8. Managing Your Accounts

Foundation

When using a Carleton University social media account, you are representing Carleton University. As a rule, ensure:

• Brand guidelines are adhered to.
• Assets used are of high quality and created specifically for the intended social platform.
• Accuracy of the information or content being shared.
• Proper grammar, spelling and other forms of quality assurance.
• Proper permissions are obtained before sharing photos of people, or information about their research/projects.
• Inclusive language, respectful behaviour.
• The content posted is accurate and authentic.
• Follow copyright law and not sharing confidential or internal information.
• Personal opinion is eschewed.
• You are not endorsing brands, products, political members, family or family connections, etc.

Content Strategy

Your content strategy may vary from platform to platform or based on your fiscal goals. When developing a content strategy, it is important to reflect on these five questions:

• What are we posting? Is the content going to be original and made in-house, or are we sharing from another source? Be sure to align this with your audience intentions when deciding on content.
• Why are we posting? Does this content match our department goals and greater University strategic plan?
• Where are we posting? Modify your posts to meet the format and tone of different social media channels.
• When are we posting? Review when your audience is most active on social media and consider the times that will help meet your goals.
• Who is posting? It can be difficult, and time consuming for one individual to monitor social platforms, create content, and review performance. Consider how to manage your resources and time to allow for consistent posting scheduling and voice.

Tips for Creating Content

• If possible, use photos and video.
• Refrain from posting the exact same content across platforms. Platforms have different audiences and voices, where one is more casual, the other may require more description.
• Always follow brand guidelines when creating assets and using logos or other brand elements. Be sure to contact relevant stakeholders when referencing other departments or faculties.
• Create a content or editorial calendar. You don’t need the content to be fully created, but brainstorming ideas and identifying key dates will save you time in the future should content become scarce.
• Despite planning, much of social media will be day-to-day and ad hoc. Don’t stress, your plans for social are not static, find priorities and shift content as you need.
• Do your best to be representative of the diversity of the University community in your social posts.
• Be aware of AODA compliance and the accessibility features on each platform. Your images should not have lots of writing on them, save it for the captions. Always fill out the alt-text for your images.

Before You Post Checklist:

• Do you have permission to use the images/videos included in the post?
• If your content includes student(s), staff and/or faculty members, did you obtain their permission by completing the Consent to Publish Information form?
• Do all logos, fonts and colours used in content align with Carleton’s branding guide?
• Did you check that the image/video is of high-quality and there are no spelling or grammatical errors in the caption or transcription?
• Did you add appropriate hashtags and/or tag all relevant accounts to help increase engagement?
• Did you add alt-text for photos and/or captions for videos to ensure accessibility requirements are met?

If you answered yes to the above, we encourage you to have a colleague review any social posts for a final review before posting to your public accounts.

Editorial Calendar

Every social media account should maintain an editorial calendar. These calendars can be manually created in tools like Excel or Airtable or will be provided in social media platform management services like Hootsuite or Emplifi.

Using Airtable we can show to our team and externally:

• Status (Planned, In-Progress, Review, Published)
• Social Platform
• Publishing Account (Flagship, Newsroom, etc.)
• Post Type (Static, Story, etc.)
• Publication Date and Due Date
• Goal (Awareness, Engagement, Conversion)
• Hashtags
• Author and Stakeholders

Our records can be view individually or through a colour coded calendar showcasing content based on publication channels.

Security and Ownership

Managing multiple platforms, or even a single large social media platform, is a full-time position. Experience in managing corporate social media is a necessity in this role. Your accounts should always be tied to a university generated email account (e.g., eggsy.egzample@carleton.ca).

When determining who should manage your accounts, try to have at least two individuals who are knowledgeable and comfortable with social media so there is a backup when needed.

Your password should be updated regularly in accordance with our password management policies. Passwords should never be shared over Teams, email, or other unsecure or recorded digital mediums. Should an employee who administers accounts leave the university, immediately change your social media passwords.

Your team should have strong writing skills, eyes for detail, adept judgement, organization and in handling difficult situations. If you have granted a student access to your Social Media accounts, there should be an employee supervisor who monitors their content and has access to the account usernames and passwords.

Paid Posts

Paid ads and post promotion can be effective in extending reach and garnering a larger following on social media. When creating paid campaigns, we should consider ongoing marketing campaigns that may already be running at the University. We don’t want to compete with each other, increase costs and waste resources. Please reach out to us here if you are planning a paid campaign, or if you have questions about how sponsored or paid content could benefit your unit.

Platform Management Tools

There are several platform managements tools, like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Emplifi to help you administer your social media accounts. These platforms are helpful to manage scheduling and monitoring of multiple social accounts. There are often costs associated with advanced features.
 
DUC has been using Emplifi to manage social accounts since 2021. To learn more about getting set up on an Enterprise version of Emplifi, please contact the Manager, Digital Communications (note: costs associated per profile added to Emplifi. DUC reserves the right to review and approval requests to add profiles to the Emplifi suite).
 
Emplifi has a publishing system linked to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Youtube, which allows users to post simultaneously across platforms.

