Social Media

Stories Told Together

Social media brings the University of Arkansas to life in digital spaces. It is the public voice of the university and draws our community closer both on the web and in person and shows the impact the university makes through live changing opportunities, dedication to Arkansas and determination to build a better world.

There are important stories to tell about life here on campus and the work we do to improve lives in support of Arkansas. We need your help to share them.

Stories like

• Impactful stories that illustrate our land-grant mission of teaching, research and service to our state using the #UARK hashtag.
• The daily refresh of images shared by our campus community through the #UARKLife hashtag.
• Photos shared by the students who graduate each May and illustrate their experience through their class-based hashtag like #UARK19 and #UARK23.
• Organizing weather-related information around #UARKwx so that students, staff and faculty know in a timely fashion when class is cancelled or delayed and if the buses will run on time.

Social media works best when people remain at the center of what we share.

For this reason, these stories are best told by the staff, faculty, students, parents who make this university such a special place.

This guide is a roadmap to help empower you to tell those stories.

Before You Get Started: Do You Really Need a Social Media Account?

Social media accounts are quick and easy to start but maintaining a successful social media strategy requires not only clearly outlined goals and objective but also dedicated time and effort. The first step is to consider these questions:

Is there already an established umbrella account at the college, school or unit level where your information could be shared with an already established audience?

• Sharing info on established accounts expands reach to established and engage audiences with little effort.

Are you ready for the responsibility?

• Do you have meaningful and relevant content to post on a daily basis and the ability to monitor that account daily to interact with the audience?

What is your purpose and goal for your social media account?

Is there an established social media account that can help you meet that goal?

• If yes, then there is no need to build a new audience with a new account.

Have you talked to the Social Media and Digital Content Manager at University Relations?

Starting a new account

Creating a social media account requires dedicated time, care and attention. Your audience expects new updates on a regular basis and will expect to interact with you there.

If you have a dedicated purpose for the account that can’t be met by other social media feeds in your area, are ready to care for and feed your new social media account and have reached out to the social media and digital communications manager at University Relations, then go ahead and create it.

Note: When starting a new account, it is important to have multiple admins. Each account should have at least two admins who are U of A full-time faculty/staff members.

Next, email share@uark.edu with the name of the social media account and contact info for its admins and ask to have your account added to the social media directory. We will review and add it to the list of official accounts.

University Relations verifies all of these accounts as official and active within the last year.

Hashtags

Hashtag	Purpose	Users	Audience	Example
#UARK	General university news and info	Users	Audience	Example
#UARKLife	Content about life on campus with high visual appeal.	Users	Audience	Example
#UARKwx	Posts about weather events on campus.	Users	Audience	Example
#UARK[Graduation Class Year]	Content about specific cohorts, like commencement or for incoming freshmen.	Users	Audience	Example

Take a moment to familiarize yourself with these hashtags. Hashtags help us organize social media conversations across campus.

Keep in mind that the #UARK hashtag is the central hashtag for the entire University of Arkansas community and may be substituted in a social media post for the name of the university.

Ex: Visiting #UARK today? Don't forget to stop by the union for free brownies.

You may also use the hashtags #UARKLife or #UARK[Graduating Class], but only for the specific purposes listed in the chart above.

If considering a new hashtag: Inform University Relations before starting a new hashtag campaign on social media. We have tools to check if a hashtag is in use for another purpose not connected to the university and help you measure the success of your effort. We can help test your hashtag for potential unintended meanings.