Social Media
Telling our story and building strong connections with the Bulldog Nation, both on and off campus.
Table of Contents
Policies + Guidelines
UGA faculty and staff are encouraged to engage in professional social media conversations that support UGA’s reputation and brand. The following policies and guidelines should be reviewed and kept in mind when using social media.
Social media usage at UGA is subject to the same policies that govern all electronic communications. Familiarize yourself with and abide by these policies when posting online.
Managing University Social Accounts
As UGA grows, so does its digital and social footprint. Creating a social account for a school, unit or department is a long-term commitment, and we want to make sure you’ve considered these important questions:
- What audience you are trying to reach? Review the platform guidelines below.
- Is there already another UGA account reaching this audience? If so, can you partner with them?
- What do you want to accomplish with social media?
- Do you have time and resources to manage a social media account?
- Do you have a sustainable content plan?
- Who will manage this account daily?
Creating A UGA-Affiliated Social Media Account
It is the responsibility of individual units, divisions, and departments to ensure compliance among all social media accounts within their jurisdiction. Social media accounts must be approved by your supervisor as well as your school or department communications team. We strongly discourage accounts being managed by part-time employees or student workers.
By creating a UGA-affiliated account you agree to:
Adhere to brand guidelines, including name and profile icon use. Any accounts found to be out of compliance with UGA brand guidelines will be reported by the Division of Marketing and Communications to the platform for removal.
- Name: Page and account names should include “UGA” or “University of Georgia” (ie. @uga[name] University of Georgia Department of [Name]).
- Icon: UGA-affiliated accounts should have a UGA-branded icon as the profile image. These are made by the Division of Marketing & Communications. A unit/college’s logo liaison can request a social icon for you by emailing Whitney Mathisen.
- Notify: Email the UGA social team and copy your school or department communications office to let us know you’ve created an account.
Remember that you represent UGA. Be familiar with our visual standards when creating your social media profiles and posting content. If you have questions about brand or editorial guidelines, contact your school or department’s communications office or the Division of Marketing and Communications.
It’s important to establish a regular routine for managing your social media accounts. Aim to login at least 3x/week to post or interact with followers. If you cannot find the time to consistently post or access your social account, you must deactivate it or hand it off to another member of your team who has been trained to succeed you. Contact your school or department’s communications office for assistance. If you are locked out of an account, create a help ticket on the social platform. The UGA Marketing and Communications social team cannot recover accounts, cannot delete accounts and cannot get accounts verified.
Due to weather conditions, #UGA in Athens will open at 10 a.m. on Thursday, Oct. 11. First classes at 11 a.m. Full update: https://t.co/xlRLzpoCnz
pic.twitter.com/Z4LplXuNVP— UGA (@universityofga) October 10, 2018
You are responsible for monitoring and moderating posts or comments on your page from other users. UGA accounts reserve the right to remove any posts for any reason and will delete posts that:
- include violent, obscene, profane, hateful or racist comments;
- use offensive or inappropriate language;
- are offensive, denigrating or out of context;
- threaten or defame any person or organization;
- disclose personally identifiable information, such as addresses or phone numbers;
- include copyrighted material;
- would be considered spam;
- suggest or encourage illegal activity;
- solicit, advertise or endorse a third-party business or service;
- are multiple successive off-topic posts by a single user; or
- are repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users.
When a post violates one or more of these, you have the responsibility and discretion to remove the offending posts. You may temporarily block visitors who repeatedly violate these guidelines. If you believe a post demonstrates a credible threat, immediately notify UGA Police at (706) 542-5813.
Avoid the temptation to remove posts that are merely critical, angry or represent a different opinion. Respond to negative comments professionally and provide any additional information that may help resolve the issue or correct the misinformation.
Strategy + Best Practices
Our approach to social media is comprehensive and built on best practices in the industry. We keep it straight-forward, and that’s effective.
- Tell the UGA Story: Deliver engaging, high-quality content to our followers to both entertain and inform about our commitment to our Bulldog family and the state of Georgia.
- Grow and Protect the Brand: Build awareness of the UGA brand through engagement efforts and visual and tone consistency while participating in the social conversation surrounding the University of Georgia.
- Manage Our Digital Footprint: Support social media managers across campus and advise on maintaining UGA-affiliated social account creation. Offer resources for best practices and cross-campus collaboration on our social channels.
