1. Determine if a similar account already exists

• See if there are any existing social media accounts related to your department, office or program.
• If so, can you leverage those social media pages — which already have a built-in audience — for your needs?

2. Define your goals and objectives

• How does social media fit with your overall goals?

• What results do you hope to achieve?

• How will you measure success?

• Goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Bound.

3. Determine your audience

• What group(s) of people do you hope to reach?
• Research and identify the demographics, interests and needs of your target audience.
• By identifying your audience, you can connect with the right audience on the right platform.

4. Identify your platform(s)

• With your key audience and goals in mind, what platform(s) will serve you best?

• Start slow, and don’t create accounts on every social media site just because you can or just because it's popular at the time. It’s better to have a robust, lively presence on one (say, Instagram) than to have mediocre, inconsistent content on several platforms.

• Make sure you have the time to create the content required for the platform you wish to join (i.e., TikTok requires much more time to create and edit video content, while Facebook takes much less time to find an image and write a caption).

5. Determine your communications strategy

• Does your department, office or program have a communications strategy?

• How does social media fit into this strategy?

• There should be an over-arching communications plan with goals in place first; social media should be just one tool used to implement that plan.

6. Decide on staffing

• Who, specifically, is going to find, create and post content and monitor your channels?

• Managing social media does not have to be a full-time job, but you do need to set aside time for planning, writing, scheduling and responding.

7. Think about long-term sustainability

• How often will you be able to post?
• Will you be able to post to the account year-round?
• Will you have enough content to maintain consistency in posting?
• Setting up an account, writing a few posts and then leaving it unattended for long periods of time is harmful to your brand as well as BW’s.

8. Plan your content

• What, specifically, are you posting/sharing, and why?
• How often will you post?
• Do you have lots of unique, engaging, shareable news stories?
• In the case of Instagram, do you have a supply of eye-catching images and graphics to share? Creating new and engaging content is critical to thriving in social media.

9. Decide how you will measure success

• Determine how you will evaluate success for each channel as it relates to your purpose and goals.
• Is it increased traffic to your website? Better communication with students? Increased event attendance? Increased engagement on your posts through likes, shares and comments?
• Each social network has its own reporting tools that provide data for you, but you’ll want to decide which numbers matter for your goals and objectives.

10. Review BW’s Social Policies & Expectations

• To ensure BW’s overall social media presence upholds university standards, there are specific Social Media Policies & Expectations are in place that all BW-affiliated social media pages must follow.
• Take time to review these guidelines and make sure you understand and follow them.

11. Consider a test run

• To get a good sense of what it takes to manage your social media presence long-term, develop a content calendar and create a month’s worth of content.
• Write up every post, create every graphic, and track down every photo and video. Then, decide if that amount of content creation is sustainable for you and/or your team.

12. Get approval

• Before creating an account, secure the necessary permissions from your department or office leader.
• Once approved, notify Mason Kuhr in the Office of University Relations and your new account(s) will be added to the Social Media Directory.
• Should you have any questions or difficulties, contact Mason Kuhr in the Office of University Relations. He can assist with creating a social media strategy, recommend social media practices and help register your account(s) or launch your pages.