Goals and strategies

Social media enables the University to share what is happening on campus with the world and, more importantly, it lets us hear directly and immediately from students, faculty, staff, parents, alumni, fans and friends about what is important to them.

This “conversation” is what makes social media so different from traditional forms of institutional communication.

And, just like any communications strategy, it is important to have well-thought-out goals, strategies and tactics for the University’s social media presence.

Social goals and strategies for the University of Nevada, Reno

These are the goals and strategies for the University’s main channels. Ideally, goals, strategies and tactics for your specific school, college or unit may differ, but they should support and align with the University's overarching goals.

1. Share the University’s best content to raise brand awareness. Our goal is to increase awareness of the University of Nevada, Reno among various audiences that include prospective students, current students, parents, faculty, staff, alumni and the community and the state. We leverage our social media platforms to introduce and reintroduce the University to our audiences, in order to better engage with them via social media. The best way to get our audiences to engage with us is to time our content right. Our best-performing posts are timed in conjunction with what is going on in our community, our state, our country and our world. In addition, efforts are designed to support the initiatives and vision of the University Strategic Plan.
2. Listen, engage and learn. Our goal is to be aware of the sentiment towards the University of Nevada, Reno name and brand, and try to positively influence it. We constantly track conversations about the University, listen and respond as needed. We strive to provide customer service and also participate in these conversions by responding and sharing compelling stories that engage our audience. We also, whenever appropriate, elevate our community’s posts about the University using the main channels, thereby giving them additional recognition and also sharing with our audiences high-quality, user-generated content. We analyze previous conversions and reevaluate to improve future communications.
3. Tell the University story. Our goal is to promote what sets the University apart, and to encourage fans to become brand ambassadors. That is why we share human-interest stories about our students, faculty, staff and alumni. Because we are located in Reno, Nevada, we also share highlights from our hometown and aim to create true brand awareness of “The Biggest Little City.”
4. Act as one Wolf Pack. Our goal is to work together and give our social media content maximum effectiveness. That is why our aim is to retweet and repost content from our students, staff, alumni and other University accounts. 
5. Share Research. As an “R1” institution by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, we aim to share the University’s work at building research and graduate programs. To do this, we share videos, experts in the news, research stories, faculty profiles, awards and recognitions, and interdisciplinary news in order to highlight the great work that’s going on at our university.
6. Communicate in a Crisis. We use social media platforms to ensure that emergency communications reach our community in the quickest way possible. We convey information to our students, faculty, staff and community during an active emergency, provide information in the aftermath of an emergency, and to serve in conjunction with texts, alerts and website information. We specifically use Twitter and Facebook to convey real-time information directly from the appropriate sources. We also use social media to monitor conversations about controversies and crises and use that information to inform our overall communications strategy in relation to those events and topics.

Content on this page has been adapted and with permission from our peers at Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, leaders in higher education social media.