Departments, programs, centers and other units in the College of Arts & Letters may want to use social media to to promote events, share awards and accolades, and engage with students, prospective students, faculty, and alumni.
If you’re thinking about starting a new social media account, contact the Marketing Office to learn the best approach and channel for your goals, as well as to discuss best practices and strategic planning.
Before Starting a New Social Account
We can help you think through what you want to communicate and accomplish through a social media channel and develop a plan for creating and posting different types of content on an ongoing basis. We can answer questions and share tips and tricks for different social media channels, as well as for growing an audience of followers to a new account.
We’ll also add you to the list of social account contacts in the College of Arts & Letters as a way to share resources, trends, and updates.
Reviewing Your Current Social Accounts
Auditing your accounts annually and looking at post engagement and research quarterly can help you determine what content is making a difference with your audiences.
Maintaining an active social media account takes time. You’ll need to plan content, post content, monitor accounts and messages, and interact with other accounts and messages. An active social media account will have an continuous flow of posts and interactions.
It’s not necessary to create a social media account or profile on every platform. Some may work better for your needs that others, and you will want to take into consideration the resources you have for maintaining social media accounts through posts and engagement with other accounts.
Assess the target audience you are trying to reach and the type of messages you want to share to determine which platform may work best to achieve your goals.
Not all content is right or optimal for all social media platforms. For example, LinkedIn is a social platform that is geared toward larger organizations to leverage audiences and reach. Michigan State University and college-level accounts do better in this space. However, a private LinkedIn group may be a way for areas like programs to develop a targeted following of students/alumni with highly focused content.
Each social media platform has different nuances. The sizes for visual content vary by social media platform and also change continually. Hootsuite annually shares the optimal social media image sizes for photos and graphics based on the platform.
College of Arts & Letters departments and programs can contact the Marketing Office for assistance in assessing your audience, goals, and content marketing needs. We can also help in creating an icon or choosing a banner photo for your social media pages.
Engagement & Commenting
Social media platforms encourage meaningful interaction with your audiences, and can help you build important connections. Engaging with your audience accounts is also a way to build community.
Consistent social media engagement also increases the likelihood your posts will be favored by social media algorithms that control which posts are shown to your followers.
Some ways to engage with other social media accounts include:
- Tagging the College of Arts & Letters’ account on a post, photo, or video.
- Tagging other related people and organizations on a post, photo, or video.
- Crediting the photographer of a photo you post.
- Mentioning an organization directly in the text of a post.
- Using location tagging (when available) on a post.
- Replying to comments on your posts and any direct messages (and promptly within 24-28 hours if possible).
- Liking and commenting on your followers’ posts.
If an account directly mentions, tags, or shares your post, they are showing interest in your content, so continue to engage and interact with them.
Reposting User Generated Content (UGC) is another way to build community. UGC is content created by your audience members or followers that is reposted, after asking for permission, from your account. UGC often performs well and provides a way to be more authentic and inclusive.
Negative Comments
Sometimes social media accounts receive negative feedback and comments. If there is a post, comment, or message that brings criticism from another user, respond in a professional and appropriate manner that is solution-oriented and avoids accusatory and defensive language. To the best of your ability, your brand should respond with an explanation and a solution if possible.
As a public institution committed to free speech, we are not allowed to delete comments we don’t agree with. There are some situations where deleting a comment is allowed. In some cases, hiding a comment may make sense. If you have questions, contact the Marketing and Communications Team.
Hashtags
Hashtag usage can help tap into existing conversations and audiences for monitoring and information discovery. They can also build brand recognition, but should be used sparingly if at all.
When using hashtags, capitalize the first letter of each work for easier readability and accessibility (e.g., #SpartansWill).
MSU has a set of hashtags they use with regularity that may make sense to use in some social media posts, including:
- #SpartansWill for MSU aspirational brand-aligned content
- #GoGreen for athletics and sustainability
- #SpartanGrad24 for graduation, upcoming/recent graduates, and commencement-related content
Others to consider that the College of Arts & Letters uses in some posts include:
- #GlobalSpartans connected with education/study abroad programs, especially photos
- #MSU to connect with conversations about Michigan State University
- #MSUCAL to represent the College of Arts & Letters (More applicable for department- or program-level accounts. Used less frequently on college-level accounts because posts are already tied to the college)
More: Best Practices for Hashtags
Plan for Accessibility
While photos, graphics, and videos are important on social media channels, so is accessibility.
- Photos, graphics, and illustrations need to include alternative text (alt text). Alt text should describe what is pictured, including any text that may be part of a graphic or illustration.
- Any text on a graphic or illustration should be minimal for clarity and readability on mobile screens. Text should also be a part of the alt text for that graphic or illustration.
- Make sure the color contrast is high between text and image or graphic backgrounds.
- Videos should have burned in captions, auto-captioning through the social channel (that you review/edit before posting), or a caption file (SRT file) loaded with the video depending on the social platform capabilities.
Additional Accessibility Resources
- MSU Web Access: Creating Accessible Digital Content
- MSU Social Media Team: Social Media Accessibility Best Practices
- MSU Social Media Team: MSU Accessibility on Social Media Workshop Recording (YouTube)
- External: Accessible Social