available to help any marketing and communications team better use their social media to interact with their audience on sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Before we begin, we’d like you (if you haven’t already) to visit our E-Manual post on Social Media Branding where you can see the guidelines on creating, naming, and advertising your social media accounts.
Major Tip: Every chapter is different. Remember that these are guidelines and suggestions to help you get started – but if you feel like you can adjust our guidelines to better appeal to your specific campus/audience – then feel free!
To start things off, it is important to differentiate between the uses of Facebook and Twitter when targeting your audience. Facebook is a hub of direct-information. It is where people go to get updated about specific things, usually trusting the page/group they are following to keep things related, easy to follow, and not clustered or spammed. Twitter, on the other hand, is also a hub of information but is very clustered (in a need way) with content, and allows you to post updates, vaguely-related information, and share anything you may think any of your followers find interesting.
Summary: Facebook is used to update the audience for a specific message; with the ability post videos,pictures, links and longer content. Twitter is used for the same reason but does have a 140 character limit for each post. If you have a lot of information to give your audience use Facebook rather than multiple Twitter messages to deliver the content.
Major Tip: To keep track of what your audience likes, and what they would like to see more of, get a Bitly account (bitly.com) for your chapter, and track what people click on when you provide links. Also look to see how many “likes” or “shares” a post gets to see what people like.
Share stuff from the National Students Offering Support Facebook group and form other Chapters as well like their outreach trips or any articles, videos, etc. they post.
Facebook
Facebook is one of the most powerful tools to get your information to your audience as fast and as easily as possible. But how do you get your students to get on your Facebook page? And what kind of information will you post on there? Here are some pointers of what you can post and should avoid posting on Facebook:
What to post:
- Information about the dates/times/place Exam-AID Sessions are held, with links, as you make them
- Tutor Profiles
- Pictures of Exam-AIDs
- Pictures of Community work in Latin American Communities
- Events that you’ll be hosting
- Any media coverage your chapter has
- Videos your chapter develops
- Articles, videos, blog posts, etc. on anything related to: studying, your community, Latin America or SOS in general
What not to do on Facebook
- Spam messages about your chapter
- Post irrelevant information
How often should I post?
This is a very important and common question many people have. The amount of times you want to post per day or week varies between the different months and “seasons” within a semester. For example, at the beginning of a term, you may not have as much content (maybe only advertising) to post online, which is fine. A couple of posts a day, or a few a week will be fine to keep your audience up-to-date on the your chapter’s details. These posts can include advertising, videos, SOS-related news, or news/pictures/videos of the community/country you will be visiting in the upcoming summer. A great way to increase social media presence is by posting and sharing viral videos and content. Try to relate it back to SOS, if you can’t that’s okay. Be careful to not annoy your audience by over-posting, especially unrelated information.
When midterm and exam seasons begin, you will probably be posting more content. These posts will include the same posts content as stated above, but they will include more chapter-related posts including Exam-AID session times, pictures from Exam-AID, trip information, and any events you will be hosting. This is a great time to focus on the tutoring side of what you do; as well as provide information on what you do, what SOS is, and what you do outside of the classroom.
Twitter
Twitter is a way to relay information quickly and clearly. It is very spammable (but not too much) and allows the chapter to provide a constant flow of information (even to the Facebook page) to always update your audience on any topic you (or more importantly, they) would like. And remember to always #HashTag in your posts (ie. #SOS, #volunteering, #ExamAID, etc.).
What to post to on Twitter:
- Information about the dates/times/place Exam-AID Sessions are held, with links, as you make them
- Pictures of Exam-AIDs
- Pictures of Community work in Latin American Communities
- News about the country of the community you will be visiting
- Events that you’ll be hosting, with links to the event
- Any media coverage your chapter has
- Videos your chapter develops
- Articles, viral videos, blog posts, etc. or anything related to: studying, your community, Latin America or SOS in general
What not to do on Twitter:
- Because of the character limit (140 characters per post) do not post several times to relay larger content to your audience – use your Facebook instead and post a link on Twitter to the Facebook post
- Use lots of abbreviations. Although you have a short character limit, your audience still has to be able to understand what you are trying to say.
How often should I post on Twitter?
You can usually post on Twitter a lot more times than Facebook per day, or week. A good amount of scale is to post an equal-amount to twice as many posts as you do on Facebook. So, if you post on Facebook 2-3 times a day, you can post on Twitter 3-6 times a day. But remember, the content matters most – don’t spam unnecessary content just because you are running low/behind on posts.
Summary
- Facebook should be used as a tool for for getting chapter-related news, such as pictures, coverage, and Exam-AID or community information.
- Twitter is a tool that can be used to constantly send a flow of information about relatively chapter-related news, including pictures, news from Facebook, and Exam-AID/community news.
- Make sure to use a link-tracking site like bitly.com, and make an account – really helps you understand what your audience is most interested in.
- Remember that every chapter is different – if you want to adjust these guidelines to help you better reach your audience, then go wild!
We hope this E-Manual has helped you gain the basic knowledge on what to do and what not to do on your social media pages. If you have any more questions please do not hesitate to contact chapters@studentsofferingsupport.ca with any questions about social media use.
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