Umeå University currently have accounts, pages and groups in several different social media – both administered centrally and connected to for instance departments and study programmes. We have chosen to use the various channels for different purposes and aimed at different target audiences. At the present, the aim is the following:
• Facebook – practical information, events etc. that can be of interest to current and presumptive students.
• Twitter – new jobs, research blogs and research news aimed at the media, the general public and the Swedish research society.
• LinkedIn – news, events etc. of interest to people in connection with Umeå University: alumni, students and staff.
• Instagram has no specific target audience. The presence on Instagram is important for others to tag us. We get an outline of what impression students, staff and others have of us through their lens – and can share the result on Facebook.
All official channels are being handled by the Communications Office, but content input is welcome from the entire university. If you would like to spread a news, please get in touch at komm@umu.se.
Want to start your own channel?
Take time to consider the following before getting started:
• Make sure the establishment of a new communication channel has support from the head of department or equivalent.
• The head of department or equivalent appoints a person in charge of the channel.
• Make the objective and target audience clear – what purpose will the social media input achieve?
• Specify who the sender will be – UmU or UmU through a faculty, department, unit, centre, employee, etc.
• Put resources aside to manage the channel.
• Determine routines for supervision, archiving and sorting in order to follow the university rules.
• Work out a policy and make it available within the media. The template can be found under Policy and Checklist for the use of social media.
• Base your use of the social media on the directions given by UmU regarding logotypes, fonts, etc. Read more about our visual identity.
• Register your channel with socialamedier@adm.umu.se and provide the following information:
o The name and URL of the channel
o The purpose of the channel
o Estimated frequency of updates
o Responsible department as well as scope of practise for the channel.
o Contact details to the supportive head of department or equivalent as well as date of approval
o Name and contact details to the person responsible for the channel
o A short description of the routines of supervision for the channel
o Information about how and when the channel will be up for evaluation.
• Open the channel.
• Create routines for handing over user names, passwords and clearances in the case of discontinuation or change of person in charge.
• Before launching a digital campaign or similar, please report it to komm@umu.se.
Legal aspects
The university is an authority and our responsibility also stretches across our social media channels. Among other things, this means that we
• must monitor the channels that we launch
• must answer questions promptly
• must appear under our own name, not under pseudonym
• must document any suspect violation of the law and any blocking.
How to handle inappropriate posts?
Should you respond to and argue against critical posts, for example, in social media? If so, how? As is so often the case, this has to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
If you are unsure how to respond to and deal with different types of posts, please contact the Communications Office for support, advice and assistance.
Privately or on duty?
It must be evident that the university is responsible for the channel and that the person communicating through the channel does so as a representative of the university – on duty that is. For instance, this can be portrayed through information in the channel profile or in the choice of name.
Read more about our responsibility in social media in the Policy for the Use of Social Media in the Name of Umeå University.