Creating and Maintaining Accounts

Thinking About Creating an Account?

Launching a social media account for your college, department, or unit is a long-term responsibility. Before getting started, we encourage you to think through the following considerations:

  1. What audience are you trying to reach?
  2. Is there already another UARK account reaching this audience? If so, would collaborating with this account be more effective?
  3. What do you want to accomplish with social media?
  4. Do you have time and resources to manage a social media account on a daily basis?
  5. Do you have a content plan?

It is the responsibility of each college, school, and division to ensure that all social media accounts under their oversight follow university guidelines. Any social media account must be approved by the college, school, or division’s communications team. Whenever possible, accounts should not be managed exclusively by part-time staff.

By creating a University of Arkansas-affiliated account you agree to follow social media branding guidelines, including name/handle, bio, and profile image use.

Naming conventions

University of Arkansas colleges, schools, and divisions must include "UARK" in their account handle (for example, uark[name] or uark_[name].

University of Arkansas colleges, schools, and divisions must include “University of Arkansas” in their public-facing account name (for example, [name - University of Arkansas].

Profile Icons

University of Arkansas Colleges/Schools/Divisions should have their official U of A-branded icon that has been provided by the University Relations team as the profile image. Please contact the U of A Social Media Manager (ardene@uark.edu) if you need to access this icon.

A department or unit’s profile icon within a college, school, or division must be approved by the appropriate college, school, or division communications team.

Bio/Intro Section

Typically located under the page hero image and the account title and handle, your page's social media bio is one of your first opportunities to introduce your account to new users. Think of it as your 10-second elevator pitch or a truncated version of the lead paragraph in your "About Us" webpage. Be clear and direct with this copy.

Each social media platform has different character lengths and what you choose to include in your bio may vary per account:

  • Facebook: 255 characters
  • Instagram: 150 characters
  • X: 160 characters
  • LinkedIn: 2,000 characters

It is not required to use “University of Arkansas” in your bio/about section of your profile if “uark” is used in the handle and “University of Arkansas” is included in your username.

Notify University Relations

Contact Arden Elliott, the university’s social media manager, with the following details so we can add the account to University Relations’ list of official U of A social media platforms:

  • Social media platform (examples: Facebook/X/YouTube/LinkedIn/Instagram/Threads)
  • Account handle
  • Account administrators and their contact information (full-time staff preferred)

Content Release Form

You must receive a signed copy of the University of Arkansas content release form from any participants in photo, video, interview, testimonial and text content used on social media platforms.