Social media
A page within University Marketing & Communications
Social media is an excellent tool for sharing information and connecting with various audiences. UWL is active in these communities and supports participation by colleges, departments and university organizations.
However, departmental use of social media to conduct university-related messaging can introduce a variety of legal and policy issues.
Departments and organizations that choose to represent themselves on social media should first view the recommendations below to ensure they protect the university's reputation, support the UWL brand and adhere to university policies. Keep in mind that social media is not a substitute for official communication from your department or organization. UWL entities must use secure, internally controlled services to conduct required or official university activities including communication that contains privacy-protected information.
Official accounts will receive support from UComm. Please note if your page is not “official,” we will not advertise your page on our website or through our flagship social media pages.
Questions to ask yourself before creating an official UWL social media account:
- Why do we want and/or need a social media presence outside of what has already been created?
- Can we meet our organization/department purpose by doing so?
- How much time per week can we commit to managing the content and activity?
- Who will be our official page administrators?
- Are we willing to comply with University Communications’ policies and procedures regarding social media profiles?
*You must have a personal profile if you plan to be an administrator for a Facebook page. Accounts/pages on other platforms (Twitter, Instagram) are created independently.
- Schedule an introduction meeting with UComm to go over your plans and strategy for the account.
- Follow official naming convention.
- Ex: UW-La Crosse English Department
- Note: This is for consistency and searchability purposes.
- UComm must be included as a page admin on any official account:
- When creating an account with shared administrative rights (Facebook, LinkedIn), UComm AND at least one active UWL employee (faculty or staff) as administrator for your page.
- When creating an account on a single sign-on platform (Instagram, Twitter, etc.), you must use an office or department UWL email as the login email - not an individual's NetID email address
Ex: ucomm@uwlax.edu Not: mwalz@uwlax.edu
- Feature an “about” description that includes information about your organization/department.
- Make sure to clearly identify your office, department or organization that is associated with the account.
- Add a disclaimer that content that your page shares from external pages/websites does not endorse the viewpoints of that source.
- Add a link to our official UWL webpage.
- Must feature a link to UWL’s social media policy:
- Page managers must actively engage with UComm after the page has been created.
UWL social media pages are inclusive:
UWL pages are open to any person who has interest in the topic or organization of the page.
Social media participation is extracurricular
Participation in the page must be voluntary. Social media can be encouraged but should not be required and alternative options should be provided. Faculty and academic departments should not formally critique students on social media when the social media is being used for evaluation within a course or for an official use. Social media should be considered a method for supporting existing official channels of communication.
UWL social media pages are public
Never communicate personal, educational or health records via social media or any other non-secure third-party system.
"The Good, The Bad, but not The Ugly"
Regardless of whether an external user’s content is favorable or unfavorable, it is allowed. But if the content is ugly: offensive, denigrating, or completely out of context, it may be rejected. With this, do not delete or hide content without first consulting University Marketing & Communications. Refer to UWL’s social media policy for more on this topic.
Be active
University Marketing & Communications recommends a minimum of one post per week. If you are unable to meet this frequency, consider reevaluating your social media strategy or the need to have a social media presence.
Pages and profiles follow UWL branding
UWL has set branding that includes logos, fonts, colors and more. Be sure to follow these branding elements to comply with UWL policies.
The very first thing you should do with your new page is experiment. Understand the various features it provides and how to best go about making it an engaging, informative resource for your fans and followers.
You can always make your page "private" if you would like to test things before making it public.
Once you feel comfortable with your page/profile, it’s time to get to work:
- Invite fans/followers – engage students, alumni, employees, and others to get your page noticed. Make sure to have a comprehensive plan for your startup so when you gain followers, you keep them!
- Have a plan; post regularly – this varies from platform to platform but make sure to not fall behind with posting content!
- Engage your followers – you need to communicate for your page to catch steam. Try to start conversations and solicit questions.
- Like and tag other UWL official pages – an easy way to collaborate and connect with other pages on campus. Tag the university!
- Show personality – remind fans and users that there is a person behind the account.
Above all, publicize your pages! Simply creating a page and posting content doesn’t always help you gain followers. You need to put in the work for your page/profile to gain traction. Update department documents, brochures, websites, and any other marketing materials that you regularly use. Even adding a link or icon in your email signature helps. If you are going to put the work into having a social media presence, don't let it fail due to a lack of promoting it.
Why?
Resharing content from our UWL friends helps grow brand awareness among prospective college students and improve alumni engagement. When you share the UWL experience with your social media followers, you are helping us reach people and share the message of what it means to be part of UWL.
Direct message and tag us on UWL's official channels with your post for a chance to be reshared. Official UWL handles:
| Facebook & Twitter | uwlacrosse |
| Instagram & TikTok | uwlax |
| school/uwlacrosse |
How to increase the likelihood of us resharing your post or story:
- Be current
- Share campus beauty shots
- Highlight school events with friends
- Elevate major achievements that make a big impact
- Make people feel something
Facebook pages can be easily merged into one official page if you have multiple pages. If you’re no longer interested in managing an account, you can also delete it. Please notify UComm if you plan to make either of these changes.
Social media guidelines one-pager
Interested in creating your own, spirit mark branded profile picture or other eye-catching graphics for social posts? Send us an email to get added to the official UWL Canva channel!
2/9/22- We are not able to accept new social accounts and Takeover requests at this time. Thank you for understanding.
Connect with us
Due to staffing issues, we are not able to accept new social accounts and Takeover requests at this time. Thank you for understanding.
Interested in highlighting our campus organization or department? Maybe you're a student that wants to show the world what it's like at UW-La Crosse? Or an alum that wants to show what a degree at UWL can do?
PAUSED 3/2/22-Apply to takeover our Instagram stories!
Facebook: uwlacrosse
Twitter: uwlacrosse
Instagram: uwlax
LinkedIn: school/uwlacrosse
TikTok: uwlax
YouTube: uwlacrossevids