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New Account Setup 

Upper Iowa University invites the leaders of our academic and athletic departments, staff, social groups and student organizations to consider joining the official UIU social media community. Social media platforms allow you to personalize your message and engage your audience one-on-one.

However, before you make your social media presence known on every major platform, consider your audience, goals, available resources and if a university account already exists that would meet your needs. Each social media platform has its own purpose and unique capabilities. Be sure you understand these best practices before you request and create a site.

Things to Consider

Should I create a social media account for my department or organization?

Using social media requires pre-planning, active management and a time commitment to do it well. Before creating an account, consider if it is the right move for your department or organization.

  1. What are your goals? Each account should have its own purpose and intended audience. How does the purpose of your Instagram account differ from your Facebook account? You should have a clear plan, purpose and idea of what you hope to accomplish from each social media account.
  2. Could you benefit from a partnership or collaboration with other on-campus account(s)? There are various social media accounts listed on Upper Iowa University’s social media directory. Do you need to create a new account? You may want to consider if your information could be combined with another existing account. A small number of strong accounts will reach a larger audience than a large number of accounts with few followers. For a new account, 50% of the content should be original content.
  3. Do you have the resources to manage your account(s)? Running a social media account is a 24/7 job and time commitment. Be sure that your account administrators are comfortable responding to questions and monitoring the account after working hours. Consider how the account will be managed for the long term. Student workers are great resources to assist, but it is necessary to have at least one full-time employee oversee the account.
  4. What will you post and how often? To have a strong social media presence, you will need to post regularly, year-round. The content and voice of your channel should be relevant to your department or organization. Be sure that you have enough time and resources to create visually engaging content through video, photos and graphics. Planning content with the use of a content calendar is beneficial.
  5. How will you evaluate success? Be familiar with analytics provided by each social media platform. Sometimes the numbers of likes or followers are a misleading metric. Due to various platform algorithms, just because you have a large following, it doesn’t mean that your pages are being seen or you are engaging with your audience. How will you measure success?

Account Setup Policies

  • Social media accounts for any Upper Iowa University entity must have at least one faculty or staff administrator on the account.
  • Accounts must be marked as “official” in some way. For example, in a Facebook ‘About’ section or a Twitter ‘Bio.’
  • Accounts must provide contact information or a link to an Upper Iowa University webpage.
  • Accounts must follow the university’s brand and visual guidelines.
  • UIU secondary accounts must have the Social Media Coordinator and at least one other OCM staff member as an administrator on the account. All other roles will be an editor or below.

Setting up an Account

To request a new account, please fill out the social media request form.

Register an Existing Account

If you already have an account but would like it registered with Upper Iowa University as an official account, please complete the social media request form. We want to stay in touch!