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Owning a Social Media Account: Getting Started

UC Irvine Health employees may be interested in engaging in social media for work-related purposes or they may be asked by leadership to participate in support of UC Irvine Health’s organizational objectives. This guide covers how UC Irvine Health entities and departments can start and maintain an official social media presence on primary social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It also reviews best practices for successful implementation.

1. Identify goals
   What do you hope to accomplish, who do you wish to engage and what content do you want to share? Next, choose a social media tool that best meets these goals. Are short messages on Twitter a good fit? Do you have announcements and photos that would be best shared on a Facebook page? Or do you mostly want to share videos on YouTube?
   Tip: Don’t try to do it all. Focus on building a strong presence on one site at a time.



2. Secure approval of the department head or director
   Engagement on behalf of UC Irvine Health, including the establishment of social media identities representing any UC Irvine Health department or organization, must be approved and coordinated through the department chair or the director of your program, institute or center.



3. Identify your social media administrators
   Determine the primary individuals who are responsible for maintaining and monitoring the proposed social media site. Each administrator must be familiar with and agree to comply with UC Irvine Health Social Media Participation Guidelines, as well as the HIPAA Social Networking Employee Policy.



4. Create an identity
   Create a profile name that clearly and concisely identifies your department, program, center, organization or group and its UC Irvine Health affiliation. Tip: Always try to use “UC Irvine” instead of “UCI,” in accordance with the University of California, Irvine Nomenclature. Good example: “UC Irvine Medical Center” Bad example: “UCI Med Cntr.”



5. Notify Marketing & Communications
   When you create social media identities that are a part of UC Irvine Healthcare or UC Irvine School of Medicine, please notify Marketing & Communications. This is required to ensure accountability as well as cross-promotion.



6. Build out and experiment
   Each social media platform has its own standards, styles and expectations. Take the time to learn how these communities work. Build out the profile on the social media site and spend time populating it for a few weeks. Share these efforts within your work group and ask for feedback. Tip: Have the site up and running well before you plan to launch it so that your administrator can become comfortable with maintaining the site.



7. Launch
   Announce your social media presence.
   Tip: Send emails to existing contacts and add easy-to-find links to your social media presence on the website, mention others or include links in your social media posts.

Important: Be sure to provide a link to the UC Irvine Health Social Media Participation Guidelines in the information or bio area of your social media profile.