Social media teams are structured differently across higher education institutions. Notice the word institution encompasses colleges, universities, and technical colleges. However, a common thread across many HESM teams is a lack of understanding of the complexity of social media work, often leaving teams without the proper resources to work effectively. One possible cause is that most people have the social media end-user experience, thus not being privy to all the work HESM involves. As a result, many feel overworked and stretched to their limit.
The Florida International University Strategic Communications leadership team wants to learn how other universities’ HESM teams are structured. For this, I’ve prepared a ten-question survey. In addition, I’ve included questions to understand how social media content responsibilities are handled.
Revealing HESM Structures
A combination of categorical and metric questions is aimed to reveal the following: How does enrollment impact the number of social media staff? Are there significant differences in staffing between private and public universities of similar sizes? What are typical team structures? (directors, managers, specialists, interns). How often is the responsibility of social media staff to produce content? Is there dedicated staff solely for content creation? How frequently do social media staff handle other types of work (updating websites, graphic design, email blasts, etc.)? What channels are universities participating in, and how often? What kinds of social media presences are being managed? And finally, what are the most common work settings; hybrid, remote, in-person?
Expected Outcomes
The results will help strategic communications departments make better-informed decisions regarding HESM team needs, posting frequencies, and content production responsibilities and resources. By making the results public, I hope to give HESM workers a better view of the industry landscape and how they compare to peer institutions.
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