Avatars
UF/IFAS social media accounts must have an avatar that meets UF/IFAS brand standards. You can download your official avatar here, if you do not see an appropriate avatar please submit a graphic design request via Workfront. 

Naming
UF/IFAS accounts should include “UF IFAS” in their username @handle and account name, along with mentioning the full name of our organization, “University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences,” in their bio. 

Here are the approved naming structures: 

• Department naming structure [UF IFAS] [Department Name] ex. UF IFAS Department of Animal Sciences 
• Extension naming structure [UF IFAS Extension] [County Name] ex. UF IFAS Extension Alachua County 
• Research Center naming structure [UF/IFAS] [Center Name] ex. UF/IFAS Citrus Research and Education Center 

Meet Brand Standards
When UF/IFAS flagship accounts post content that doesn’t meet UF/IFAS brand standards you are also violating UF’s brand guidelines. UF/IFAS’ social media team serves as enforcers of our brand standards, so posts that are not in compliance are flagged and will not be shared from our flagship accounts. 

You can download assets needed to create on-brand content on our branding portal.  

Accessibility
As a state institution, it is both our legal obligation and responsibility to make our best effort to serve ALL Floridians. Please watch the following presentation to familiarize yourself with accessibility on social media. 

If you are unable to create accessible content, please scale back your social media presence (either number of posts or accounts) so that everything you post is optimized for accessibility best practices. Creating accessible content is NOT optional. 

Create & Elevate
ALL social media managers should be creating or facilitating the creation of unique and valuable content for their accounts. If you aren’t creating content that can only be found on your account, why should someone follow your account? 

ALL social media managers should also be elevating relevant content from other UF/IFAS social media accounts. Scroll through the feeds of UF/IFAS’ flagship account, neighboring county Extension offices, and your nearest RECs account to look for content that your audience may be interested in. UF/IFAS’ social media team is always looking for stand out content from accounts to share.  

This give and take is critical to delivering cohesive messaging across the state, maximizing reach of our messaging, and reducing duplication of efforts. Here’s more information on our organizational social media strategy.

Registration and approval are required BEFORE launching a UF/IFAS social media account. The standards apply to all UF/IFAS employees and other people (such as volunteers and appointees) who use university computing resources, and they cover all forms of social media.  

Authorization to present a social media account as an official university activity must come from the Associate Vice President of UF/IFAS Communications. Accounts should have two TEAMS employees with admin access at all times to ensure that account access isn’t lost.  

Registering your account is crucial, in the event of communications crisis we need to know who to contact. Please register your account by filling out the Social Media Account Plan Form 2024 and submitting a request. 

Registering your account is crucial, in the event of communications crisis we need to know who to contact. Please register your account by filling out the Social Media Account Plan Form 2024 and submitting a request. 

Social media platforms are a bit like committing to bringing home a new puppy. You have to feed it content daily, check back regularly to make sure there aren’t any accidents or issues you need to address, and give it lots of love to help it grow. 

Results of our recent social media audit showed a shocking number of zombie/inactive accounts with a significant number of those being programmatic accounts. Thanks to the help of our community of social media managers we have deleted and merged accounts to improve the health of UF/IFAS’ social media presence. To avoid repeating history, we reserve the right to deny accounts that are likely to become inactive in the future. 

Here's how you can help: 

• If you are an Extension office and are looking to create an account for your program area, first see if your overall Extension office has a page to which you can contribute content. This is preferable to starting multiple accounts within one county. 
• If one Extension office has multiple Facebook or YouTube pages, we’re fracturing our audience and our efforts. Since we serve ALL the people in the county, some who can benefit from more than one of our programs and initiatives, making them go to or follow different pages can be cumbersome.  
• If you are a Research office, look to see if you can contribute content to a REC account or an overall department, if relevant. The more accounts you create, the more you are fracturing your audience. In this case, less is more. 
• If you are a part of a CALS school or department, try to funnel your content into an already existing account. 

Before you start a page, ask yourself if you really have the time to commit to starting a new account. If you would like to create a new account, please submit a request to submit your proposed account for approval.