Monitoring and Listening

Monitoring involves paying attention to what is being said about Carleton, our community, and topics which may affect our university or units. It involves reviewing and responding to Carleton hashtags, @’s, and direct messages to help keep positive engagement.

• Looks at the past.
• Gathers information.
• Detail oriented.
• Helps measure success.
• Allows for direct and individualized response.

Social listening looks outside these parameters to more macro trends that may impact strategy or alert us to potential issues. Using Emplifi we have created a term and geography list that exams the volumes of conversations happening on social platforms every day to find sentiment challenges and trending topics.

• Looks to the future to guide strategy.
• Analyze and Reviews information.
• Attempts to paint the “big picture”.
• Showcase opportunities and potential threats.

Knowing Your Audience

When using social media, the audience must be the center of your focus. Understand what your audience cars about, why they would interact with your content and their greater interests. The more you understand your audience the more successfully your Social activities will be.

Your Social Media goals will be one (or multiple) of these three items:

• Awareness – This covers audience growth, reach and impressions on your social channels. You want more people to see your content.
• Engagement – This is related to generating more audience activity, including likes, shares and comments.
• Conversion – This is related to having the audience take action – signing up for a newsletter, registering for an event, applying to your program, etc.

Finding your audience will require research. Students, Faculty, Partners… these are broad categories. Your specific accounts will narrow in on the people in these categories that have common interests, characteristics, behaviours, and demographics.

If you need help compiling your audience data, undertaking audience research, or defining persona’s, please reach out the Marketing department of the DUC.

Engagement

Social media is meant to facilitate connection with your audience. Here are some tips to help with generating strong engagement:

• Your audience may expect a 2-way conversation. Monitor and be prepared to respond to inquiries, suggestions and comments when appropriate. It is not required to engage in every conversation or comment.
• Take your time to respond and ensure content is well thought out and accurate.
• Engage with other Carleton social accounts when possible through shares, comments and reactions/likes.
• When it comes to who and what accounts you choose to follow, take care. Ensure they are vetted and reflect well on your unit and the university.
• Negative comments, questions, or feedback should only be deleted if they are clearly spam or contain offensive content (racist, sexist, offensive language, etc.). Social media is a forum where everyone is entitled to respectful opinion. Deleted comments can be perceived as censorship and lacking transparency. If you are unsure of how to handle, discuss with your supervisor or relevant colleagues.

Hashtags

The official Carleton University hashtag across social media platforms is #CarletonU. Other common hashtags include #CUProud, #CarletonGrads[YEAR] (Convocation). A more detailed list of hashtags is available on the social media directory website.

Hashtags related to the reputation campaign include, but are not limited to:
#ChallengeWhatsPossible
#ChallengeYourself (UGR)
#ChallengeTheConversation
#CUChallengeConference

Hashtags can also be used for specific events, initiatives, or content. Proper research on social platforms will let you know trending hashtags which may be relevant to your content. For example, a research story may choose to use #research or #discovery.

Hashtags placement in a post is dependent on the platform and content. When in doubt, place hashtags at the end of your content.

Please be conscious regarding your use of hashtags, as too many hashtags can be considered spam. Every post should have at least one hashtag, but no more than three. If you are considering using hashtags but are looking for guidance, please reach out to DUC and we would be happy to help.

Post Timing

These scheduling guidelines are based on industry best practices and our analytics, you may find alternative scheduling works best for your audience or goals. Regardless, it is always best to have a defined posting calendar when possible and to avoid a “scatter shot” method (posting everywhere, repeatedly). Engagement is highly correlated with good content being posted at the right times. Most platforms allow you to schedule your posts in advance.

Facebook

Consider 1 to 2 posts daily. Track your best times to post using Facebook insights to determine your schedule. Our recommended schedule follows:

• Monday: 2-3 p.m., 8-9 p.m.
• Tuesday: 12-2 p.m., 4-6 p.m.
• Wednesday: 12-5 p.m.
• Thursday: 2-4 p.m.
• Friday: 8 a.m.-6 p.m.
• Saturday: 8-9 p.m.
• Sunday: 7 p.m.

Twitter

Consider 4 to 6 posts daily. Not all these posts must be original content, retweets and shares will help meet this recommendation. Our recommended schedule follows:

• Monday: 3-9 p.m.
• Tuesday: 9 a.m.-1 p.m., 6-8 p.m.
• Wednesday: 11 a.m.-12 p.m., 7-8 p.m.
• Thursday: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Friday: 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
• Saturday: 1-3 p.m.
• Sunday: 11 a.m.-2 p.m., 5-6 p.m.

Instagram

Consider 2 to 3 posts weekly. 1-3 stories daily. Posts should be visually interesting and benefits from external curation. Stories have more flexibility in their content style, content may be split between multiple stories. Our recommended schedule follows:

• Monday: 11 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Tuesday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.
• Wednesday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
• Thursday: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Friday: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Saturday: 7-10 p.m.
• Sunday: 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Voice & Tone as related to different channels

Always remember Carleton University’s strategic integrated plan and core values when developing your unit’s voice & tone. While there is a freedom in developing your own voice, it is recommended to adopt a voice that is representative to the way your audience uses the social media platform.

