Come on board for a trip around the social media universe! 
2. Join and explore uic’s social media galaxy!
- Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/uicrail/
- Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/company/496364/
- Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/uicrailways/
- Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/uic/
- Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClDqqE1vKPe0mkRcX7snJcg
3. Discover 10 good reasons to jump on the bandwagon!
Still a stranger to social media? Here are ten good reasons to jump on the social media bandwagon and make sure you’re not left behind on the platform!
- Strengthen the company’s profile
- Stay informed, get up-to-the minute information and “stay in the loop”
- Share information, ideas and areas of interest
- Follow trends and monitor developments
- Showcase your work, projects and expertise and raise your profile
- Get reactions in real time and gauge people’s opinion
- Join communities
- Find new connections and associates or reconnect with old ones
- Identify future talent
- Broaden your audience
4. Adopt good practice to manage your profile
Here are some tips to follow and pitfalls to avoid.
Why not? - Silly name makes it difficult to find the user
- Profile picture uses a Snapchat filter which undermines the user’s credibility
- Profile does not look professional
Why? - Real name Profile
- Profile picture
- Professional profile
5. Make the distinction between personal and professional use
Before posting in a professional context, remember:
- Your name and your company are connected; this means that your company’s image is at stake.
- Employees represent their company and project its image to the outside world to a certain extent, whatever their responsibilities.
- "My comments are not reflective of the views of the company": this wording shows that the person tweeting is solely responsible for what they say.
6. Distinguish between friends and connections
Your connections on social media may be of a friendly nature, particularly on Facebook,
but - more importantly - they may also be of a professional nature such as LinkedIn.
it is not recommended to talk about everything. Your political and religious views are not necessarily of interest to your professional contacts. Your network is diverse: it includes not only colleagues and professional acquaintances, but also members, partners and influencers. Your tweets, articles, and the information you share should follow an « editorial line » closely related to UIC’s institutional tone. Recommendations
and best practices are available at the
Communications Department.
Additionally, your network may help you to spread your messages at an exponential rate.
7. Use suitable images
Make appropriate use of photos; note that they cannot be used freely without prior consent unless you use photos that you have taken yourself (or for which you already have the rights). Choose images from the UIC media library http://mediacenter.uic.org or from a free image library such as pixabay.com.
It has recently become possible to filter Google images for copyright-free images.
In addition, the UIC Communications department has a subscription to Fotolia. If you would like to acquire any photos, please contact us.
Make sure you inform anyone appearing in your photo. This point may apply in particular to company social events.
8. Use hashtags on all your social media platforms! #UICrail
Hashtags are key words.
- You can use the hashtag symbol # to join a community
- You can use the hashtag symbol # to highlight the importance of a particular word
- You can use the at symbol @ to address someone
9. Make your posts efficient
Be careful not to mention the person’s account at the start of your post (this is used for private messages).
10. Be generous - talk about other people too! “I like, you tweet, he shares”
The concept of engagement on social media means the tendency of an audience to interact with a brand on social media, for example.
This engagement may manifest as reactions to posts, which in this case are measured using engagement rates. Engagement rates may also be used with blogs, articles, videos, etc.
Social media engagement is measured by what are called interactions.
The interactions generally measured on social media are as follows:
Like
Likes have two main purposes:
“I like this post”
Likes are used to express an opinion on a post without necessarily expecting anything back from the person/page you are liking.
“I like you, do you like me?”
This kind of like acts as an exchange or “give and take”. If I like a post, I expect my post/ page to be liked in return
This is a kind of quid pro quo and, generally, if you want to raise your profile, you add a comment underneath using either words or emojis.
Sharing: Posts are shared in order to increase their visibility. In addition to sharing, users may reuse the hashtags suggested by the brand/person.
Sharing is part of the same approach as giving likes.- I am sharing this post to show that I like it
- I am sharing this post so that the other user shares mine in return
Comments are used to:- express an opinion in the principle of “give and take”;
- receive a comment in response, which raises your profile (the responding comment is shown on the social network’s “wall” and can be seen by users following your profile/page).
11. Get to grips with your toolbox
In need of some images, but don’t have Photoshop? Produce them easily using https://www.canva.com. No prior knowledge of graphic design is necessary. The tool allows you to effortlessly produce images optimised for use on various social media platforms. The service offers numerous models which can be customised as you see fit. Canva is free and very easy to use.
