AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

Official Social Media Plan 2019

Official Press Contact

Nora Harren
AS Representation & Engagement Programs Director
(360) 650-4267
as.rep@wwu.edu

This guide serves as a list of suggestions and recommendations for how AS

REP should manage and regulate their social media platforms.

Best Practices:

● Facebook is a great platform to let your followers know about upcoming

events and fundraisers AS REP is planning. Post events to Facebook so
your followers can respond using Facebook’s platform (interested,
going, etc.); this method will allow them to get reminders of the event
from Facebook itself, which is less work for your staff to have to focus on
leading up to an event.
● Instagram is a platform to engage with your audience in a more casual,
personal way. Tag employees and locations in all applicable posts for a
more personal feel that will engage your audience more.
● Instagram is also one of the best platforms for reaching a younger
demographic, like Western students. 75% of all users are aged between
18-24, the average age range of most college students
(brandwatch.com).

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

 ● Instagram currently has 1 billion monthly users with 60% of those users
logging in daily. Instagram is the second most used social media app
after Facebook, and is owned by Facebook as well (brandwatch.com).
● Brand engagement on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, 54
times higher than Pinterest and 84 times higher than Twitter; this
means that Instagram should be the most focused on platform if your
team has a busy schedule (brandwatch.com).
● Posts with one hashtag or more have 12.6% more engagement - a list of
potential hashtags will be included further down in this guide
(brandwatch.com).
● Photos with faces in them get 38% more likes - posting photos of either
group events that have people in them or team member introduction
posts generate more likes and help establish a more personal
relationship between the brand and the audience as well
(omnicore.com).
● Instagram users engage more on weekdays with the top three being
Wednesdays, Thursdays and Tuesdays (expertvoice.com).
● In times of a crisis, cancel all scheduled posts for that day. It is important
to show that you care about your community whether it is an
international or local event, and this is best done by posting condolences
for the event.
● If a brand crisis occurs, it is best to be upfront, open and communicative
about the problem and what is being done to fix it.
● Post your own company photos, include photo credit or post photos with
permission; anything without credit or permission to use can result in
fees or legal action against the brand. Photos that are royalty free and
open to being reposted can be found on:
○ Flickr
○ Pixaby
○ iStock
○ Morguefile
○ ImageSource

General Rules of Engagement/Interaction on Social Media:

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

 ● Many Instagram users check their phones immediately when they wake
up, often scrolling until they reach the last post they had seen previously.
For this reason, posting early from 8-9 a.m. creates early morning
engagement.
● Monday mornings are often busier than most days, so less engagement
can be expected during this time (expertvoice.com).
● People also check their phones during midday around a lunch break, or
in early afternoon when the work or school day starts to slow down as
well (expertvoice.com).
● People are less likely to read long posts, so try to limit captions to the
requirements of Twitter’s cap at 140 characters. Twitter increased their
limit to 280 characters, but the formatting of captions on Instagram is
received best with 140 or less.

Who to Follow:

Following people and brands within your community or field is necessary to

stay updated and involved. It shows your audience that you care about the
issues you promote and that you’re aware of how these affect your local
area. Following other businesses can also give you ideas on collaborative
work or marketing strategies for the future.

- Western Washington University

- Our Western
- WWU Dining
- The Western Front
- AS Review
- Woods Coffee
- Indivisible Bellingham
- City of Bellingham
- Whatcom Community College
- Habitat for Humanity
- The RE Store
- The New York Times
- We Are WWU
- Various local sports teams
- WWU AS Recycling Center

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

 - WWU AS
- Klipsun Magazine
- The Planet
- Downtown Bellingham Partnership
- All AS REP employees, partners and sponsors

Proposed Hashtags:

● #mywesternvote - students share a story of their voting experience here

at Western
● #nonprofit - highlight local nonprofit organizations who are working
either with AS REP directly or are supporting voters’ rights or important
ballot issues
● #VoteEngageAdvocate - post about AS REP staff members or volunteers
working, this is will create a more personal feeling between you and your
audience
● #FollowFriday - promote other accounts that support the values of AS
REP. Bonus step to reach out to them before to see if they can feature AS
REP for double the engagement
● #WesternFrontWednesday or #WesternWednesday - The Western Front
is released on Wednesdays, and often contains important information
about Western faculty, students and policies. Reading and staying
updated with the paper would allow AS REP to get ahead of any potential
crises as well being one ofthe first AS accounts to post about updates,
crises or not.
● #MeetTheREP - AS REP staff members take turns running the account to
introduce themselves, adding again to that personal aspect
● #MyGovernment - post a feature on a local government employee that
was elected into office and their experience working in Bellingham.
● #LocalTuesday - support other brands or businesses in the area; these
do not have to necessarily be about AS REP’s values. Create a bigger
audience by networking with other companies so they can feature your
things on their social media platform or in their business itself
○ Example: #LocalTuesday with a post about babygreens, a plant
store and cafe downtown. Reach out to the owner to see if you can

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

 offer ballot cards in the store and anyone who picks one up gets a
discount on a plant purchase.

