Working With Students on Social Media

Students can be invaluable to providing imagery of student life, identifying campus trends, and understanding culture within each social channel. However, while working with a student will provide beneficial content and insights, facilitating a student’s work with social media is an important process in the overall success of your social media channels. 

A Few Items to Consider in Addition to Your Own Interviewing and Hiring Practices

  • Students are hired to work on social media at various capacities. Some departments hire students to work directly within your group's social media, publishing content. Others hire students as content creators whose primary role is to take photographs and videos without direct access to your group's social media. 

  • It is up to you to determine how much access the student hire has to your social media channels.  

  • Please keep in mind that a student's social media work will always require supervision.  

  • All posts made on behalf of your social media accounts are a direct representation of your unit and the broader UMass Amherst institution. 

Items to Review and Acknowledge with Your Student Hire  

By working on official UMass social media channels, students: 

  • Consent to the use of content they create for the university, both during their tenure on the social media team and after

  • Understand that they must only post content they created for the university or content that they are otherwise permitted to post

  • Understand that the administrative team under which they work holds the right to not publish content or to remove published content

  • Ensure the security of your social media accounts by never sharing login information

  • Are not expected to be perfect but should be willing to learn and take guidance. This is an opportunity for personal and professional growth.  

Supervisors should review the university's social media guidelines and best practices with the student hire.

Expectations:

  • A commitment of __ hours per week, __ of which will be based in-office

  • A mutual understanding of the types of work and skill set you’re looking for

  • We recommend meeting and staying in regular touch with your student hire(s). 

  • If the student(s) are publishing directly to social media, there should be an approval process for staff to approve drafts of social media posts.