Looking for a “personal assistant” to help you run your social media accounts effectively by scheduling your
posts? Set the times and frequency of your posts on social media assistant https://buffer.com and then send your posts, and articles whenever you want to! You can use Buffer when you come across interesting articles while browsing, or when you have a spare moment to write a few posts/tweets. All it takes is a single click…and there you go; your posting schedule is set up just like that! The system is very similar to Hootsuite. It generates statistics generated so that you can analyse the impact of your social media posts. Buffer is a free tool to a certain extent
– you can use it free of charge for a maximum of ten social networks and 200 scheduled posts, giving you plenty of options.
Need to carry out your own press review? With https://paper.li, it couldn’t be easier! Whether you are interested in one or several topics, you can carry out your own press review, starting with your favourite websites and social media content. You can then send the press review automatically to all of your contacts on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. It can also be integrated into your website and you can add your
own content there. The free version is ideal for use as your personal monitoring tool.
Want to make your content more dynamic by creating illustrated videos? Use https://www.powtoon.com, a fun and comprehensive tool to give your presentations a boost in the form of cartoons! But be aware that you can only use the free version of Powtoon for videos less than two minutes long. So, be clear
and concise for successful communication! The format is very well received by web users and on social media. PowToon works in the same way as Canva, providing a simple interface that allows you to integrate elements into your video by dragging and dropping them.
Looking for the best hashtags to increase the reach of your messages on social media? Check out Hastagify : hashtagify.me. It is a true hashtag encyclopaedia and a professional (and free) tool that brings true added value to your efforts to increase the general reach of your social media posts, and on Twitter in particular.
It allows you to find hashtags relating to your keywords and favourite topics. When you search for a hashtag on the Hashtagify interface, it will display a mind map of words related to your search. Try it - you will probably discover keywords you had not considered.
12. Get your UIC social media passport
Social media glossary
Direct Message
A direct message (DM) is a private Twitter message sent to one of your followers. Direct messages can only be sent to a Twitter user who is already following you, and you can only receive direct messages from users you follow.
Follower
A Twitter user who has subscribed to your Twitter account so they can receive your Tweets in their Home feed. If you want to send them a direct message, you need to follow them back.
Friend
A person that you connect with on Facebook or another social network. Unlike a fan or follower, a friend is a two- way connection; both you and your friend have to endorse the relationship.
Hashtag
The hashtag is a word or phrase preceded by the “#” sign. #Hashtags are a simple way to mark the topic (or topics) of
social media messages and make them discoverable to people with shared interests. On most social networks, clicking a hashtag will reveal all the public and recently published messages that also contain that hashtag. Hashtags first emerged on Twitter as a user-created phenomenon and are now used on
almost every other social media platform, including Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Vine and Pinterest.
Header image
A header image, not to be confused with
a profile photo, is the banner image at the top of a user’s Twitter profile.
Influencer
A social media user who can reach a significant audience and drive awareness about a trend, topic, company, or product. From a marketer’s perspective, the ideal influencer is also a passionate brand advocate. However, influencers often try to remain impartial toward brands in order to maintain credibility with their hard- earned audiences. Successful influencer strategies usually involve the coordination of Marketing, Customer Service, and Public Relations teams.
Mention
The act of tagging another user’s handle or account name in a social media message. Mentions typically trigger a notification for that user and are a key part of what makes social media “social”. When properly formatted (for example, as an @mention on Twitter or +mention on Google+), a mention also allows your audience to click through to the mentioned users’ bio or profile.
Post
A Facebook status update, or an item on a blog or forum.
Retweet
A Tweet that is re-shared to the followers of another user’s Twitter account. There are two kinds of Retweet: the classic “manual” Retweet and the now-standard “web Retweet”. In a manual Retweet, you simply type “RT” before the @username and content of somebody else’s Tweet. This used to be the only way you could retweet, and it’s the still only way to add your own comment to a Tweet when you pass it along. A “web Retweet” is what happens when you click the official Retweet button: the full Tweet appears in your timeline in its original form, complete with the author’s name and avatar. Since a web Retweet allows your followers to easily retweet or favorite the original Tweet, it’s generally considered good etiquette to use this method unless you have something valuable to add through a manual RT.
Share
When content is reposted on a social media site through another user’s channel.
Tag
A keyword added to a social media post with the original purpose of categorizing related content. A tag can also refer to the act of tagging someone in a post, which creates a link to their social media profile and associates them with the content.
Tweet
A Twitter message. Tweets can contain up to 280 characters of text, as well as photos, videos, and other forms of media. They are public by default and will show up in Twitter timelines and searches unless they are sent from Protected Accounts or as Direct Messages. Tweets can also be embedded in webpages.
Source: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-glossary-definitions/
