Effective practices

The key to good utilization of social media is a simple understanding that your behaviour and responsibility as a member of the university community extends to the social media community as well.

Some trends and effective practices toward building meaningful communities include:

Transparency

Who you are, the purpose of your channel, and your comment moderation guidelines should all be evident to your audience. Maintain authenticity and do not suppress dissenting voices unless they are vulgar, hateful, threatening or off-topic. Different points of view lend credibility to your effort.

Respect and civility

Engage in thoughtful and respectful dialogue, correct misinformation, delete vulgar or irrelevant postings (in keeping with your comment moderation guidelines), and do not engage in heated arguments. See also the university’s policy GV0200 on Human Rights, Equity and Fairness.

Moderating

Pay attention to your channels on a frequent basis. Timely responses demonstrate your willingness to listen to your audience and to take feedback seriously.

Add value

Simple repurposing of information from your website or news releases undervalues the potential of these channels. Change your style to fit the social media channel you are using. For example, you can share student photos of an event (with permission and credit).  Or you can ask a question when you share a link to an article, inviting people to add their personal input and observations.

Consider your content carefully

Once you post, it can be difficult to take it back.

Remember your audience

Keep your material relevant and appropriate.

Remember UVic

Your presence on any channel is a reflection of the university.