Potential Themes:

● Feature: Post a feature on an AS REP employee or volunteer, prominent

community member or government employee. Could use multiple of the
hashtags listed above, depending on who the person is.
● AS REP Events: Regularly post updates about events that AS REP are
hosting or a part of, and make sure someone is available to answer
questions about the event that might be asked in the comments section
of the post.
● Local Events: Stay updated on events going on in Bellingham (often
through the Downtown Bellingham Partnership or City of Bellingham
websites), and promote events that are in line with AS REP values and
goals.

Weekly Plan:

Building up a social media presence is important for small, nonprofit

businesses, especially when the target market is a college-aged audience.
With a business with less of social media presence, such as AS REP currently,
do not feel pressured to start by doing everything at once. You can ease into
a heavier engagement plan by picking 3 days a week to implement the
below plan (or a slightly less active version of that day’s plan).

One of the most important things to remember when running social media
for a company is to work towards creating a personal account that interacts
with the audience. This can be with surveys or polls, individual responses to
comments and tailored posts once you know more about the kind of content
that your audience responds well to.

Important Note: Always cover an event during the two weeks leading up to
it. Try to scatter event posts around your regular postings (or in place of). The
below plan assumes that you will be additionally posting about any events

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

going on at the time, or you are able to use these hashtags and notes to
make posts about the event.

Monday:
- Post between 11 a.m. - 5 p.m.
- Post an update from the weekend if you’ve participated in any events or
there’s any new updates your audience would want to be aware of
OR
- Post a recap of what the week will look like if you have events coming up.
This is especially useful during election season or preparing for an
upcoming legislative session.
OR
- Post a quote related to AS REP’s message if it’s slower week/weekend.
This is still engagement, but with less pressure if it’s a slow week with
less content.

Tuesday:
- Post at 7 a.m. or between 9 a.m. - 6 p.m.
- Post #LocalTuesday
- As included in the hashtag section above, use this hashtag to
feature a local business, either in collaboration with that business
(like the babygreens example) or to prepare for potential
collaboration the future by promoting the business anyway

Wednesday:
- Post at 7 a.m. or between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Post #WesternFrontWednesay or #WesternWednesday
- As included in the hashtag section above, use either of these
hashtags to feature local news, specifically from The Western
Front.

Thursday:
- Post at 7 a.m. or between 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Post #VoteEngageAdvocate to show the work that AS REP employees or
volunteers are doing that week. This is a good part of the week to do this
as it is during the middle of the week and you can recap a little bit of
what you have been working on.

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

Friday:
- Post at 7 a.m. or between 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
- Post #MeetTheREP
- This is a good day to do an account takeover as it gives the
individual the weekend to post about what they do, upcoming
events, etc.
- If the individual doesn’t do a complete weekend takeover, this is
also a personal post option for Friday, a day that people are
looking to unwind from the week with more casual post options.

Saturday:
- Post at 11 a.m.
- Post more casual hashtags like #SocialSaturday, #ShoutoutSaturday or
#SmallBusinessSaturday
- These posts are more lighthearted and should have less text than
the ones during the week. These are a good opportunity for
someone doing a takeover could show their weekend and what
they do, also giving the account a more personal feel.
- Without a takeover, these could also follow events going on in
Bellingham over the weekend.

Sunday:
- Post between 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
- #StartupSunday - post about how AS REP was originally started, use old
graphics, images and staff quotes if possible
- #SpotlightSunday - post about a volunteer or employee who is working
on a specific project or event planning and the work that they are doing

Example Posts:

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.

 - Update this image (found in Canva library) with current deadline for
voting and post for events. You can use the ballot graphic on other posts
if you want to create your own, or edit the information on this specific
one.
- Use hashtags #MyWesternVote, #BallotDay, #YourVoiceMatters, etc.
- Include in the caption what day the ballots are due and how students can
turn them in.

Sources:

“50 Daily Hashtags for Small Business Marketing.” ThriveHive, 10 May 2017,
https://thrivehive.com/39-daily-hashtags-for-small-business-marketing/

“Best Time to Post on Instagram [Updated 2019] | More Likes & Follows.”
ExpertVoice, 16 May 2019, www.expertvoice.com/the-best-times-to-post-on-
instagram/.

Fisher, Stephanie. “3 Great Examples of Crisis Management on Social Media.”

Inbound Marketing Agency, resources.mojomedialabs.com/blog/3-great-
examples-of-crisis-management-on-social-media.

AS REP. Vote. Engage. Advocate.