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News & Social Media

With more than 38 academic units, centers, and institutes, and 40 Extension offices in CAHNRS, there are hundreds of stories to be told and announcements to be made each year. While CAHNRS Communications helps tell many of these stories, we can’t write them all.

When your department or program has news to announce—an event, a student success, faculty recognition, grant award or a new program or discovery—a news release is often the first step in getting the word out. Please visit our tips and training section to get started with your release or, if you have questions, please contact us.

Our office also handles the main CAHNRS social media channels. If your department or unit has or wants a social media account, we have social media tips to consider. We have also included the official CAHNRS social media policy, also posted on our Facebook page. This can be adapted for your unit.

Social Media Tips

WSU follows policies and guidelines regarding social media, including best practices. The following tips are pulled from the WSU social media webpage and are some of the most important tips when it comes to social media.

Top Three Tips

Update Regularly & Consistently

Visiting an account with outdated information is frustrating for viewers. Use multiple administrators for accounts to ensure the account remains active in case someone leaves your unit or the university.

Connect

The point of social media isn’t merely to share information into a void, it’s to establish connections between the general public and your group. Interact with other accounts, answer questions, share helpful and relevant information from other accounts. These will all help grow your audience as well.

Manage Spam Carefully

You can delete posts that are not related to WSU or your group, but keep everything else, even if you disagree or don’t like it. As a state entity, we should not be open to accusations of censorship.

Other Tips

  • Develop a content calendar: This is a good way to make sure you don’t miss an event, holiday, or important milestone. Sit down with other members of your team and talk about what should be covered in the next week, month, 3 months, 6 months, etc. However often you want to keep this updated. Maybe have a quarterly meeting with stakeholders in your group to update the calendar.
  • Share stories about people: People like to read about other people.
  • Photography and media are vital: Every post should include a photo or video. These also make posts more shareable, which helps grow your audience. Polished, professional photos aren’t necessary. Authentic photos and videos often relate more with an audience.
  • Tag related accounts in posts: Tagging accounts that have something to do with an event or story will improve the chances of them sharing your post.
  • Don’t spread yourself too thin: Figure out what platform your ideal audience uses the most, then concentrate on growing that audience. Don’t start a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a Tik Tok, and an Instagram. Pick one and do it well. Once you have that down, then consider adding a second. Social media takes time to do well.
  • Do not use an individual person’s email as the login or account email: Use a group email that more than one person has access to. This way others have access to the account in emergencies.
  • Official policy: We have posted the official WSU CAHNRS Facebook policy. As a unit of WSU, this can be adapted for your page as well.

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