Frequently Asked Questions

Starting and managing a social media account for your department requires careful planning. You will need a strategy and dedicated staff who can consistently create, curate and schedule content, engage with your audience, and monitor the department's presence online. Is there a broader, established social media account within your organization that you could partner with instead of creating a new one? Leveraging an existing platform might offer greater reach and impact.

Ensure you have the resources to launch, maintain and grow your social media account. If you are a school or academic unit, please get approval from your communication lead as well as other appropriate leadership in your area. See more details and questions before launching on the social media best practices page.

If you are confident you are ready to launch, review our social media guidelines, best practices and resources pages and reach out to our social media team with additional questions at univcomms-social@ucsd.edu.

Once your social channels are launched, please add them to the Social Media Channel Directory.

Choosing the right platform depends on your target audience and goals. Think about who you're trying to reach and what you hope to achieve with your social media presence. Focus first on the platform where your audience is most active. It’s best to build your presence on one platform before expanding to others.

Your department's content should align with its overall marketing goals. If you're looking for general university updates to share, the UC San Diego Today website is a great place to start. Keep in mind that while the newsroom features important university news, not all content will necessarily suit your department’s specific goals. You can also access university photos and videos via UC San Diego’s media gallery. You can also use the UC San Diego Canva to create branded graphics. Additionally, user-generated content can be valuable, but make sure you obtain the proper permissions and provide appropriate credit.

The Social Media Working Group connects staff who manage the university’s channels and provides valuable resources to help them grow as social media communicators. The group also plays a key role in preserving the university's brand and reputation across platforms. If you're interested in joining this group or would like to take advantage of workshops, strategy consultations, or other resources, learn more on the social media working group page.

We’d love to hear about content ideas you think we should consider sharing! You can submit your ideas through the Social Media Idea submission form, and our social media team will review them. If your content aligns with our strategy, we might feature it on our official channels.

Our event promotion strategy prioritizes Instagram Stories, Facebook and X to deliver timely and engaging content to our audience. Given the high volume of requests, we are selective about the events we feature, aiming to keep our feeds relevant and appealing to a broad audience.

If you have content you'd like us to share from your Instagram feed, please send it via direct message to the main UC San Diego Instagram account @UCSanDiego. We may include it in our "Triton Trending" series if it aligns with our criteria. "Triton Trending" is a twice monthly Instagram story series, typically posted on Tuesdays, that highlights upcoming events, shares important news and provides a platform for various members of the UC San Diego community with a particular focus on students as our primary audience.

For significant events or major announcements, we may also post to our curated Instagram feed. These decisions are based on factors such as strategic importance, audience relevance and brand alignment, ensuring consistency and strong engagement across platforms.

If your event isn't a fit for our channels, we suggest reaching out to other social media managers across campus through the Social Media Working Group and sharing your toolkits to the Social Media Working Group Slack channel. Their channels might be a better match to help support and promote your event.

Our social media platforms do not typically post about student or staff hiring or recruitment for research studies. This is because our primary focus is on sharing content that appeals to a broad audience and supports the university's overall messaging, brand and engagement goals. While recruitment for studies and hiring are important, these topics tend to serve a more specific audience, and promoting them through our main channels may not align with the general interests of our followers.

For recruitment-related announcements, we recommend using more targeted methods such as department-specific channels, newsletters or specialized job boards and platforms.

We generally don't require model release forms for most content on our social media channels, except for paid media. We recommend obtaining verbal permission from subjects and informing them about where their content will be displayed, particularly if they are the main focus. If someone requests their photo be removed on social channels, it’s best to honor that request. If using user-generated content, get permission to repost and include a photo credit with their user name. Use your best judgment and evaluate each situation individually.

Model release forms can be found on the photography and videography services page. For guidance about when use of the model release is required, please contact Campus Counsel.

If you have any other questions or need further assistance, please reach out to us at univcomms-social@ucsd.edu or use the Social Media Idea submission form.