Welcome to Saint Anselm Social Media
Social media is a great way to show the world what the Anselmian experience is all about. It can also be a lot of fun! Many people use sites like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter as their #1 source of information, so it’s essential to meet them where they are. There are dozens of robust social media accounts from campus partners that creatively help tell the stories of Saint A’s. The official college social media channels are managed by the Office of College Communication and Marketing. We have prepared these official guidelines and offer tips/best practices so you can succeed in the social space.
What should I post on social media?
Whatever you think students, faculty, staff, alumni, family and friends would be interested in related to Saint Anselm College. Nice photos or videos of campus, coverage of activities on the Hilltop, information about events, profiles of students/people who work in your office/department are good places to start. Instagram is the most active social space, so be sure to create both Posts and Instagram Stories (which is a great way to get information to students).
Creating a social media account
Before you create a social media account from scratch, we recommend first reaching out to the social media team to go over best practices. During setup, we strongly advise using a general email address associated with your office/group, as opposed to one tied to an individual. This helps avoid problems if someone leaves the college with key social media credentials. You can see all of the social media accounts associated with Saint Anselm College in the new Social Media Directory (insert link).
Know your audience
You should always consider who your audience is with your social media posts. Who are you trying to reach? The audience will be different depending on the social media platform that you are using. For example, if you want to get information to students, then Instagram, Snapchat and Tiktok are popular with the younger crowd. If you want to share a link to an article from a college website, then Facebook and Twitter would be the best place. Note: Instagram isn’t friendly about sharing links in captions, but you can put them in your bio.
Engage and interact
Think of social media as having a conservation with your followers and audience. By posting with frequency and consistency, it helps develop a community. We recommend 2-3 posts a week, so ensuring that someone on your team can commit to this is helpful. Sharing compelling photos, asking questions, responding to comments and interacting with your followers are some great ways to engage. Be sure to include #hashtags and tag/mention related @accounts when appropriate to help get a wider reach. And be sure to have fun! There are lots of cool things you can do on Instagram Stories, for example, like quizzes, Ask a Question and Takeovers.
Be respectful
You’re expected to carry the same Anselmian values on social media online as you would in any physical space. It goes without saying that you should not post anything inappropriate. Don’t judge others and accept feedback and criticism with grace. Be sure to follow the Terms and Conditions outlined by each social media platform on their sites. If you see something troubling happening on your social media pages, please contact the CCM team.
Tag us
In every social media post you share, be sure to include @saintanselm. This is particularly important on Instagram and in your Instagram Stories. This gives us the best chance to share your content with a larger audience. And make sure to tag and mention the accounts of people and groups related to your social posts as well.
Practical Advice and Tips
The basics
For the most part, using your cell phone to take photos and video for social media is perfectly fine. You’ll first want to consider whether horizontal video or vertical video is best, which depends on the social platform. Twitter and Facebook prefer horizontal videos and vertical videos are more popular on Instagram. Remember to keep the phone steady when shooting and make sure you’re not in a space with a lot of background noise when interviewing someone. Take video with the light source at your back to avoid dark subjects/backlighting.
Social media sizes
When you create posters to promote an event, for example, you’ll definitely want to share them on your social pages. But they may need to be sized differently depending on the platform. The one thing you want to avoid is seeing heads get cut off in photos. We consult this comprehensive guide for up-to-date social media recommendations. You can use programs like Photoshop and Canva to adjust sizes.
Music and audio
It is highly recommended that you refrain from using copyrighted music at anytime in your social media posts. A great resource for free music is the YouTube Audio Library (www.youtube.com/audiolibrary). Here, you can search for different styles of music and see their license types. Many allow you to use the music for free with “no attribution required.” Otherwise, you can pay money to license a particular music track that interests you. Please consult CCM if you have any questions about copyright.
Analytics
Hootsuite is a great program for scheduling social media posts and checking out analytics. Analytics are important to see what posts are resonating with your audiences, which helps you develop social media strategies. Each platform has their own analytics tools as well, like Facebook Insights. Google Analytics is another resource.
Equipment
CCM uses a Canon XA-10 video camera for more produced projects. We also use Sennheiser equipment for gathering audio for interviews. Another great device for gathering audio that we use is a handheld Zoom recorder. For photography, we use the Canon EOS 5D Mark IV camera. We would consider loaning these out on occasion to those with advanced video/photography skills, depending on the need.
Branding
Please be sure to refer to the College’s brand guidelines to ensure that your posts represent the College in the best possible light. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!