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Social media

Get off to a good start on social media

Social media is one of the most effective ways to communicate when you want to reach students, staff, alumnus/alumna and external media. Social media can measurably improve awareness of SDU, but before you create a profile on SDU's social media, consider the points on this page.

Considerations before creating a social media channel

  • If you want to be present on social media, there are many ways to do it. You can be there:

    • as a person
    • as a project
    • as a unit at the university.

    Running a good social media channel is demanding. The competition for users' attention is fierce, and running a healthy social media channel that has a chance to fulfil its purpose requires hard work and persistent effort. At best, social media can help you and SDU achieve strategically important goals. At worst, they can be detrimental to SDU's brand and a waste of your time.

    Therefore, consider your goals and resources carefully before creating a social media channel.

  • If your need is short-term, such as for a project or campaign, it's likely that an existing channel can fulfil the need as well or better than a newly created channel without followers can.

    Explore SDU's existing channels or contact your social media manager for guidance.

    Find your social media manager

  • Often, administrators of existing channels are happy for input and help running a channel and you can benefit from the audience and credibility that has already been built on an existing channel.

    However, be critical about whether the channel fits your message.

  • If your presence is personalised and professional with you as the sender, HR's social media courses for researchers may be relevant.

    If the conclusion is that you need a device channel, create a short channel strategy and send it to the relevant social media manager, which you can find under contact information at the bottom of the page. They can help you with support and sparring to get the channel off to a good start.

Do you need a channel? Then you also need a strategy

As a minimum, your channel strategy should include:

  • Purpose: What do you want to achieve?
  • Target audience: Who are you communicating to?
  • Content and frequency: What are you sharing and how often?
  • Tone of voice: How do you communicate?
  • Organisation: Who is in charge of operations?
  • Crisis management: How do you handle problems?
  • Success criteria: How do you measure success?

When you go through the points of a channel strategy, it's normal to realise that running such a channel is not realistic. That's OK, there are other great ways to get your message out there. Feel free to involve your social media manager in your considerations.

Know SDU's social media strategy

SDU's social media strategy will ensure that we communicate effectively and maintain our brand across platforms because we all work towards the same goal.

Strategy for social media.

Security and debate


More administrators

If you have more people managing a channel, you should coordinate style and tone of voice. It will be confusing for your audience if they see many different personal styles and genres from your channel.

Consistency creates recognisability and credibility.

Can I moderate the debate?

Social media is all about interaction, so answer questions and comments in a timely manner.

It's no good sharing something on your channel and then ignoring the questions and comments that come in. Check regularly for questions and comments and respond to your users in a timely manner.

You should not delete either positive or negative comments, questions and dialogues. The University of Southern Denmark supports open and free dialogue and friendly debate.

Negative comments should not be deleted unless they are:

  • Offensive, abusive or threatening
  • Vulgar or illegal

Such comments may be deleted and/or reported to the police.

Privacy policy and confidentiality

You also need to use common sense when engaging on social media. Rules and legislation also apply on social media.

You need to pay special attention to:

  • Personal information: Move sensitive conversations to approved systems such as SPOC.
  • Case management: Avoid getting involved in specific cases on social media.
  • Third-party actors: If you work with external parties, a data processing agreement must be signed. Contact SDU's lawyers at sdu.persondata@sdu.dk.

This means that if you get personal information about students on social media, you need to be aware of what you do with it. You cannot prevent people from posting them, but you must have them moved to SDU's closed, authorised systems.

If people ask about something on social media that relates to a personal matter, do not respond, but refer them to SDU's closed channels, such as SPOC.

If you work with a third party such as an agency or a consultant on campaigns, content, etc. where they need limited access to SDU's systems, a data processing agreement must be drawn up. Contact the lawyers at SDU RIO at persondata@sdu.dk.

Comply with terms of service

Every social media platform has its own content 'terms of service' rules that you must adhere to. This can include what content you can and cannot publish or sponsor.

Be aware of requirements for:

  • Political content
  • Use of logos and emojis
  • Amount of text on images

Questions for social media?

Contact the SoMe manager at your faculty , if you need help with social media.


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