Pitt Public Health is currently on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Contact phcomm@pitt.edu to share your news with the school.
Before creating a new social media account for your department, unit or program, reach out to the Public Health Communications Team to discuss the possible creation of the account and for guidance on social media strategy.
Pitt Public Health on social media>>
Start with these guidelines
The main purpose of our schoolwide accounts is to engage with current and prospective students, alumni, staff and faculty. News across the school is shared on these social media channels.
Audiences
Each social media channel has an audience to which we tailor our content.
On Facebook, our main followers are faculty, staff, parents of students, and alumni. On Instagram, followers typically include staff, current and prospective students and alumni. On LinkedIn, alumni, current students, faculty and staff make up most of our followers.
We are happy to work with you to determine which social media channels are best suited for sharing your news with a specific audience.
Account Creation
Before creating a new social media account for your department, unit or program, reach out to us at phcomm@pitt.edu. Please note that after you meet with someone from the communications team and your account has been approved for creation, it must be registered and approved by the University Communications and Marketing social media team, which the communications team will initiate on your behalf.
Branding
All social media accounts must follow the University of Pittsburgh branding guidelines. Accounts must have proper School of Public Health logos and branding. Reach out directly to a member of the communications team at phcomm@pitt.edu for any questions or assistance you may need.
Content
Audience members expect new relevant and engaging content, so plan to post frequently. Depending on the platform being used that could mean a few times a week or once a day. It's much more important to post quality content your audience wants to engage with than to meet a posting quota, but if you are unable to post new content at least once a week, you should consider consolidating or deactivating your social media accounts.
Developing social media content can be a trial-and-error process. Try different types of content and messaging to learn what is most engaging for your audience. Keep your audience and the best practices below in mind, and ask yourself if the content being generated is helping to accomplish your goals.
Events or planned activities are a great way to generate content for your social media accounts. Promoting the event beforehand, covering the event live through Instagram Stories and sharing photos and video from the event after it happened are all great ways to increase brand awareness and drive people to your social media pages.
A successful social media presence has content that is visual and consistent. When posting, try to tailor the information so it is platform-specific and generally avoid automating posts between accounts (such as automatically sending Instagram posts to Facebook). Treat each social media site independently so you don't lose opportunities to drive comments or tag other users. If you plan to share the same link or image across multiple platforms, customize your messaging as much as possible.
Make sure you have consent from individuals to use their photo in a social media post. When featuring stories or content focused on specific faculty, staff or students, obtain explicit permission from the individual(s) involved. Prior to publishing or sharing such content, explain how their information will be used and obtain their consent in writing whenever possible.
Security
Social media platforms should always be monitored and never go without an active administrator/manager.
Each social media account should have at least two administrators: an administrator and back-up administrator. A student may be enlisted to help manage an account but should not establish or have the highest level (admin) rights to the account. Ideally, accounts should have a shared @pitt.edu email address, username and password so the account is not tied to a specific individual. Contact Pitt Public Health IT if you need a shared email address created.
Account administrators will be responsible for managing and monitoring the content of their respective social media accounts and must use professional discretion when posting to the account. Reach out to phcomm@pitt.edu if you have questions related to appropriate content.
We recommend applying Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) to every social media account you access, including any personal profiles used for administering business pages. MFA adds another layer of protection in addition to your username and password. Generally, the additional factor is a token, SMS text message, or a mobile phone app that you use to confirm that you are the person logging in. Learn how to turn on MFA for various social media platforms.
Plan to change the passwords to your social media accounts at the beginning of each semester and summer, immediately after any suspicious activity such as a security notification, or when a social media administrator leaves their role.
If the owner of a social media account is leaving your department of unit or no longer wishes to be an account administrator, a new administrator should be identified. Ownership should be transferred to that individual as soon as possible and any administrative access the former administrator should be removed. For some platforms (LinkedIn and Facebook), this requires the removal of their profile as an administrator. Instagram requires a change of password. If you have MFA enabled, make sure that the authentication measure is changed to the new administrator by updating the MFA method or cell phone number used.
Deactivating Accounts
If any of your social media accounts are inactive and you don’t have the resources or plan to resume activity, strong consideration should be given to indefinitely hiding your page or unpublishing/deactivating the page. Hackers can target unmonitored accounts to gain access to information or begin posting fraudulent content. Remember, most social media outlets let you hide your profile from public view and reactivate it later. Please work with Public Health Communications to delete your social media accounts.