Using social media

Sharing campaign content on your institution’s social media channels brings it to life at the local scale and reaches as many students as possible.

We’ll provide you with ready-to-use materials: visuals, copy (captions), recommended platforms, and more. All you have to do is hit publish!

That said, once the campaign is live, you may receive messages from students asking about testing, condom use, reactions, or requests for support.

That’s why it’s important to review community management best practices before going live.
We provide you with as much information as possible, but feel free to adapt it to your needs and resources!

Community management best practices

Use the campaign as an opportunity to connect with the student community

The campaign is the ideal opportunity for you to answer questions and provide personalized information to any student who reaches out with questions about screening or STBBIs.

However, since talking about sexuality on social media can be controversial, you may receive some reactions on your posts. Here are our community management best practices.

Monitor your social media accounts regularly

It’s important to answer all questions asked of you as much as possible. To do so, we recommend checking your social media accounts frequently when sharing campaign content. This is the key to avoiding any issues!

You don't need to spend hours on it.
The most important thing is to be consistent: 10–15 minutes a day, or every other day, is ideal to avoid leaving students without answers for too long.

Use approachable and inclusive language

Best practices recommend using inclusive language so that everyone feels seen. We also recommend never making assumptions about a person's sexual orientation, gender identity, or genitalia.

Adapt your tone

Students have varying levels of knowledge about sexual health, so it’s important to use accessible and appropriate language (e.g., avoid using overly scientific terms). We also recommend an accessible and nonjudgmental tone.

Reply to private messages

Start by saying hello and including the person’s name (to personalise the interaction and ensure that they feel heard):

1. Use a positive, caring, open, and nonjudgmental tone. We want the person to feel welcome and that they have a safe space to open up.
2. Understand the person's stance (e.g., “We understand how you’re feeling, we hear what you’re saying, your point of view is important to us”).
3. Making mistakes happens to everyone! If you realize that you misunderstood what the person shared with you, or if you think you’ve given them incorrect or inappropriate information or advice, don't panic: You can apologize and ask them to clarify their request (e.g., “We just noticed that the screening times we listed are incorrect, our bad! Here are the updated times: …”).
4. Make recommendations tailored to the person's needs or requests.
5. Thank them for taking the time to write to you and encourage them to reach out if they have any further questions.
6. Use this as an opportunity to provide additional or relevant information based on the person's situation and redirect them to the Oh yesss website where appropriate.

Respond to public comments

Whenever possible, respond to all comments. Comments create a public exchange with students and spark discussion (the more comments there are, the more engagement you get, and the more visibility the content receives). Comments are also a space for collective learning—a secondary but effective way to share information.

It’s important to reply quickly to avoid escalations between users or appearing detached or uninterested in the situation. Again, no need to spend hours on it; what matters is consistency (checking in at least once a day if possible). If a comment describes a negative experience or touches on sensitive topics, take action and invite the person to send you a private message (e.g., “Thanks for taking the time to share your experience. Feel free to message us privately if you’d like to talk about it.”

Delete comments if you notice:

1. Incitement to violence and/or criminal acts against a person, group, or organization
2. Hate speech or messages encouraging hatred based on sexual orientation, gender identity, age, religious beliefs, or minority status(some platforms let you set filters to automatically hide comments containing certain words)
3. Offensive language (consider creating an internal list of terms considered offensive to guide moderation)
4. Comments containing suspicious or dangerous links
5. Any content that harms an individual, damages their reputation, or targets a group or organization in a discriminatory way
6. Disclosure of personal information such as phone numbers, email addresses, or other sensitive data.