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Social Media Best Practices

Lehman College supports the use of social media to promote and share news, events and other information within the campus community. This helpful guide is designed to empower Lehman schools, divisions, departments and programs to manage their own social media accounts effectively.

Consider these best practices when creating content for your social media accounts:

Planning Ahead Crafting Posts Collaboration & Visual Content

Planning Ahead

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A social media calendar will help you visualize your content strategy by organizing all posts for the week/month/year. Planning your social media content in advance, better equips you to track the types of content you post, recognize patterns/themes, and better prepare for campaigns and events. It also positions you better to adapt when last minute, time-sensitive content is needed.

Download Social Media Calendar Template

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Now that you’ve planned your content, schedule your posts in advance whenever possible. This can be natively in apps, such as Meta Business Suite (Facebook and Instagram), LinkedIn, and TikTok, or through third-party social media management tools. Here are a few recommendations:

Buffer
Hootsuite
SproutSocial

Choose a tool that best aligns with your content goals and budget.

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This is the million-dollar question. Truthfully, there isn’t a set time that applies to all social media channels. It’s good practice to post when your audience is active on social media. As you review your social media analytics, you’ll begin to identify the times your audience engage most on each platform.

Management tools, like Buffer and Hootsuite, share their recommendations on optimal times to post on platforms.

Crafting Posts

Although post length varies across platforms, the goal is to craft clear and concise messaging that speaks to your audience. Some news may call for technical or academic verbiage but, whenever possible, ensure your posts are conversational and easy to understand.

Double check caption copy to ensure your posts are accurate and grammatically correct.

Each platform is unique, which is important to keep in mind when curating posts. For example, Instagram does not allow users to include clickable links in a caption. In this case, it’s ideal to direct your audience to your bio (“link in bio”), so they can RSVP for an event or access additional information.

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Hashtags
Words and numbers that follow the # symbol—not only get more eyes on your content; they help categorize it too. They connect your content with related conversations on social media.
Consider using the hashtags that Lehman’s main social media accounts use (#LehmanCollege, #LehmanProud, #CUNY), along with relevant hashtags related to the content your sharing (for example, #internship, #opportunity).

For specific events, you can also consider creating a hashtag to further brand it across your social media accounts. Concise and memorable is the way to go.
At-Mention/Tag
Tag, or at-mention, relevant social media accounts when you post. When you atmention a social media account, the user will receive a notification, allowing them to engage with the post. For example, on LinkedIn, when Lehman College School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) tags Lehman College, the Lehman College account receives a notification and can amplify the posts by reacting to the post, commenting and/or resharing it.

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Collaboration & Visual Content

Collab Posts

Instagram now allows users to collaborate with other Instagram accounts. When you share content in collaboration with another account, your Reel, photo or carousel will be shared simultaneously on their account(s) as well as yours.

To collaborate with Lehman’s Instagram account, ensure that your content adheres to Lehman’s brand guidelines. We encourage you to send an email to Janel Martinez at janel.martinez1@lehman.cuny.edu to coordinate and schedule collab posts in advance.

Collab posts between accounts representing schools, offices, centers, and divisions are highly encouraged and should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for individuals. Visit Lehman’s social media guidelines for more on personal social media accounts.

Visual Content

Use high-resolution images and videos. See our Brand Identity Guide. We have developed templates in Canva and have a shared account to help you format and design some of your posts.

Additional Social Media Tools

Video Editing – CapCut and Adobe Express (captioning)

We hope that this brief social media best practices document is helpful as you optimize your social media presence. See here for a full set of Lehman’s social media guidelines.

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