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UFV/Community Engagement/Communications, Marketing and Brand Experience/Social media guidelines

Social media guidelines

UFV’s official social media channels are identified by the handle @goUFV, managed by the Marketing and Communications department on: 
 
• Bluesky 
• Facebook 
• Instagram 
• LinkedIn 
• YouTube 
• Flickr 

When posting about the University of the Fraser Valley, tag @goUFV and use #UFV. This helps our social media managers see and possibly share your content to a broader audience. We can help promote UFV’s brand, services, learning opportunities, events, and more. 

For social media inquiries, contact marcom@ufv.ca. 

Personal social engagement

Your social media activity on behalf of UFV affects the university’s brand and reputation. Before posting, consider:

  • Does your post reflect UFV positively?
  • Is the information factually accurate?
  • Is your post spell-checked and grammatically correct?
  • How might your post impact students and the community?
  • Does it align with UFV’s brand and department goals?
  • Does it support student growth, academically or holistically?

Affiliated accounts

Before creating a departmental social media account, consult the Marketing & Brand Experience department. A social media channel is a brand asset that can pose reputational risks.

Consider these factors before requesting a new account:

  • Do you have at least one backup administrator?
  • Do you have the time and resources to respond to comments and reply to messages within 24 hours?
  • Can you generate enough content to post to your channels regularly?
  • Do you have a promotion plan and resources to grow your audience? 
  • Have you completed social media training? 
  • Are you willing to invest in a scheduling tool like Hootsuite or Sprout? 

If you answered "no" to any of these, it may not be the right time to start an account. Consider collaborating with other content creators and contributing to an existing faculty or department channel instead.

If you don’t plan to post regularly, you can request that we share posts or reels on your behalf by emailing marcom@ufv.ca.

If a new social media presence aligns with your faculty’s strategic goals, the marketing team will assist you with:

  1. A professional profile image
    Use an approved profile icon for consistency. The Marketing department can create one for you. See UFV’s visual identity guidelines for branding details.

  2. A clear biography
    Before posting, provide a bio that explains who you are and what content you’ll share. Spell out faculty or department names fully (avoid acronyms).

  3. A UFV handle
    Official UFV-affiliated accounts should include “UFV” in their name and @handle. Avoid abbreviations.

  4. UFV style guidelines
    Make sure you understand and follow UFV’s editorial style guide and visual identity guidelines.

  5. Link in bio (Instagram)

  6. Link shortner or short URL (if you aren’t using Hootsuite/Sprout)

  7. Follow me QR code 

Advertising 

Marketing and Brand Experience manages all paid advertising for UFV, including META and LinkedIn ads to ensure a consistent brand presence in these high-visibility spaces. For support, please fill out the project intake survey: https://www.ufv.ca/community-engagement/marcom/project-intake/ 

Scheduling tools

UFV’s Marketing & Brand Experience team uses Hootsuite, but there are a variety of social media management platforms available. Check with your faculty: Ideally, all channels are managed centrally by one scheduling tool per faculty. Work with IT to select a vendor that meets your needs.

Social media tips & tricks

Consider your audience

Outline benefits for your users. When posting about an event or service, use engaging captions. Not all followers will see every post, so encourage interaction through likes, comments, and shares.

Sell vs. tell

Engage your audience with conversational or shared content 80% of the time (e.g., news, study tips, career advice, research updates). Promote yourself only 20% of the time —comments and conversations have a bigger impact than self-promotion.

Keep it short and sweet

Bluesky’s character limit is 300; try to follow this rule on Facebook and Instagram too. Include a UFV website link for those who want more details. Instagram post URLs aren’t clickable, so use a short, easy-to-type URL or set up a link in bio. 

Pause before posting

Check spelling, punctuation, and accuracy. Refer to UFV’s writing and style for grammar tips. 

Use hashtags or page tags

  • Facebook & LinkedIn: – Hashtags are less effective, but tagging related pages or people (@mention) can boost engagement.
  • Instagram and Twitter: Using trending and established hashtags (#) can increase reach. Creating new event-specific ones does not. Hashtags don’t count toward Instagram’s character limit. 

Post regularly

Maintain consistent engagement with quality posts. Try posting daily but avoid overwhelming followers with too many posts in one day on Facebook or Instagram. Twitter, however, moves quickly posting multiple times a day is encouraged.

Optimize for mobile 

Most users access social media on mobile devices. Use short text, avoid tiny text on images, provide hyperlinks, and use mobile-friendly URLs for Instagram comments.

Reply to messages and posts

Aim to respond within 24 – 48 hours. 

Negative comments should be assessed and addressed depending on severity. If a comment is harmful to other social media consumers, immediately consult theUFV Communications team. Always remember — social media is public, and even private messages can be shared.

Maximize engagement

  • Use photography, illustration, and video – Visuals get more engagement than text alone. Keep text on images minimal and include details in captions. Adding too much text on images/graphics hurts your visibility and reach set by the algorithm.
  • If you are promoting an event, submit an image (cropped to 700px X 400px) with events details to ufv.ca/announce. That way, when you share your events calendar URL, the photo will auto-populate in the feed when shared in Facebook. Your image will be automatically hyperlinked to your event’s page, which makes it easier for your audience to access additional information related to your post online.
    Don’t send your poster as an image link. Send the photo you feature on the poster instead.
  • Make sure your content is accessible. See guidelines for content creators.

Use your page analytics

Scheduling tools and Facebook or LinkedIn Business reports can help you learn more about your audience demographics, their preferences, and behavior. If you are working with Marketing on an integrated campaign, we will gather those insights for you.  

Connect with other UFV pages

  • Support campus-wide engagement by following and interacting with other UFV-affiliated pages. Learn from experienced users and cross-promote events.

  • Make sure to tag any relevant partners in your content, whether they are within UFV or external organizations and companies.

  • When sharing content to your stories, tag people or accounts directly so they receive a notification and can reshare it to their own stories. Stories typically have higher reach and visibility than regular posts.

Tagging @goUFV as a collaborator on Instagram

  • When sharing UFV-related content, you can invite @goUFV as a collaborator on Instagram posts, reels/videos to extend your reach and improve visibility.

  • Instagram allows you to invite up to 3 collaborators per post. If the invitation is accepted, your content will appear on those accounts' profiles and feeds as if they posted it themselves.

  • You can add collaborators before publishing via Instagram and this feature is also available when scheduling through Hootsuite.

  • If you have already published a post, you can still add collaborators by editing the post directly on the Instagram app.