Best Practices and Resources
Social Media Best Practices
Successfully creating a strong presence on various social media platforms boils down to four key steps.
- Plan
- Review
- Listen and Engage
- Measure and Evaluate
Plan:
Develop a content calendar or determine themes you'd like to highlight on your social media channels. During the planning process, also determine your goals and the metrics you'll use to define success. When planning content:
- Identify any assets you'll need and any collaboration opportunities with other campus partners.
- Vary the type of content → Images, videos, links, GIFs
- Vary the purpose of content → Educational, promotional, or entertaining
Review:
Before posting, always review the copy, image, and the call-to-action:
- Copy: Be sure the copy is concise and free of typos and grammatical errors.
- Image: High-quality images should tell a story or showcase your organization/mission.
- Review your call-to-action (CTA): If you include a call-to-action in your post, be sure it's very clear what action you would like your follower to take. CTAs can vary depending on your ultimate goal
Listen and Engage:
Actively engage in both social media monitoring and social listening.
- Social Monitoring: Reviewing and replying to comments, messages, and mentions related to your page
- Social Listening: Understanding conversations and trends on social media related to your area.
Measure and Evaluate:
Use analytics to refine your content ideas and strategy for social media. Important Metrics to track include:
- Impressions/reach
- Follower growth
- Profile/page views
- Website clicks
- Engagement rate = total engagements/total impressions
Best Practices by Social Media Platform
Social Media Resources
Utilize the following resources and tools to support your social media efforts:
Social Media Management:
- Sprout Social: The social media management tool is used by several areas across campus. Please contact Megan Newton
at [email protected] to learn more about the tool.
Design
Use the following low-cost or free tools to create visual content for social media:
- Canva: An online design platform that allows users to create visual content for social media. For more information, visit the SDSU Canva Pro site.
