Sharing on Social Media

Sharing in the sea of social media

Social media is a great way to share your work with diverse networks. This guide can help you understand best practices for sharing on social media and how to share your content with IARC communicators in the main IARC channels.

We recommend you share content ideas with IARC communicators before posting. Content can be reshared from personal or other group accounts, but it will have a larger reach if it originates from the IARC accounts. Please contact IARC communicators to reshare content or help generate it. IARC Comms uses Buffer to manage social media posts and prefers to schedule posts in advance. Please contact IARC staff for assistance in scheduling.

Types of social media content

Photos -- photos should be high quality and engaging with audiences. This can include photos that show an action or something beautiful or interesting. Instagram and Facebook are the most focused on sharing photos and users will engage at higher rates with good photos.
Videos -- videos are popular on all social media sites and can be longer (YouTube) or short (reels on Instagram, shorts on YouTube). Videos should show something interesting or beautiful and provide engaging content to the viewer.
- Live streams -- many platforms allow live streaming of events or discussions (Ex: Q&As with a scientist). Typically live streams require communicatons support. Please check with IARC communicators before engaging in a live stream.
Links -- links can be shared on all platforms, but are most native to Facebook and LinkedIn. Instagram does not allow for live linking in captions (ex: "link in bio.") Sometimes the link will generate an image to go with the post. If not, you should consider adding an image or graphic to go with the link. Types of links to share can include:
- Publications
- News articles

Social Media Tips

Use Tags -- tags allow for greater search and visibility on a platform and are used by including the # symbol before the text. Suggested UAF and IARC tags include:

- #NanookNation
- #ArcticScience
- #Climate
- #UAF

Don't reshare content (pictures/video/audio/written text) that you have not created yourself without permission. If resharing, give proper credit and tag groups or individuals who provided the content.

Examples:

- Don't: Picture that you did not take with a caption you wrote without crediting the photographer.
- Do: Reshare the picture from the photographer's page with a shared caption. Or share the picture from your account (with permission) and tag the original photographer in your post.
Do lean on sharing photos and videos. If no photos are available, consider creating a graphic in Canva. Avoid overly complex graphs that are difficult for a general audience to understand.
Do share content that will be engaging with a wide audience. Avoid jargon and overly technical terms. Spell out acronyms on first reference.
Do share natively to the platform. Each platform has a different audience and different expectations for content. Use social media sites and understand the shared language and norms of each one. When in doubt, consult with IARC Comms Team members to understand the different platforms.

Examples: LinkedIn is more focused on professional network development. Share updates on your work and written posts can be longer. Instagram is more focused on visuals -- both photos and reels (videos). Do not share long captions or links in the post caption.

Social Media Kits -- social media kits can be used for planning. Typically, these include shared visuals (graphics and/or photos) and text that is pre-written and can be shared with other networks for amplification. This is a good way to collaborate with the Comms Team member highlighting your work or for general planning. Example: Mountain Goat Avalanche Awareness Social Media Tool Kit