Social Media
The Department of English and Comparative Literature’s social media platforms are a space for promoting ECL related events, spotlighting the achievements of students, faculty, and alumni, and showcasing research.
All platforms are run by the Digital Literacy and Communications (DLC) Lab’s graduate student social media team.
Please direct all email inquiries or questions to dlc_lab@unc.edu.
Our Platforms
The DLC Social Media team is here to maximize the reach and extend the impact of ECL work in our surrounding communities. The DLC manages all departmental social media platforms: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, which together reach a viewership of approximately 3,500 people. The social media team composes, designs, and publishes each post with a careful eye towards the affordances and conventions of these platforms.
The team will work with the content you provide to develop the best social media strategy for maximizing engagement and reaching the target demographic; whether they be prospective students, university administrators, or scholarly peers. The content creation process works best if you come with a clear vision of what you hope to achieve with your content.
Submit Social Media Content!
To be featured on departmental platforms, you must complete the social media request form in advance of the date you would like promotion to begin (see details below).
Please Note: The social media calendar is subject to change based on time-sensitive promotional requests and departmental priorities. Additionally The DLC reserves the right to adjust graphics and captions in accordance with account branding and voice. See FAQ for more information.
According to social media policies and best practices, ECL social media publishes 4 to 5 posts per week (weekdays only) on all platforms. We aim to keep viewers engaged by publishing a variety of content and balancing event promotions with non-promotional posts. We publish the following types of posts:
Events
- Bulletin Board Event = Submit form ONE week in advance. Event will be advertised once in a round-up style post. Round-up style posts are published every Monday.
- Large-Scale Event (Individual Post) = Submit form TWO weeks in advance. Your event will be advertised in the form of one individually published promotional post the week before your event and in the form of a “social media story” post the day before.
- Large-Scale Event (Campaign Posts): Submit form one MONTH in advance. Your event will be advertised in the form of several posts and Instagram/Facebook stories leading up to the start date of your event. Significant promotional materials must be submitted with the form.
Announcements & Other Content
Important announcements spotlighting the achievements of students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Please see the Q&A section for more information and examples.
DEI Recommendations
The DEI Committee & DLC Lab collaborative social media campaign highlights diversity and raises awareness with posts on readings and other multimedia texts that encourages meaningful engagement with (inter)national observances. Fill out this form to submit a recommendation for such posts.
ECL Social Media FAQ
Acceptable visuals might include: photos, illustrations, GIFs, short videos, flyers.
TIP: The best way to capture a viewer’s attention is with a bright, high-quality photograph that relates to your content. However, if a flyer is the preferred visual, strive to keep text minimal and easy to read and be sure to include all information on the flyer in the caption. If you have any questions about potential marketing materials, contact the DLC Lab. We would be happy to answer questions and consult with you over your design. Please view previous posts on our social media platforms for examples.
PLEASE NOTE: The DLC Lab reserves the right to change, alter, or edit submitted visuals to align with industry standards and departmental branding guidelines.
It is important to consider the significance of visual representation in your image selection. When choosing an image, please ask yourself:
- “Who is represented here?”
- “What is being represented?”
- “How does this image reflect the department and my work?”
We also love to receive a wide range of content that helps our audiences get to know the department better! Examples of other content might include:
- announcements about fellowship awards
- book publications
- performances
- course offerings
- new faculty introductions
- ongoing projects in the public and digital humanities
- ‘behind-the-scenes’ content (e.g., archival research, classroom work, etc.)
- student and/or alumni features
Any large-scale event must meet at least two of the following criteria:
- Funded by the ECL department
- Hosted by an organization with 2 or fewer major events a semester
- Planned for an audience of greater than 50 people
- Related to the mission of the ECL Department in some outstanding way
A campaign is a series of 2-4 unique posts that work to fully articulate the importance of your event. We must receive the request form one month in advance. In order to run an engaging, accurate, and in-depth campaign, we request that you submit the following:
- 2-4 high quality visuals (e.g. related photos, fliers, headshots, graphics, behind-the-scenes photos, photos from previous years, illustrations, videos, etc.)
- Suggested sources for caption content (e.g. pre-written captions, related interviews, podcasts, videos, articles, behind the scenes content, reviews, excerpts, and/or press coverage).
By combining event advertisements into a regularly-scheduled, collective post we ensure that our viewers are not overwhelmed by daily promotional content; this optimizes viewer engagement, reduces the likelihood of disengagement with our content, and allows us to give event promotions the attention they deserve.
While the social media team has no control over each platform’s frequently-changing algorithms, there are some tangible steps you can take to ensure that your post has a better chance of being prioritized by the algorithm.
Lead Time – The best way to ensure your content gets seen is to submit it through our social media request form at least 1 week in advance. The sooner you can let us know about your social media requests, the better as our calendar is often full several weeks in advance.
Follow Us – Make it a regular practice to follow, like, save, share, and message ECL social media posts; regular engagement with ECL social media accounts plays an important role in ensuring that followers see our posts in their feeds.
Tag Us – We also encourage you to tag us in your posts so we can re-share your content whenever possible. Depending on timing, tagging us does not guarantee a re-share, but it is appreciated nonetheless.
