BF: With an organization as large as ours, it is difficult to stop colleges and units from creating their own accounts. Not that we’d necessarily want to. A large account can never post all of the great things that are happening in our different colleges and programs, and it makes sense for them to promote to a more specific audience that is more interested in their particular fields of study.
DT: How many people are involved with UF’s official social media accounts, and which department is responsible for them?
BF: There is a separate manager for each account listed—each representing that unit/program specifically. I manage the primary top-level accounts, with help from a couple of interns.
DT: Are students involved in helping the official social media efforts at UF? If yes, how do students get involved with the official social media program?
BF: I cannot speak to the amount of student involvement in other units’ accounts, but I have used interns since starting last year. I typically have at least two interns assisting in creating original content for our channels.
DT: What is UF’s primary purpose for social media? Do you use it as a news source, to actively engage with students, for both, or for additional purposes?
BF: We use social media to promote the great things that are happening at the University of Florida, to engage with our fans/friends/followers, and to listen and learn what people are saying about us.
DT: Do you monitor the Facebook or Twitter profiles of students who have applied to UF? How do you engage them?
BF: Currently, I only engage with students who respond to us directly, use a familiar hashtag, or mention the “University of Florida” in their tweet. Our admissions office has its own social media accounts and might look up students online, but to my knowledge they do not use those [channels].
DT: We love your videos where you have reporters talk to students about their summer plans or profiling graduating seniors, as well as the noted animal behaviorist Temple Grandin. Who produces these videos, and how do you use them to engage your community?
BF: Some of our videos are actually produced by my social media interns, such as the summer plans video. I let them come up with the ideas for the videos, as they are more in tune with what their peers would be interested in.
Other videos, like the video we produced for our graduates, are developed by the WUFT Creative Services team at our College of Journalism. It’s a partnership we recently developed with them, and so far it has worked out very well.
Our community has responded well to videos in general, but we try to promote ones that I feel will encourage a response. It also helps to ask a question when posting, which helps motivate others to comment.
DT: Do you have any suggestions for applicants who have social media accounts?
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