Social media is a powerful tool connecting Northern Kentucky University to its students, faculty, staff, alumni and community. Social media presents a significant opportunity to engage with NKU’s community in a meaningful way and to reinforce the NKU brand.
Here’s a short checklist to grow your social media presence:
Want to start a social media account? Already have one, but want to improve it? Get started by asking yourself the following questions:
Each social media channel has a unique audience. Here is a list of channels NKU currently uses and information about their respective audiences:
Social media is Northern Kentucky University’s voice to its students, faculty, staff, alumni and community. We use social media as a platform to tell the NKU’s story, and we will continue to develop each network as a go-to location for news and information.
Social media is an ongoing conversation with an external audience. Your voice should reflect who you are. Voice communicates personality but should still be professional. Remember that your social media account is representing NKU.
Follow these do's and don’ts for consistent messaging across platforms:
Accessibility is an important step in social media. At NKU, we are committed to creating an online environment where all people have an equal opportunity to consume and engage with Northern Kentucky University's social media content.
It’s important to be mindful of accessibility because we want everyone to be able to access our content and be able to understand our content easily. Before you post, make sure that your content is able to be viewed and understood by everyone in your audience by following the steps below!
The use of hashtags can help unify a campaign and also make your post more discoverable in search, connecting your content with other relevant social media posts. Avoid overuse of hashtags and always try to work them into your post copy if possible; otherwise, tag them onto the end of your post. Short and catchy hashtags perform best. Before implementing a hashtag, consider its potential lifespan and do a search across platforms to ensure it hasn’t been used widely. If you think your hashtag should be added to the list below, or if you’d like guidance on creating one, please email social@nku.edu.
Below are the most commonly used NKU hashtags:
You may receive questions from followers to which you do not have the answer. For example, a prospective student asking about admissions or a current student asking about parking. In those situations, it is advisable to refer the person to the correct department, social media account, or to nku.edu for information.
If you use social media, you will be criticized at some point. You will likely receive a negative comment or tweet. In this case, please abide by the NKU social media policy and seek guidance from NKU’s Marketing and Communications department on how to respond.
As a public university, NKU respects freedom of speech and has certain obligations under the First Amendment and related laws.
By general rule, NKU will not delete, edit or censor comments based on the followers viewpoint regarding topics they may not agree with. However, NKU will abide by terms and conditions of each platform and report comments or posts that go against the platform's standards.
Social media sites are third party sites and have terms of service and policies that are not governed by the Northern Kentucky University. These third party sites are not official NKU web sites and the third party’s website terms of service and policies apply. Services provided by us on third-party social networking services, communication services or media sharing services may be discontinued at any time without prior notice. The terms of service for the social media sites can be found below:
Emergency communications include any situation that impacts the safety and security of our campus. These situations are led by Safety and Emergency Management, with the official university social media channels following to alert the public.
In these types of situations, all other social media channels connected to NKU are requested to go dark and not create posts regarding the situation. The Safety and Emergency Management team will dispatch communications through Marketing & Communications supporting their Emergency Operating Plan. These messages will be released through the main NKU accounts on X and Facebook, where you can reshare as appropriate.
If you have any questions regarding NKU safety and emergency procedures, please contact Safety and Emergency Management.
