UF/IFAS Communications

Social Media Services

Welcome to UF/IFAS Social Media Services

Do you manage social media accounts for a UF/IFAS unit? Or are you considering starting a new account? Then you are in the right place. From here you can learn how to make sure your account is in compliance with UF/IFAS guidelines.

UF/IFAS social media accounts represent more than just your unit. They represent UF/IFAS and UF making it critical that your accounts support and uphold UF/IFAS’s brand identity and values.

If you haven’t already, please take the Representing UF/IFAS on Social Media course (link coming soon) to help understand the risks and responsibilities associated with being a UF/IFAS social media profile manager. Please also review UF’s social media guidelines.

Contact the Social Media Team

Aaron Alexander, Social Media Manager (352) 294-3308
Dale Boettcher, Social Media Specialist (352) 294-3309

Profile Requirements
Profile Images
UF/IFAS social media accounts must have a profile picture that meets UF/IFAS brand standards. You can download your official social media profile picture template here. Choose the appropriate topic on the left.

If you would like assistance with the templates, please submit a graphic design request via Workfront.

Naming
UF/IFAS social media account profile/page names should begin with “UF IFAS,” except for statewide Extension programs. Don’t use forward slashes “/.”

Username/handles can vary based on platform character limits and other requirements. Try to include UF, at least, but UFIFAS is preferred.

Here the approved naming structures and examples for each:

Extension
- - Statewide Extension Program: Florida [Insert Program Name]
    - Ex. Florida Master Gardener Program
  - County Extension Office: UF IFAS Extension [Insert County Name] County
    - Ex. UF IFAS Extension Orange County
  - County 4-H Program: UF IFAS Extension [Insert County Name] County 4-H
    - Ex. UF IFAS Extension Holmes County 4-H
  - County Master Gardener Volunteer Program: UF IFAS Extension [Insert County Name] County Master Gardener Volunteers
    - Ex. UF IFAS Extension Alachua County Master Gardeners
  - County Sea Grant - UF IFAS Extension [Insert County Name] County Sea Grant
    - Ex. UF IFAS Extension Miami-Dade County Sea Grant
  - County Family & Consumer Science - UF IFAS Extension [Insert County Name] County Family and Consumer Sciences
    - Ex. UF IFAS Manatee County Family and Consumer Sciences
CALS & Research
- - UF/IFAS CALS Department - UF IFAS [Insert Department Name]
    - Ex. UF IFAS Food and Resource Economics Department
  - Research and Education Center & Demonstration Sites – UF IFAS [Insert Center Name]
    - Ex. UF IFAS Mid-Florida Research & Education Center
Profile Bio Section
Extension, Research and Education Center/Demonstration Site, and lab accounts should tag the UF/IFAS flagship accounts in their bio. UF/IFAS CALS departments should tag CALS accounts in their bio.

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.

Collaborate With Us
While we can’t amplify everything due to the large number of UF/IFAS accounts, here are a couple ways the UF/IFAS social media team can help:

Co-hosting Select Facebook Events

If you created a Facebook event for an event that meets the following criteria:
- Intended for the average Floridian (not ag/industry)
- Within brand guidelines & without grammatical errors
- Relevant for either a regional or statewide audience (at least multiple counties )
- Open Registration/Not invite-only (event can be paid or free)
- Ideally, a recurring event (not required)
Add our page as a co-host (here are detailed instructions) so your event will be distributed to a portion of our audience and displayed on our events tab. Note – If we do not accept your collab request, please email our social media manager. As a bonus, we will also share your event again within two weeks of the event date.

Collab Posting (Facebook and Instagram)

Facebook and Instagram now allow accounts to “co-create” reels. This feature makes it possible to share a single post with followers of multiple pages.

The UF/IFAS social media team actively seeks out collab opportunities with UF/IFAS accounts, so participating in a video shoot with our team will result in creating content for your unit account and the UF/IFAS flagship channels. If you’re interested in being featured in videos for our channels, please contact us; we’re always looking for more enthusiastic experts to feature.

If you created a great video/post for your unit account, we would love to be added as a collaborator. We encourage you to reach out before posting so that we can decide on a posting time that works for both accounts.

Registering An Account

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.

Creating A New Account
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.