As a faculty or business unit, you are permitted to set up your own social media channel. In doing so, you must adhere to following guidelines. As with other means of communication, social media is a means and not an end in itself. Before you use a social media platform, ask yourself the following questions:
- Who do I want to reach?
- What is my message?
- Can this group of people already be found on a social media platform?
- Have the people in this network been waiting for my information?
- Will I have time to maintain the social media platform?
Then check to see whether your own social media channel would consequently offer a solution. In this case, think about the following questions:
- Which content will I post?
- How often will I post content?
- How can I ensure that this content will inspire the necessary interaction?
- Who will answer the questions?
- How will I deal with negative comments?
- Will I have time to monitor the social media platform?
Creating an account
If you wish to create a social media account, choose the channel that is best suited to your target audience and your objectives.
Avatar
Radboud Avatars for social media channels for departments, services or study programmes must be in line with our corporate identity. communicatie [at] ru.nl (Contact the communications department) for a template.
Cover photo
You may use royalty-free images from Radboud University’s image archive for your cover photo.
Managing your account
A social media account needs to be managed. For this purpose, you will need to ensure that:
- You have two or more administrators who are able to replace each other if someone is either sick or on holidays or if someone leaves their job.
- The login details for the account are securely stored in a place that can only be accessed by a number of staff.
- In the event that you lose your password, you have a recovery address that is a general Radboud University email address that can be accessed by two or more people, for example fellow staff members from your department.
Monitoring and webcare
Keep track of what is happening among your followers and what is happening within your organisation (monitoring). Listen and respond actively (webcare). For this purpose, you can use the OBI4wan monitoring tool.
OBI4wan can help with a number of tasks, such as:
- Keeping track of the information that is being shared about an organisation or topic;
- Managing several social media channels in one location;
- Creating reports that contain statistics;
- Publishing information to your social media channels .
The OBI4Wan tool is free for faculties and services, unless you wish to use OBI4Wan for webcare via WhatsApp.
Dealing with negative comments
When someone leaves a negative comment, you should see this as valuable feedback. There are several ways to respond to negative comments:
- If it is difficult to establish why the comment is negative, ask further questions and offer assistance or a sympathetic ear.
- If you are able to establish why the comment is negative and there is an obvious solution, respond by thanking the commenter for their comment and provide an immediate solution.
- If the solution can only be achieved by checking to see whether someone else is involved, let the commenter know that you have read their comment and inform them of the time frame within which action will be taken.
Never delete a comment unless it is in violation of Dutch law, for example, if the comment is discriminatory or racist, or if it is disrespectful to others. Removing negative comments may cause the commenter to become angry or frustrated and this will only exacerbate the problem. What’s more, the act of not removing negative comments shows that you are an open organisation and that you are open to both negative and positive feedback.
Public access and privacy
When you are in charge of a channel of communication that speaks for the university, you have a responsibility. This means that you will need to ensure that:
- The information is reliable and correct.
- You do not share any personal opinions through a corporate social media account.
- You do not share any privacy-sensitive information. If you do need to share such information, make sure that you do so through a direct message that is only visible to the sender and receiver.