MarCom Studio

Do this... 

• Do use UT San Antonio instead of UTSA/UT Health San Antonio for all references on social media about our new university, except in the context of Athletics or patient care.
• Do retweet and share merger content from UT San Antonio’s flagship channels as much as possible on your social channels.
• Do update your social media bios as early as August 30 by adapting the short version of the new UT San Antonio boilerplate, which will be provided to you.
• Do use Alt Text when you post on social media.
• Do regularly check in to review the central editorial calendar for the merger so you know what’s coming up.
• Do follow and tag UT Health San Antonio’s social media channels as appropriate for your social media presence.
• Do use the UT San Antonio Brand Toolkit provided to you to create brand-compliant graphics for your social media channels. UTSA employees will find it here.
• Do review your Instagram Highlights and update your round thumbnail images. Choose one primary or secondary background color that is consistent with the new brand for your spotlights.
• Do contact Christi Fish or Trista Moxley if you have social media questions or concerns.
• Do contact Brett Calvert or Mitzi Shipley if you have questions or concerns related to the usage of the new brand and logo.

Do not...

• Do not change your social media channels’ cover/profile photos, thumbnails or display name until you are instructed to do so.
• Do not create your own unit logo. The Brand Guidelines team will develop a phased brand architecture migration plan (starting in mid-September to take several weeks) and will reach out to you when it’s time.
• Do not use hashtags on your posts starting on Sept. 1, unless they are related to a campaign your unit has underway and needs to measure.
• Do not use UTSA in a hashtag, unless you have approval from the UT San Antonio social media team or you’re posting content related to UTSA Athletics.
• Do not remove old posts or old branding from social media.

• Do not post about the merger and walk away from your channels. Check for comments, DMs and feedback several times throughout the day.

• Do not respond defensively to merger-related concerns. Instead, flag the UT San Antonio social media team for guidance.

Profile Set-Up

• Should I update my social media account display name and handle?
  • To prepare for September 1, the flagship @UTSA social media presence will adjust its brand. All other social media channels across the university should keep their URLs and display names the same.
• Should I develop new cover images and thumbnails for my social media channels?
  • No. Please do not change your social media channels’ cover/profile/header photos or thumbnails until you are instructed to do so. These should remain the same, even if they include old UTSA branding.
• Should I update my page’s bio or ‘About’ section?
  • Yes. If you currently reference UTSA in your channel’s bio, please edit those spots to say UT San Antonio starting September 1.
  • Need more help? New short-form and long-form boilerplates have been developed for UT San Antonio. You will find them at https://utsanantoniotogether.org. Click Resources >> Employee Resource Files >> Boilerplate Messaging. Please refer to them as you develop your new social media bios.
• Should I create a new account if my unit is newly formed or restructured?
  • Possibly. Please contact Christi Fish or Trista Moxley for guidance about this special scenario.
• When will I receive guidance about new branding and naming conventions for social media accounts?
  • This will take some time. A new working group will be created to review and guide UT San Antonio’s comprehensive social media environment. It will work closely with the new working group guiding the phased brand architecture migration process.
• Who should I contact if I have questions?
  • Please contact Christi Fish or Trista Moxley in University Strategic Communications.

