Higher ed social media talks with Erika Boltz, Social Media Coordinator – UF Health

Erika Boltz, Social Media Coordinator at UF Health, is one of the 12 presenters of the 2019-2020 Higher Ed Social Media Conference.

In this 4-question interview, Erika tells us about higher ed social media in 2020, a favorite tool, 3 higher ed social media campaigns as well as strategy and measurement.

1) Where do you think higher ed social media is heading in 2020?

We’re finally heading in the right direction for social media accessibility, so that makes me feel great about the work I’ve been doing for the last two years. I think that social media and tech, in general, are going to continue to shift that way, especially as Gen Z comes into the workforce and they see this as a serious issue that needs to be addressed. I think social media is going to continue to evolve into more movement, like TikTok, but that presents accessibility issues, so it’s finding a balance between those two things. If you haven’t seen user LifeLaughterASL (a college student!) on TikTok, go follow her now!

2) What’s your favorite new tool for your social media work?

Since starting my new role at UF Health I have got full force into using Airtable. I love it. One of my favorite things about it is that I can tag every post by service line (hospital speak, I know), or department. Then, if someone comes to us and asks how many posts we did about them last semester we can easily pull that information by sorting by the tags. We also have parameters set up for character counts and all kinds of good stuff in there. Also, Airtable has a free version for all of you out there working on a shoestring.

3) What higher ed social media campaigns have recently caught your attention?

I have to start with the post that’s the nearest and dearest to my heart, from my alma mater and former employer, VCU. For April Fools day with my friend and former co-worker after years of lobbying, we teamed up and did a tall bike rental fleet. Tall bikes have a lot of history in Richmond, so this was really true gold.

Surprise! Inclusion is super important to me. This Instagram story from Dartmouth was really well done in regards to choosing names and personal pronouns. Something we should all be thinking about for our students as classes go back into session.

This TikTok post from UF is adorable (and if you’re not familiar #FloridaCheck is a BIG thing, hence then #GatorCheck). How can you not love anything with President Fuchs?

4) What are your strategic social media goals and how do you measure against these goals?

A big thing for me right now is trying to break through and increase engagement while working around all of the privacy laws that healthcare puts into place. It takes a lot more creativity in finding a way to show something without actually showing it, and without creating content that turns into “talking head” videos. We’re also doing a big overhaul on our news center working to optimize images for better engagement, which also runs into that same privacy issue.