July 2015, Issue 7
Choosing the Right Social Media Network
Customize your messages for specific social media networks: Don’t water down your message with unfocused or unwanted content!
Students at UTSA can choose from a range of different social media networks. Whether it's Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, each social media network has its unique audience and features.
- Twitter – Great for building buzz quickly to a lot of people. However, the messages must be kept short and concise. The content and tone is more informal and requires less of a relationship with the students.
- Instagram – A pictorial version of Twitter and can also share short videos. Great for engaging with the student body and building buzz quickly. Content on instagram is informal and includes less one-on-one interaction with the students.
- Facebook – Everyone is on it, but it hardly gets used by the younger generations. It lacks the ‘cool and exclusive’ feature that still remain with Instagram and Snapchat. However, it is the social network that still has the largest number of users and includes the most features.
Ignoring these unique qualities is a direct path to social media marketing disaster and will almost immediately make you unrelatable and boring to the UTSA students.
Your social media coordinators should take the time to ensure messages published on each platform are customized for that specific channel. This will give you a far greater chance of connecting with the students, causing them to frequent your platforms.
Submitted by —
Tabitha Byrne Smith
Assistant Director, UC Programs,
University Center
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