Content Planning

• What kind of content should I post before the Sept. 1 merger?
  • Merger-related content will be provided to you to share. You are also encouraged to share content that is related to the merger from the flagship @UTSA and @UTHealthSA channels.
  • If you choose to post photos or video of the new garage or pole banners, which feature the new logo, we strongly recommend putting those on Stories instead of on your Facebook or X timelines or your Instagram tiled wall.
• How can I educate my followers about the merger in an engaging way?
  • As you develop social media content for your channels, please consider the following:
    • your audience and the benefits they will receive from the merger
    • the excitement and upward momentum of our new institution
    • pride points about your unit
    • the ambitions of students, faculty, staff and alumni (A central theme of the newly merged university’s ad campaign is ambition.)
  • Please also see the master messaging that is supporting UT San Antonio's storytelling efforts. You will find them at https://utsanantoniotogether.org. Click Resources >> Employee Resource Files >> Foundational Messaging.
• What kinds of collaborative stories or features can I highlight before the merger?
  • Please follow the flagship UTSA channels for cues around the pace and type of content to post. Since back-to-school content will be a prominent theme across social media, we also encourage you to find ways to tell your back-to-school story in August and September.
• What content should I post on Sept. 1 to mark the official launch of UT San Antonio?
  • UTSA Today will run the official merger news release on September 1 and 2. We encourage you to share this news announcement across your channels. If possible, please also pin it at the top of your page through the end of September.
• What types of merger-related content should I use after Sept. 1?
  • Please continue to share (1) your seasonal back to school content, (2) merger-related posts that run on the flagship channels and (3) merger-related content that is provided to you through our UTSA Social Media Collective.
• Should I pause scheduled content or promotions around the merger date?
  • Possibly. The merger between UTSA and UT Health San Antonio will exponentially propel the merged university in every rankings category. This upward momentum moves UT San Antonio to a new class of universities with new peers and new aspirant peers.
  • Consider the content and promotions you have planned this fall. If it’s overly whimsical or trendy, it may need to be postponed or retired. We want to convey a message of magnitude—that UT San Antonio is, for the first time, on a very real path to becoming a member of the elite Association of American Universities (AAU).
  • The merger should encourage us to revisit our content strategies and to ensure they are elevated in a way that reflects the more sophisticated university we’re building.

Branding & Visual Identity

• Will new logos, fonts or visual assets be provided for social media use?
  • Yes. A Brand Style Guide is available on the UTSanAntonioTogether.org website under the Resources >> Employee Resource Files dropdown. A UT San Antonio Brand Toolkit is available here for UTSA employees.
• Will social media templates be provided to social media managers to help communicate the merger?
  • Yes. Social media templates and content will be provided to social media managers.
• Should I create a department logo for my social media channels?
  • No. University units may not independently develop new logos or alter UT San Antonio’s existing logos.
• How should I reference UT San Antonio in post captions? When should I make this change?
  • The Editorial Style Guide Working Group has created Editorial Guidelines to support the work of university employees. You can find them on the UTSanAntonioTogether.org website under the Resources >> Employee Resource Files dropdown.
  • A note from the Editorial Guidelines: The merged university’s regental name is The University of Texas at San Antonio with a capital T in The, the second reference is UT San Antonio, and subsequent references are university or institution. Please shift to this language on September 1, 2025.
  • The exception is the clinical/patient care enterprise, UT Health San Antonio, which will not change its branding at this time.
• How will hashtags change?
  • Hashtags were introduced in 2007 to organize Twitter content and discussion groups. Since that time, social media platforms have evolved, search functions have improved, and hashtags are no longer widely used. For this reason, we discourage the day-to-day use of hashtags.
  • At the same time, we understand that hashtags have benefits. They are especially helpful in tracking the effectiveness of a social media campaign. If you plan to track a campaign and your hashtag uses general terms, please use it. If you want to use a hashtag after September 1 that directly mentions the new brand, please contact Trista Moxley or Paige Lichlyter to brainstorm a solution.
• Should I remove or archive posts that use the old institutions’ names or branding?
  • No. Those posts are an important part of our history. Please do not remove them.
• How should I update my Instagram Story highlights to reflect the new identity?
  • Please review your existing Instagram Story highlights from the perspective of a new student or new Roadrunner family. Content that is relevant to those audiences should be preserved. Also, please preserve evergreen content that generally reflects the day-to-day life of your unit. Outdated material may be deleted.
  • At the same time, we highly recommend that you update the round thumbnail images for your Instagram Story highlights for UT San Antonio. Choose and use a consistent background color for all your round images. We recommend using icons on your thumbnails. This approach creates a polished profile presence.
• On LinkedIn profiles, there’s room to add a tagline. What should I use?
  • We encourage you to use We Make Lives Better® in the tagline space.
• Is there a plan to contact all the university social media account managers to ensure they’re following the new brand standards?
  • The rollout of a new brand is a complex process with many moving parts, and our flagship social media teams are committed to proactively providing support, guidance and training to social media managers across the university.
  • We also recognize that there are a number of externally managed or legacy social media accounts—created by students, groups, or offices—that fall outside the university’s direct administrative access. Our initial brand rollout will prioritize the platforms officially managed by the university. Following that, we will implement a structured process to engage with these alternate or affiliate accounts to support appropriate brand alignment. This will include providing updated logos, naming guidance, and messaging tools to ensure consistency across platforms.

