Manage a UA Social Media Account? Find Tools, Resources on New Website
A new website from UA Marketing & Brand Management, social.arizona.edu, intends to be a repository of information and resources for the UA's social media managers.
Erik McEwen, director of social media
Anyone overseeing a University social media account has a new website to bookmark: social.arizona.edu.
Launched last week by Marketing & Brand Management, the site includes a directory of UA social media accounts, breaks down the University's official hashtags, and offers resources on tools and best practices. The site also has a way for social media managers to request that their content by featured on the UA's main social media accounts.
Erik McEwen, director of social media, said he has wanted to create a repository of social media-related resources since he arrived at the UA in the spring of 2018.
"The first thing that I ran into when I got here was nobody knew who anybody was, nobody knew who ran each social media handle," McEwen said.
Understanding the UA's social media presence is now easier thanks to the new site's directory, which includes about 350 social media accounts representing student life, athletics, colleges, schools, departments and distance learning sites. Requests to add or change listings in the directory can be made via this form on the site.
In addition to the directory, the site includes helps pages and FAQs for various social media platforms and links to sites that offer free-use images and music.
Visitors to the site will also find a link to University guidelines regarding personal and professional use of social media. Marketing & Brand Management is developing its own social media policies to ensure that University accounts align with the UA's brand.
"The purpose of the website is to educate and inform people of best practices, tools and policies around social media," McEwen said, adding that a secondary goal is to give the UA community an accessible way to learn more about social media platforms.
Future plans for the website include adding a blog where students and employees can write about social media-related topics and experiences.
The site's overarching goal, McEwen said, is to help the UA's social media managers "become leaders in the social media field rather than just having social media accounts."