UNB Marketing Blog
Tips and tricks from your university marketers

Get your content posted on UNB’s social media accounts

Author: Gina Alward

Posted on Jul 31, 2019

Category: Marketing Services


We want to promote your content.

In fact, we CRAVE having more content to share on our social media accounts.

If you have something happening in your faculty or unit – whether it’s an event, workshop, new initiative or super cool fact that isn’t getting enough attention – we want to hear about it.

Because while it may seem like our marketing team is all-knowing and all-powerful (yes, we hear the whispers!), some things will inevitably fly under our radar between two lively campuses and dozens of busy faculties.

So how can you ensure your content gets posted to social media?

Keep us in the loop

The first thing you need to do is send us an email at socialmedia@unb.ca and let us know what’s going on!

Ideally, you should send us all necessary information at least 2 weeks in advance so we can schedule your post and develop an effective social media plan. But the sooner you let us know what’s happening, the better, particularly for any events you need help promoting in advance.

Your email should outline the basics of what’s happening. If you want to promote a particular event, like Sustainability's Earth Hour Stargazing for example, make sure to include the 5W’s:

Who is invited? (i.e. which campus?)
What will be happening?
When is it taking place?
Where is it taking place?
Why is it happening?/Why should people attend?

We need to know as much information about this event as possible in order to promote it more effectively to our audiences. So if there’s a URL for your event that we can link to for more information (such as a website or Facebook event), make sure to include it in your email as well.

Related: What are strategic objectives and why do I need them?

Send us original photos

We don’t share anything on our social media accounts without having a compelling image or video to go with it. Why? Because the dreaded Facebook Algorithm prioritizes this content in the newsfeed, meaning it will reach more people.

Whenever you share content with us, always include an original, horizontal, high-quality image. While posters can be a great way to advertise in print, they do not perform well on social media, and we will not be able to use them on our accounts.

But remember: Any images you share with us must be your own. If a photo belongs to someone else, we need to know who owns it and whether we have their permission to use it on social media. That means no photos taken from Google or elsewhere without getting explicit permission first (which can be a real pain to track down!).

If you don’t have any original photos to share, our design team may be able to create shareables to promote on social media, such as this one for the Earth Hour Stargazing:

This is another reason why it’s important to let us know about your event ASAP. It gives us time to come up with fun and creative ways to share your content in a more engaging way. So if you need graphic design help, make sure to reach out at least a month in advance.

Make sure the content is UNB-friendly

Finally, it’s important to remember that not all content is appropriate for UNB’s social media accounts.

At the end of the day, everything we do needs to be consistent with UNB’s brand, including all the stories and events we share on social media.

The most helpful way to discern whether your content is something we can promote on our channels is to ask yourself:

  • Is this a UNB-sponsored event?
  • Does this involve the entire UNB community (students, faculty, staff, etc.) or is this targeted towards a specific group?
  • Does this touch on UNB pride, history or nostalgia?
  • Is this focused in UNB research, innovation or entrepreneurship?

If you’re still unsure after you go through this checklist, send us your content anyway! We will be more than happy to help you figure it out.

- Gina Alward, Digital Marketing Officer

Send us your content

Do you have something to promote on the UNB corporate, UNB Fredericton or UNB Saint John social media accounts? Send us an email at socialmedia@unb.ca!