We are happy to consult on social media strategy for units or campaigns; just email the UGA social team.
Best Practices
Identify your target audience and which platform is best to reach them. Consider the types of posts, best time of day, and tone and voice for sharing content with this audience. Be only where you need to be and not on platforms that don’t support your goals.
Posts with a visual element receive 2.3x more engagement. Photo. Video. GIF. Emoji. Make sure you’re including some sort of image in your social post.
All social networks offer the ability to download data into an excel format. Review follower growth, post impressions and engagement data regularly to identify content trends and areas to improve. We suggest reviewing this data monthly or quarterly so you can make changes to your content strategy.
Consistency is key. Although many social media mangers have other duties, it’s important to make time to post regularly and consistently to your channels. Aim to post on every channel 3-5x/week. If you are unable to find content to post or the time to post consistently you should consider a different tactic for communicating with your target audience.
Social media is meant to be a conversation. In addition to making time for posting, make time to respond and engage with followers.
Platform Guide
| Platform | Audience | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| All | Feature stories about humans at UGA or research that is making an impact. High-quality photos or video. Curated content that has performed well on other platforms. | |
| 18-35 yr olds | People-centric photos or campus scenery to your feed/grid. Use stories for behind-the-scenes perspective and graphics promoting events or reminders. Share short video using Reels and longer, formal video on IG TV | |
| TikTok | 10-29 yr olds | Short form (under a minute) videos often centered around entertainment, dance, pranks, and lifestyle. Content is usually very creator-focused and performs best when featuring a consistent personality. App heavily relies on trending audio (music and dialogue) clips. |
| All | Real-time sharing of news and trending topics. Research and announcements that are timely. Hashtags and emojis are used frequently. Tag accounts in photos when possible. | |
| 25-55 yr old business professionals | Business-oriented news and stories about research or economic impact. Job placement stats and business partnerships. Impact on industry and relevance are important. Tag businesses when possible. Leverage influential alumni and use of groups. | |
| YouTube | All | Hosting and archiving video. Leverage the description area for SEO perks. |
Hashtags
Hashtags are used to bring together messages based on themes and topics. These are the hashtags supported by the main UGA brand accounts. Using these hashtags will increase the visibility of your post among other UGA accounts, as well as increase findability of the UGA brand.
Social Media Ambassadors
The University of Georgia has a team of student social media ambassadors known as “Digital Dawgs”. These students represent UGA and present a behind-the-scenes look at the student experience on campus and in Athens from official UGA-branded Instagram accounts. While their content is not dictated by the Division of Marketing and Communications, our team is in frequent communication with the students and offers suggestions of events on campus to cover or initiatives to highlight. If you ever feel there is an event you’d like shared with the Digital Dawgs, email that information to the UGA social team for consideration.
Campus communicators are encouraged to connect with the ambassador(s) from their area of campus and repurpose their content on the school/college/unit’s social media accounts. While we try to ensure every aspect of campus is represented among the students, it is possible there may not be a student from your area.
International Affairs
Music
Entertainment and Media Studies
Master of College Student Affairs Administration
Economics
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Biochemistry, Molecular Biology
Accounting
International Affairs
Master of Agricultural and Environmental Education
Master of Public Administration
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
International Affairs
Social Media Account Directory
The Division of Marketing and Communications manages the official UGA brand accounts across these social networks:
UGA schools, units, departments and athletic teams maintain their own social accounts. A complete list of UGA-affiliated accounts is available in our A-Z Index.
Downloads and Resources
Social Media One Pager
Printable one pager of our social media guidelines, best practices, platform recommendations and contacts needed for managing a UGA-affiliated social media account.
Social Media Profile Icon
All UGA-affiliated social media pages should have branded icons. If you need a social media icon, contact your logo liaison who can get one made for you. For assistance uploading your profile icon, contact your school or department communications office.
UGA Giphy Channel
Giphy is an online database for short, looping videos—commonly known as ‘GIFs’—that can be used on Facebook and Twitter, as well as within Instagram stories and text messages.
We have a University of Georgia brand channel on Giphy to host UGA-themed GIFs. We are constantly developing new and timely GIFs that can be used by our social audiences to elevate recognition of the UGA brand.