Social Media

The University's official guidelines for social media accounts can be viewed on the University Communications website.

Contact Emily Nielsen with any questions about social media in the College of Liberal Arts.

Social Media Directory

The official social media channels for the College of Liberal Arts are:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• Tumblr
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Most of the college's departments, centers, and programs maintain one or more social media accounts that can be found on their individual websites.

Social Media Tips

• Identify the audience you're trying to reach before creating an account and make sure to select the appropriate platform(s) to reach them.
• Make sure your account reflects its affiliation with the College of Liberal Arts as well as UT Austin so followers are clear about where your content is coming from. This can be done through text in an "About" or "Bio" section, as well as the logo and header images used for your accounts.
• Post consistently, but not overwhelmingly. Specifics depend on the audience and account, but as a general rule posting at least 3 times per week is ideal, while posting more than 2-3 times per day can become excessive.
• When writing content, write in a voice that's engaging and credible without being too clinical or formal.
• If you need guidance on crafting posts, find social media accounts for similar organizations whose "voice" you like and try to emulate it in your own posts.
• Make sure when you shorten words to make it under Twitter's 140 character limit that the abbreviations you're using are understandable.
• Don't overdo it on hashtags. Try only to use them when associated with a particular event or a popular existing tag (i.e. #HookEm)
• Make sure to tag the accounts of people or organizations you're mentioning in the post. (i.e. @LiberalArtsUT, @UTAustin, @dallasnews, etc. This also works on Facebook.)
• While Facebook doesn't have tight restrictions on character counts, make sure posts are concise.
• Don't connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Write posts for each platform if you're interested in having both of them. It can be the same content but the way these sites are used are similar but not identical and your audience will appreciate it.
• Use bit.ly or a similar service to track the response your links are getting.
• Use TweetDeck or a similar service and the scheduling feature on Facebook to write and schedule posts in advance so you don't have to remember to post updates on certain dates and times. It's also helpful so your posts aren't only going out during weekday work hours.
• Use live-tweeting or posting sparingly. Make sure your updates are spaced appropriately and the content you post is of genuine interest to your followers, otherwise their feeds will be clogged with your posts and you risk losing followers.
• Don't try to force social media trends like Throwback Thursday unless it fits with the content you're trying to promote.
• In the same vein, don't feel obligated to tweet about something like Veteran's Day unless you have a relationship to the topic. No one will criticize you for not posting a generic "Happy Veterans Day!" message, and often those kinds of messages can be seen as pandering or disrespectful if you don't have a connection to the event.
• Make sure any images you're sharing are worth looking at. They don't have to come from a professional photographer or high-end camera, but make sure they're also not all fuzzy cell phone photos taken from the back of a dark lecture hall.
• Don't engage with "trolls." If someone raises a complaint, only reply to them if you think you can address their concern. In these situations sometimes privately messaging someone is a solution. However, sometimes replying to or acknowledging angry posts will only make things worse. Use your best judgement.

For further advice or consultation about launching or maintaining social media accounts, contact Emily Nielsen.