Circles of Excellence — Social Strategy Simplified

Resources

Template: Build a Social Strategy

Use this template to build a basic social media strategy for your college, school or unit.
Worksheet: Social Strategy Simplified

Use this worksheet to craft the building blocks of your social media strategy: a SMART goal, defined target audiences, content buckets and success measurements.
Guide: Social Strategy Fundamentals

How to approach your work strategically and persuade leadership in your college, school or unit about the value of a social media strategy.

Useful links

University Style Guide

Guidelines on word choice, typefaces, colors, logos and photo treatment to maintain consistency in messaging and design across the university and strengthen the institution’s brand.

UIC social media guidelines and best practices

A reference for page administrators for UIC-affiliated social media accounts, including information on accessibility, comment management and creating a new account.

Social Content Capacity Estimator and Resource Planner

A tool to evaluate your college, school or unit’s ability to create organic social media content with your current resources. Explore strategies for making the most of your resources while improving effectiveness and efficiency.

HigherEd Social Facebook group

Connect with other higher-education professionals in social media roles for advice, support and resources.

SMC Marketing Project Request form

Use this form to submit marketing project requests to Strategic Marketing and Communications, including to request consultation for your college, school or unit’s social media channels.

Pew Research Center

Useful statistics on social media usage, platform demographics and more.

Statista

Use Statista’s page on social media statistics to collect useful information on social media usage, platform demographics and more.

The Statista data used in the session to illustrate Distribution of social media users worldwide as of April 2024, by age group:

Tools

For more information

For more information or assistance, please contact:

Tanner Lewey, Social Media Editor and Strategist, Strategic Marketing and Communications, tlewey2@uic.edu
Wyatt Morris, Marketing Associate, School of Public Health and Strategic Marketing and Communications, wyattem2@uic.edu

Office of the Vice Chancellor for Strategic Marketing and Communications