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How it works at the University

What we do

Aligning with the University’s strategic themes of Community, Culture and Impact, content across the University’s central social media channels will be grounded in three themes: Information, Aspiration and Education. 

Information 

  • Providing support and sharing resources to help our community 
  • Answering queries and finding solutions 
  • Being timely and sharing information when it’s needed and available 

Aspiration 

  • Excite audiences about everything the University has to offer 
  • Build a community which people are proud to be part of 
  • Be ambassadors for the city and celebrate Leeds’ culture and diversity 

Education 

  • Create a platform that can be used to share knowledge and educate 
  • Showcase research and innovation in an engaging, interactive way  
  • Make complex topics approachable and shareable 

Channels and Audience

Twitter

Twitter is a platform for us to celebrate academic life and research and share general updates about the University. Our audience focus is academic, prospective postgraduate and general interest. 

Instagram 

A student-centric channel, the focus of Instagram is to deliver information about the student experience and create a space to celebrate life at Leeds. 

TikTok

Our TikTok content is curated for both a prospective and current student audience and aims to feature interesting voices from across the University and celebrate life and stories at Leeds. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a professional environment to share University news and updates with an alumni and prospective postgraduate audience. 

Facebook

Our Facebook page is a space to celebrate life at Leeds, with a focus on visual content. Our audience focus is international students and those with a general interest in the University. 

Working With Us

How and what we can help with

You can work with the social media team to help produce content or submit ideas for the University’s central accounts listed in the overview section. Whether you are planning a campaign or have a great content idea for a single post, we would love to work with you to show our community what it’s like to work and study at the University.  

To inform the team of an upcoming campaign, fill out the Social media campaign request form. Please allow at least a 2 week lead time.

Audience and content considerations

When using social media, it is vital that you have clear goals and objectives to help you determine the audience and channels for your content. We recommend following the OASIS framework for complex campaigns that use at least a few channels and involve different stakeholders. Using the framework will help you plan a campaign, provide a clear set of actions, and consider the evaluation. 

Lead times

We recognise that social media is reactive by its nature and acting fast can lead to increased engagement and growth of the channels. However, social media campaigns often require careful and considerate planning alongside input from various stakeholders. 

Managing Your Own Account

Sometimes it can be more beneficial to dedicate your time and effort to develop a personal presence on social media. Should you choose to move on to another project or institution, you can take your account with you to your next role. Often it can be easier to develop an engaged audience when posting as an individual as content is authentic, personal and allows for a unique point of view. 

If you’re creating or maintaining a social media account as yourself, there are a few key things to bear in mind: 

  • Consider the boundaries between personal and professional use of platforms when associating your account with The University. It may be a personal account, but that does not mean it is not professional.  
  • Check the copyright and usage information around any graphics you intend to post. 
  • Regular posting can help you build and maintain an engaged audience, so you need to be prepared to dedicate time and resources to develop and grow your social media account.