Bilingualism and social media at #uOttawa

uOttawa's bilingual Twitter account

Social media is about conversation. As a bilingual institution, the University of Ottawa is facing a challenge that few other postsecondary institutions face: How do we sustain a natural conversation that resonates with both French- and English-speaking audiences?

It was a challenge that the University’s Social Media Working Group eagerly took up when it was formed in the fall of 2010. Led by the Web Communications director and supported by Web 2.0 operators from various services and faculties, the group agreed upon the following:

University of Ottawa accounts should be engaging and collaborative.
A “one channel, two languages” approach is best and most reflective of the unique environment we have at the University.

Putting this “one channel, two languages” idea into practice, however, has proven challenging. All social networks have their own content rules and limits, which may change frequently. A bilingual approach that works for, say, Facebook, doesn’t necessarily work for Pinterest and Twitter. So, a few bilingual accounts were set up for test purposes.

After a year, we’ve discovered that “one channel, two languages” is a winner. It doesn’t isolate our two languages; in fact, it raises the profile of French.

Bilingualism is one of the pillars of the University’s Destination 20/20 strategic plan, and we hope that consolidating our social media accounts—previously separated based on language—will help foster a bilingual environment in our online social networks.

We will also be working with staff involved in social media across campus to see how we can ease the transition to maintaining single, bilingual accounts.

Today, we will take a step forward in this consolidation process by informing the followers of our main French-language Twitter account (@uOttawaEnDirect) that they should begin following the account @uOttawaDirect (formerly the English-language account @uOttawaNow). This bilingual account will help us serve the community more effectively without separating the audience based on language preference.

We welcome any feedback or questions in the comments section. Also, the Web Communications team will be writing on additional web and social media topics here on the Gazette site and across our social media channels.

Nichole McGill, Director of Web Communications

Adrian Ebsary, Online Community Specialist