X

The email account associated with the X profile should use a group mailbox so that several members of the department or program can check rather than an employee's personal UHCL email address.

When setting up a X account, incorporate the university name such as UHCL Department name, UH-Clear Lake Department Name or University of Houston-Clear Lake Department Name.

Note that a username and a name are two separate items. For example, @uhclearlake is the username and UH-Clear Lake is the name. Usernames are character-limited.

Identify your department, office, or unit in the description and briefly state what information your followers will receive from your account. For example, UHCL Career Services X account states: “We offer online and in-person services to UHCL students/alumni and employers. Find & post jobs on Jobs4Hawks”

 Follow the official University of Houston-Clear Lake X account, @UHClearLake. If you'd like the UHCL account to share your post, include @UHClearLake in your post or tag the post with #UHCL. You may also email socialmedia@uhcl.edu with information you'd like shared by the university.

Aim for short sentences when posting. Keep posts within the 280-character limit. 

X is a microblogging site, and the nature of it requires frequent updates (multiple posts per day) to drive engagement and keep the university in your audience's newsfeed. For example, X accounts created to promote one-time events or for internal audiences are not appropriate for the microblogging format. 

Use links in your posts to drive followers to the UHCL website. Inbound links also improve your page rankings with some search engines. Shorten links using https://bitly.com/  to optimize your link for X's 280-character limit. 

A hashtag (denoted by “#”) is a keyword used to help categorize posts. Hashtags are an easy way to categorize your posts and can help people locate posts that reference a specific subject or event. Use #UHCL in postings to promote UHCL social media growth. If you are creating a specific hashtag for your office, department or event, use "UHCL" in the hashtag to promote the university.

Examples:

#UHCLOH (for UHCL Open House)
#UHCLCareerFair
#UHCLGRAD

Post relevant and appropriate content posted by another X user to disseminate university news, or relevant information for your audience. If you have questions about what should/should not be reposted email socialmedia@uhcl.edu.

Posts with photos are more likely to be clicked on than status updates without photos. Note that images must be a certain size to be shared on X. The standard is 1024 x 566 pixels. Photos/videos require a signed release form from students, faculty, staff or visitors who are visibly recognizable in the image. These rules apply to photographs intended for use in university publications of a marketing or promotional nature, as well as university web pages/social media sites, videos and other media. Photos of crowd scenes where no single person is the dominant feature are exempt from this requirement.

Use the "@" symbol to tag another X user in your posts. This is helpful in letting followers know what accounts they should follow and generates interest in other areas of the university.

Lists on X are a way for you to group similar accounts you follow together in one list so that information is easier to find and share. You may follow another user's list if it is publicly viewable. For example, the UHCL X account features a "UHCL X Accounts" list of all known campus accounts, and a "Resources" list for higher education news and organizations. Create lists specific to your area for industry news, resources, etc. 

Because X has a character limit, linking accounts to X can cause posts to be cut off in awkward places and do not include images, which limits information for followers and can cause confusion.