1. Author: Felicia McKinney, @feliciapaigexo, fpm6109@sru.edu
Social Media Best Practices
1. Be consistent
Post at least once every day. Retweeting and responding are great, but it’s important to put original content
out there that your followers care about.
2. Be timely
Social media is one of the first places where people find out about current events / news. Whether you’re
talking about an on campus event or national news, post as things are happening, not a week later.
3. Be relevant
Before you post, ask yourself: Is this something I would retweet / like / favorite / respond to?
4. Listen
Take some time to scroll through your timeline / newsfeed and listen to what your followers are talking
about. Gear your content to what your followers care about to increase engagement
5. Social media is a two-way street
Social media allows you to reach your followers where they’re at and engage in conversations that are
already happening. Interact with your followers. Remember: you’re talking with students, not at them.
6. Personality is the new black
Being intentional about posting fun, personality-rich content and engaging in meaningful interactions with
your followers gives users a reason to follow you, builds community, and helps followers to feel connected
to you.
7. Show, don’t tell
Posts with images generally receive more engagement. Using professional stock photos, infographics, or
pictures that you take around campus, incorporate images as often and as creatively as possible.
8. #Hashtags, #hashtags, #hashtags
Hashtags are a great way to create a library of content, and to follow / join conversations. Tips for using
hashtags:
o Make it timeless. #minesmovers2015 is only relevant for this year, but #minesmovers can be built
upon & used every year for move-in.
o Make it Mines-specific. #studyabroad is very general and has a ton of content associated with it.
#minesabroad can be used to categorize the experiences of mines students’ specifically.
o Before using a new hashtag, search it to see what content is already associated. You don’t want to
promote a hashtag that has irrelevant content, drinking photos or negative posts about the
university attached to it.
o Like diamonds, hashtags are forever. It’s important to use your hashtags strategically because
content associated with a hashtag will always appear when someone searches it.
9. The best ideas are borrowed
Follow other res life accounts and other universities (especially STEM universities / STEM colleges within
universities) to get inspired.
10. Be patient
Not every post is going to be a homerun. You might not gain 100 new followers every week. Building a
strong social media presence takes time.