Social media
At Sussex, we use social media to engage and interact with the University community and other interested parties.
What is social media?
'Social media' is a term that refers to methods of allowing any users to publish content online. This can include:
- blogging (e.g. using WordPress) or micro-blogging (e.g. on Twitter)
- adding comments to others' blogs
- publishing videos (e.g. on YouTube), audio or images (eg on Flickr) on the internet
- posting content onto a forum or social network site (e.g. Facebook)
- collaborating on an online project (e.g. a Wikipedia article).
Well-known social media tools include wikis, blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr and Pinterest.
Why use social media?
Many individuals (both staff and students), departments and units already have their own presence on social media. They can be very useful tools for:
- promoting work and events
- building a community or network
- gathering feedback
- discussion and sharing
- interacting with people who use your service.
Preparation
We would encourage all members of the University community to use social media for communicating with each other.
Before doing so, however, we would suggest that you spend a bit of time thinking through the following:
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What do you want to achieve? With a clear aim, you will find it much easier to select the right social media tool(s) for you. It will also give you focus and help you to evaluate and reassess your plans, as you start using the media
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Can you commit the necessary time? When communicating - and particularly when using social media - you should never just publish content then run away. If you are asking what people think of something, you need to be prepared to read their responses and interact with them if necessary
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Do you have enough to say? People are not going to read blogs that are updated twice a year or Facebook groups with out-of-date content. Before leaping in, make sure you have something to say and the time to say it
Popular social media tools
Flummoxed by Facebook? Turned off by Twitter? Here is a quick run through of the most popular social media platforms and how they can be used for communications.
Facebook is the most widely used social networking service, which is an online service that focuses on building social relations among people.
You may already have an individual personal Facebook profile, but communicating in a professional capacity as a member of staff, or as a student who is a member of a society (for example), requires a slightly different approach.
There are two main ways to use Facebook for communications - pages and groups. A Facebook page is designed to be the official 'profile' of a public figure, organisation, department etc. A Facebook group should be set up when people want to come together to discuss a common interest.
Twitter and micro-blogging
Twitter is a micro-blogging site, allowing its users to send and read messages - called tweets - up to 140 characters long.
Users often share news and other messages, engage in conversations and provide links to websites and other media.
Blogs
Blogs (a shortened version of the term 'web log') are websites that contain user-generated postings. Often these are displayed in reverse-chronological order and can include descriptions of events, diary-style commentary, opinion and debate, as well as images and video.
All members of staff and students at Sussex automatically have access to their own blog, using a system called SPLASH. Go to SPLASH to see the latest blogs by Sussex people and to log-in and create your own.
Wikis
Wikis are collaborative websites containing content that has been added and edited by its users. The most well-known wiki is Wikipedia.
Wikis can be helpful for projects or to share information and processes among teams, since they can be edited by multiple users.
Students can set up a wiki from within Study Direct.
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website allowing users to upload, view and share videos.
The University has its own YouTube channel and editors of University web pages can embed YouTube videos in their sites.
More information
If you are unsure about how you can use social media for internal communications, we are happy to discuss with you. Email internalcomms@sussex.ac.uk or call ext. 8888.