Coordination & Collaboration

• Will I be able to access an official editorial calendar or merger-related schedule of posts?
  • Yes. An editorial calendar will be shared with you. It will indicate when the flagship channels plan to post merger-related content in the run-up to the merger, on the day of the merger and in the six weeks following the merger. Creative elements supporting these posts will also be provided.
• How should I coordinate my posts with other social media managers across the university?
  • We encourage you to take your cues from UT San Antonio’s flagship social media channels. We have a strong strategy in place to manage the rollout of the new brand, to describe the benefits of the merger to stakeholders and to communicate the new vision for UT San Antonio.
• Will there be training sessions or office hours to support social media managers?
  • Periodic Social Media Collective meetings will be scheduled to check in with UTSA social media managers. If you want to brainstorm, have questions or need assistance, please contact Trista Moxley or Paige Lichlyter.
• Is there a designated channel, listserv or other space for collaboration?
  • UTSA social media managers meet and collaborate over a designated team on Microsoft Teams called the UTSA Social Media Collective. Social media managers at UT Health San Antonio are welcome to join this team.
  • Also, a Teams chat has been created to facilitate real-time conversation and social media strategy shifts that may be needed during the merger rollout. If you have not been added by September 1, please contact Christi Fish at UTSA.
• Can we cross-post or collaborate on content with other units
  • Absolutely! Likes, comments, follows, tagging and collabs uplift our university’s overarching social media presence. We also encourage content-sharing where it makes sense at this early stage. This will help your social media accounts reach new audiences. (Keep in mind that content should reflect the prominence and sophistication of our new university.)
• Are there any other considerations that I should be aware of?
  • Although not specific to the merger, we highly encourage you to add ALT Text to every social media post. This will become a legal requirement in April 2026, and it will be helpful to start understanding how to do that well.
• What can I do to prepare my social media channels for the integration phase following the September 1 merger completion?
  • Please review the administrators and page roles assigned to your accounts, as well as the recovery email, which should be a department inbox and not an individual. Remove old administrators and ensure that a minimum of two administrators are listed on every social media account. If you need a second person to add, please contact Trista Moxley.
• Is a master social media directory available for units who want to follow channels from their sister institution?
  • Yes. View the UTSA Social Media Directory. View the UT Health San Antonio Social Media Directory.

Audience Engagement and Messaging

• How should I respond to questions from followers about the merger?
  • Please refer to the FAQs listed on the UT San Antonio Together website. If you receive questions that need an additional answer, please contact Trista Moxley.
• What tone should I use when talking about the merger on social media?
  • The merger will bring together two Carnegie R1 institutions to create one new powerhouse that is on a very real path to becoming a member of the elite Association of American Universities (AAU). Our tone should reflect this upward momentum and sophistication. It should also reflect the gravity and historic nature of the merger, which will be looked back on as a key milestone in the life of the university. To learn more about our impact, check out our new brand booklet.
  • At the same time, we recognize that illustrating our vibrant campus life is an important part of social media. When you share these kinds of posts, have fun but refrain from sentiments that are cartoonish or sophomoric.
• How can I involve students, faculty, alumni, and staff in the storytelling process?
  • Please encourage students, faculty, staff, alumni, campus leaders and supporters to articulate how the merger will benefit them. Also, to support the ad campaign around Ambition, you might ask your audiences to submit videos in which they share their ambitions.
• How do I address misinformation or confusion in the comments?
  • If you receive social media comments or replies that concern you, please consult in real-time with Trista Moxley.
• Can I delete a negative comment about the merger from my social media channels?
  • No. The First Amendment guarantees the right to free speech, which means that negative or critical comments must be left online. If a comment poses a legal or well-being concern, please contact Trista Moxley to consult before removing the comment.
• If someone wants to share feedback about the merger, where do I direct them?
  • People may share their merger-related feedback through the feedback form on the www.UTSanAntonioTogether.org website.