UF/IFAS’ size is one of our greatest strengths. Unfortunately, size leads to challenges presenting consistent messaging on social media. If social media managers across UF/IFAS always keep structure, creating content, and elevating the social media posts of other IFAS pages top of mind we can use our size as an advantage on social. 

• STRUCTURE

  Ideal structure will vary depending on IFAS unit (CALS department, Extension office, Research and Education Center). But it is our goal to have a consistent structure organizationally on social media. This helps us provide a consistent experience to stakeholders across the state. 

  Extension Structure 
  All counties should have centralized office accounts. We currently recommend that Extension offices focus on Facebook and Instagram. All program leaders should contribute content to these centralized account.  

  Larger programs can start accounts when: 

  • The centralized account is posting every day of the week.
  • The centralized account is getting good engagement and driving real world results for the office. 
  • All posts on the centralized account are accessible and meet UF/IFAS brand guidelines (if you are not meeting these requirements you should dedicate more time to fixing these issues vs expanding to other accounts).
  • You have the staff/volunteers and tools to properly manage an account that represents the university of Florida. 

  CALS Department Structure
  All faculty work with department communications staff to highlight their programs from centralized accounts. X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all valuable tools for CALS departments. But if you are unable to consistently post on social, do not start new accounts. Try to limit the creation of lab accounts, instead encourage faculty members to send you content to post. 

  Research and Education Center Structure
  All faculty work with REC communications staff to highlight their programs from centralized accounts. X, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn are all valuable tools for RECs. But if you are unable to consistently post on social, do not start new accounts. Try to limit the creation of lab accounts, instead encourage faculty members to send you content to post. 

• CREATE

  Social media is saturated with cookie cutter (BAD) content. People want to follow accounts that post unique and valuable content that makes their life better. An important part of being a social media manager is being honest with yourself. Would you follow your account and engage with the content? 

  Here are some tips for creating great content: 

  • Start with your experts and long-form written content. Blog posts that an expert contributed to can normally be repurposed into multiple social media posts. 

  • Use social media platforms for inspiration. This is a great way to understand what the world sees as great content. 

  • Create content related to a trending topic (locally, nationally, or globally). 

  • Don’t always create selfish content – strike a balance between office goals and follower goals. 
• ELEVATE

  We’re one organization, let’s make sure we are working as a team on social media! Always be on the lookout for opportunities to share posts from other IFAS accounts. They will probably return the favor when they have the opportunity! This give and take will improve our ability to share messaging across the state and make all IFAS accounts stronger. 

  Who will elevate my content? 

  Distribution partners are an important thing to keep in mind when creating content. 

  Examples of ideal distribution partners:

  • Example 1 - If you are a county Extension program (Ex. Duval Master Gardener Volunteers) your centralized county account and the statewide Florida Master Gardener Program page are the best partners.  
  • Example 2 - If you’re a UF CALS department (Horticulture Department) posting about a student’s internship experience the UF CALS account is the best partner for your content.  
  • Example 3 - If you’re an REC sharing a blog post about a faculty member’s latest research, the UF/IFAS flagship accounts and UF CALS department accounts are both ideal partners to elevate your content. 

  How does UF/IFAS flagship accounts elevate? 

  The UF/IFAS account routinely monitors UF/IFAS accounts for stand out content. We also monitor the blogs, when we find an interesting blog, we search the county-wide account related to the author for a post related to the blog post and share if it meets best practices. 

  Here are the minimum standards for a post that we will share:  

  • on-brand  
  • accessible   
  • high-quality image/video (if it doesn't meet quality standards we can't share)  
  • original  
  • well-written  
  • relevant to our statewide audience (or a regionally audience larger than a single county. For example, the Panhandle)  

  The UF/IFAS social media team has to be selective on what and how to share. On Facebook and Instagram, the main way we share content is via our stories. This helps us help you without disrupting the distribution of our scheduled posts.   

  Our team also works hard to incorporate tags into our copy. If we tag you, please at least share to your story. If you don't share, we will adjust our distribution strategy for posts and tag the post differently which will result in less exposure for your page (which we don't want). 

  Going forward we plan to create more statewide campaigns for all accounts to participate in. We are also reaching out to units to partner on video content.   

  How can you elevate? 

  Monitor UF/IFAS pages that are most likely to create content relevant to your audience. For example, if you’re the primary social media manager for an Extension office monitor the UF/IFAS flagship accounts, neighboring county Extension pages, and your nearest REC page. Share content only if it is relevant to your audience. Adding an additional caption when sharing can help increase relevance.