Virginia Union University
Department of Mass Communications
Social Media Handbook
Developed July 2014 by VCU Social Media Institute students:
Bridget Kehoe, Maha Essa, Morgan White, and Rezhiar Muhamad.
Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Table of Contents
Objectives
2
Challenges
2
Social Media Platforms Overview
3
Facebook
4
Google +
5
Twitter
6
Instagram
7
YouTube
7
Hootsuite
8
Other Tools
9
Proposed Schedule
10
Measurement
11
Key Recommendations
12
Contact Information
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Objectives
As stated by Public Relations Sequence Coordinator for VUU Ms.
Heidi Wilson, the department would like to increase online
visibility to:
 Reach prospective students interested in attending VUU
who may be interested in studying Mass Communications
 Reach existing students looking to declare or change majors
 Retain existing students working toward a degree in Mass
Communications
 Increase alumni donations and engagement
Challenges
Department staff consists of only four personnel, all of whom have
limited time outside of teaching and committee obligations.
This is a relatively new curriculum for the school, having just
launched a PR sequence for spring semester 2014.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Social Media Platforms
Overview
At the time the VCU Social Media Institute convened, the VUU
Department of Mass Communications had little online presence.
The only social media platform in use was Facebook, and the
department’s page had existed only for a little over six months,
with 54 followers.
Our conversations with department staff and a student helped us
narrow down the best social media platforms for the Mass
Communications department to utilize. We narrowed down the
essential social media platforms that would make the best use of
the valuable time of the department’s staff. The student presence
on Instagram and Twitter made them the best target platforms.
To help promote the department, the VCU team has created a
login for Google +, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Hootsuite.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Facebook
Only 1/3 of Mass Communications majors are following the
department on Facebook. The department wants to use this
platform particularly to reach the community audience, since
students will get their important information through intranet
tools.
Recommendations:
A review of the page determined that the profile and cover photos
could be of better quality and better representative of the school.
Encourage students to invite others to “like” the Facebook page
so that posts are reaching a larger audience.
Tip: People are most likely to engage on Facebook on Fridays.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Google +
All new social media platforms were set up using a new Gmail
address, which automatically creates a Google+ presence. At this
time, our team chose not to post content or make connections on
Google+ and instead optimize our time toward more frequently
used mediums. The user base on Google + is lower than
expected, but growing— this platform could be the next big
thing, and if/when it does, the username and password are
already established through the gmail account.
Potential uses:
Students could join the VUU Mass Communications circle to
discuss things that are important to them. The department could
also sponsor occasional “hangouts” through Google + that would
allow interactive chats between students and a guest speaker.
Username/Email:
Password:
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Twitter
Considering our research and objectives, we placed the most
emphasis on Twitter for VUU Mass Communications. Twitter
allows students, alumni, and local businesses to view posts from
and interact with the department on a highly visible scale.
Twitter posts can consist of original content highly relevant to
the department, as well as field-related posts. These can be links
to blog articles, infographics, pictures, and re-tweets.
Recommendations:
Monitor for tags and replies—surveys show that most Twitter
users expect replies within one hour.
Use hashtags on every post-- Tweets with hashtags get twice as
much engagement as those without. #VUU and/or
#VUUMassComm can be used on every post, but additional
hashtags to categorize the subject of the specific tweet would
help drive traffic when space allows.
Username:
Password:
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Instagram
The #VUU hashtag has been used over 38,000 times on Instagram,
so there’s a huge audience there who is already engaged with the
school, waiting to interact with the VUU Mass Communications
department. Most of this audience is students, but there is a
potential to reach businesses and alumni through this platform.
Studies show that visual marketing prompts high engagement.
Username:
Password:
YouTube
We do not anticipate that YouTube will be used for the department
in the short term, but it can be used to store class projects and
presentations in the future. In the meantime, our class video will
be stored here.
Username:
Password:
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Hootsuite
Hootsuite will be an ideal time-saving tool for the department ,
allowing staff to post to multiple platforms from within one system,
view analytics, and track engagement. We have lined up several
drafts for posts in order to cut down the amount of time that is
necessary to spend on this. It is linked to Google + and Twitter, but
will need to be manually linked to Facebook as we do not have the
login credentials for that.
Login access: Username and password are synched with Twitter.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Other Tools
Bitly (www.bitly.com) allows users to shorten links and track
traffic through those links. This is particularly helpful when
using Twitter so that links do not take up as much space for the
limited character count. We set up a Bitly account that is
connected to the Twitter login. Hootsuite uses a similar feature
called Ow.ly.
Twellow (www.twellow.com) allows users to find potential
followers in a database that works like the white pages. It has an
exhaustive directory of Twitter members by category, industry
and interest.
Buffer (www.bufferapp.com) is similar to Hootsuite, but has a
better scheduling interface. It also offers a database of readymade tweets that you can use, on a variety of different topics and
categories. We set up access through the Twitter account so it’s
ready to go, but the persistent push to upgrade to the paid
version is a downside.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Recommended Schedule
Monday: “#MassCommMonday” - Relevant industry news, tips,
and strategies
Tuesday: Details about upcoming events
Wednesday: Details about the department
Thursday: #ThrowbackThursday – Past department or school
photos of events or achievements
Friday: “#FacultyFriday” – Highlight a specific faculty member
with a fun fact, quote, or photo
Rough drafts are in Hootsuite for each category.
Tip: The best times to post are 12:00pm, 7:00pm and 9:00pm to
ensure high visibility.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Measurement
Hootsuite can be used to track how well your campaign is going by
viewing Twitter retweets, followers, and interactions. Once there is
time for more dedicated social media use, you may find a benefit to
purchasing a paid version of Hootsuite or Buffer to help track
analytics. You can also use a spreadsheet to monitor number of
followers, likes, and interactions for each platform.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Key Recommendations
 Creation of a student internship position would serve dual
purposes:
 Helps students to practice what they’ve learned about social
media in a business environment and develop important industry
skills.
 Have a dedicated representative to post for the department to
ensure content is updated on a regular basis, without taking away
from the valuable time of the department personnel.
Interns could use Hootsuite to save drafts of
prospective posts for review, and the password for this
platform could be different than other platforms to limit
access.
 Strive to publish at least one new piece of content weekly,
and share at least three relevant 3rd party articles weekly.
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Virginia Union University
Social Media Handbook
Contact Information
We would be delighted to hear from you in the future. Please feel
free to reach out to us at any time for feedback, questions, or just
to let us know how the Department of Mass Communications is
doing.
Bridget Kehoe
Maha Falih
Rezhiar Muhamed
Morgan White
kehoebk@vcu.edu
(540) 481-0650
lord545.l5@gmail.com
(804) 300-2557
rezhiar.galaly@gmail.com
whitema@vcu.edu
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