Tone sets the stage for context and help to establish trust and confidence with your audience. Tone can shift depending on the topic, audience, or medium. Flexibility in tone allows us to meet our audience needs and expectations and showcases a sense of connection and empathy.

The DUC flagship account Voice and Tone is defined in our brand guidelines (page 10) and social media strategy.

Word Choice & Alternatives

While some platforms may be defined by “casual” voicing or tone, your language choices should still reflect your goals and promote Carleton University’s reputation. Below are some word choices that do not reflect the reputation goals of the university, along with alternatives for consideration. Use your best-judgement when selecting language to describe research, situations, or events.

Accessibility

To reduce barriers to accessing communications content, we advise that you integrate the following processes to help ensure accessibility in your social media posts.

• When uploading a video with audio that contains a voice, add text captions that align with the timing of the voice-overs.
• When uploading photos to any social media platform, there is an option to include alt-text. Alt-text will read the description of a photo aloud using screen reader software. Your description should include what is in the photo, along with any text that is contained in the image. For example, “Photo of the O-Train crossing the tracks above the river in summer, with ‘first day of classes’ written underneath”. This should provide sufficient context for an individual to effectively visualize the image.
• Carleton offers training modules for Web Accessibility, which may be accessed at the following link: https://carleton.ca/webworkshops/accessibility-training/

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

For any photos/videos that may represent marginalized individuals, groups and/or communities, please ensure that all sensitivities are being considered. When highlighting sensitive topics, you may opt to use abstract images such as photos of campus, objects or locations that are relevant to the content. If you are uncertain about the sensitivities in the communications piece being disseminated, we advise that you consult with Equity and Inclusive Communities or the Centre for Indigenous Support and Community Engagement (if it involves Indigenous individuals and/or communities) for further guidance as needed.

Fair Dealing

While creating social content, you may be tempted to use popular other artworks or music in your posts. You must ensure you have legal access to share this copyright material, or that the use of the material falls under fair dealing. Fair Dealing, a user’s right within the Canadian Copyright Act, allows the use of copyrighted material owned by others without obtaining permission or making payment. This exception is applicable for specific purposes such as research, private study, education, satire, parody, criticism, review, or news reporting. To determine if your use qualifies as fair dealing, you need to consider six key factors as determined by the Supreme Court of Canada:

1. Purpose of the Dealing: Assess whether the use is for an enumerated fair dealing purpose: education, research, private study, criticism, review, news reporting, parody, or satire.
2. Character of the Dealing: Consider factors like the quantity of copies made and their distribution. Is it a single copy with limited distribution or multiple copies with wide dissemination? If the copy is published on social media, this factor will likely tend towards unfairness.
3. Amount of the Dealing: Determine whether you are copying an entire work or a substantial part of it, or just a small, insignificant portion.
4. Nature of the Work: Examine if the work is confidential, unpublished, or of public interest or relevance.
5. Availability of Alternatives: Assess whether alternative resources are available, or if the material is essential and no other options exist.
6. Effect on the Work: Analyze whether your use will compete with the market for the original work or have no impact on its market value.

It’s important to note that the limits of fair dealing are intentionally unspecified in the law, and no single factor is decisive on its own, with any analysis being contextual. You don’t have to meet all factors to qualify for fair dealing. Consider the factors answers not as a “yes” or “no” but in context of a rating on a sliding scale of “less fair” and “more fair”.

Types of Fair Dealing Contexts:

• Educational or Research Purposes: Using short excerpts of copyright-protected materials for educational purposes is generally considered fair dealing. This includes sharing excerpt from textbooks, articles, or educational videos, or using works for academic or scholarly research. When using materials for educational purposes in the classroom, the material should be directly relevant to the educational content or issue you are discussing.
• Commentary, review, or Criticism: This involves analyzing or critiquing a book, movie, song, or other creative work or academic work. You must provide substantial commentary or criticism, rather than simply reproducing the material. The use of copied material should be reasonably necessary for the purpose of the commentary or criticism. Your fair dealing argument gains greater strength when the incorporation of copyrighted material is directly related to a critical analysis or review of that material. The rationale for including short excerpts becomes more compelling when it is evident that showing relevant portions of the content is essential for readers to comprehend your analysis or review effectively.
• Parody/Satire: Parodies may use elements of the original work to create humour, satire, or commentary. The parody must be transformative, and not merely a duplication of the material. We do not recommend the use of parody fair dealing for official CU social media accounts.

Some forms of fair dealing (criticism, review, and news reporting) and other users’ rights in the Copyright Act also require a user to properly cite the author/creator of a work being a copied and the source of the copy. It is recommended that appropriate citations be made where possible. 

These guidelines are meant for informational purposes only and do not constitute legal advice. Copyright laws can vary, interpretation may change over time and their application is contextual. When in doubt, consult with legal professionals for guidance regarding your specific circumstances.

These guidelines are meant to aid in determining content strategy around fair use materials and to help avoid automated copyright claims and takedowns. We strongly recommend that all content you create falls under the context of education or commentary. In addition all content posted must comply with the terms of use for the social media site/platform in question.