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Social Media

Social Media Basics: Getting Started 

Social media is a great way to share information and updates about your programs, research or work and engage with audiences anywhere and everywhere. But it's only one tool for communicating with the public, and it takes time, energy and strategy to do well. Before you open an account on every social platform available, be sure it ties into your overall communication goals, and make sure you've considered the bullets below (at a minimum).

  • Target Audience: Who do you want to reach and where do they get their information? Where are they most represented online and on social media?
  • Objectives and Purpose: What do you want your target audience to know/learn/do? How will your social media messages and content support your larger communications strategy?
  • Strategy and Resources: What resources can you devote to your social media strategy — writers, graphic designers, community managers? Will you be able to respond quickly to time-sensitive posts on your accounts? How often will you be able to post, and how many channels can you realistically manage at the same time? How will you evaluate your efforts?

Sprout Social's 30 Day Social Media Plan

UC Davis Social Media Resources

  • Strategic Communications: UC Davis Strategic Communications provides a variety of information, guidance and resources on their Marketing Toolbox web site including their approach to social media. They also have a takeover request form.
  • Student Affairs: Student Affairs has compiled some best practices and an overview of social media basics. They also provide consultation and strategy help during social media office hours. 
  • Social Media Policy and Guidelines: These policies and community guidelines are meant to help all members of UC Davis engage with social media responsibly, whether it is in an official capacity or a personal one. UC Davis Health participation guidelines are available here.
  • Social Media Directory: Connect with UC Davis accounts and join the community of hundreds of thousands of UC Davis Aggies on our many official social media channels. UC Davis Health affiliated accounts are listed here.
  • Best Practices (by platform): The Strategic Communications social media team share their key learnings and best practices gleaned from our many years of experience in social media. 
  • Analytics Templates: The Strategic Communications social media team created “calculators” that allow you to copy and paste your exported social data into a google sheet and have shared the tracker they use to maps data across platforms and help you see your overall monthly impact.
  • UC Davis Social Media Braintrust Community: The UC Davis Social Media Braintrust is a community of communicators from all over campus who are passionate about social media and want to share knowledge, learnings and best practices.The community is open to anyone who is responsible for managing a social media page on behalf of a UC Davis department, school or club. Students and interns are welcome!

Platforms at a Glance

Platform Demographics & Usage* Best Used For
Facebook News and announcements; event highlights; photos or albums; online conversations among communities and directly with organizations; online event groups; links to relevant articles or blog posts; videos
Twitter News and announcements; customer service; links to articles or blog posts; micro-blogging; live tweeting from events; participation in trending conversations
Instagram Creative or aesthetically pleasing photos; humor and aspirational content; short-lived content or “Stories”
LinkedIn Thought leadership and/or subject matter expertise; networking opportunities; partnership development; organizational news and announcements such as job opportunities; participation or moderation of topic-specific groups
Pinterest Ideas and inspiration for interests and hobbies; discovery and curation.
Youtube Short-form videos; shareable and discoverable content; popular content (e.g., how-to, explainer-videos, music)
SnapChat One-way conversations; humor; behind-the-scenes of events, meetings, or conferences; storytelling
TikTok Short-form videos; humor; popular content (e.g. lip-sync videos, dance challenges)

*Demographic and usage information pulled from Sprout Social 2021 Insights

Additional Social Media Resources

  • Social Media Examiner: This media company publishes online magazines, blogs and podcasts about how business people can use social networks.
  • Hootsuite Blog: Check out tips, tools, and tactics and explore hundreds of free resources to help you succeed in social.
  • PicMonkey: Create photos, logos, social media graphics, and facebook covers with this easy yet powerful photo editing and graphic design software.
  • Piktochart: Create inspiring infographics with our online infographic maker. 
  • Canva: A graphic design platform, used to create social media graphics, presentations, posters, documents and other visual content.