Social Media Guidelines

Muhlenberg College Social Media Guidelines

Responsible Parties:

Vice President of Communications & Marketing

Director of Communications

Assistant Director of Social Media & Marketing

Responsible Office: Office of Communications & Marketing

Contact:

Office of Communications & Marketing [email protected]

Assistant Director of Social Media & Marketing [email protected]

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The Muhlenberg College Social Media Guidelines outline the strategic goals, compliance standards, best practices and current procedures for managing social media accounts affiliated with Muhlenberg College. This summary highlights the key areas:

The goals of running a College social media account include recruiting, retention, amplifying campus messages/individuals and sharing relevant information using our strategic messaging framework.
Anyone maintaining an institutional social media account must abide by the guidelines within this document and remain compliant with College policies and federal law, including the College’s style guide, graphic identity program, general web accessibility guidelines and specific social media accessibility guidelines.
It is the responsibility of the staff or faculty member running an account to transfer ownership to a colleague or successor should they no longer be in their position. The Office of Communications and Marketing will not assume responsibility for the accounts.
New accounts must be created in conjunction with the Office of Communications by filling out the Communications Request Form and cannot be affiliated with student emails. All content created by students or student workers must be reviewed by a faculty or staff member before posting.
Two staff or faculty members from your office/department/team must have access to social media accounts, as well as the Office of Communications. Passwords should be updated regularly and Communications will verify passwords once a year.
Profile pictures will be provided by the Office of Communications and usernames should contain the full word “Muhlenberg” when possible.
All content posted should be relevant to Muhlenberg audiences and adhere to official College policies as well as the College style guide, graphic identity program, general web accessibility guidelines and specific social media accessibility guidelines.
Be cautious when tagging and sharing posts from accounts that are not affiliated with the College. Do not tag personal accounts of students or employees - if someone wishes to be credited for their work, write their name and title or graduation year.
Comments and DMs must be regularly monitored. Some issues may be better dealt with online, and comments may be removed when they are harmful or spam. Reach out to the Office of Communications for help dealing with comments and feedback when needed.
Use hashtags, localization and scheduling apps responsibly. Avoid filters, bias and profanity.
Any individual maintaining an account affiliated with Muhlenberg College is responsible for abiding by these rules.
Individuals posting content are encouraged to adopt the College’s policy and standards but fall outside the jurisdiction of these guidelines.

Goals of Muhlenberg College Social Media

The goals of Muhlenberg College social media are to:

Aid in recruiting and retention efforts using our strategic messaging framework to share news and stories
Drive admissions, philanthropy and other business objectives
Create an online resource to keep followers informed about campus news and events
Highlight Muhlenberg College individuals, stories and traditions
Engage with Muhlenberg College audiences, including prospective students and families, current students and families, faculty, staff, donors, alumni and the greater Lehigh Valley community

Compliance and Accessibility

Anyone maintaining an institutional social media account must abide by the guidelines within this document and remain compliant with College policies and federal law.

All Muhlenberg-affiliated accounts must comply with official institutional policies and should adhere to the College’s style guide, graphic identity program, general web accessibility guidelines and specific social media accessibility guidelines.
Social media accounts must be created in conjunction with the Office of Communications. All account holders must keep in contact and work with the Office and alert them to password changes or other major changes, such as the departure or addition of new administrators to existing accounts. This can be done via the Communications Request Form.
Departmental and team accounts must be monitored and updated regularly with the involvement of a staff or faculty member, ideally once a week and at minimum once a month. Depending on the platform, more frequent updates may be advised. All posts must be reviewed by a staff or faculty member before going live, even if it is primarily the job of student workers to create and schedule content.
Institutional social media accounts are property of Muhlenberg College. When an account holder is no longer employed by the College or moves into another position, it is their responsibility to transfer ownership to the next account holder.
In the event of a change in the faculty or staff member responsible for maintaining a department or division's social media accounts, the department or division will remain responsible for running and maintaining those accounts in the absence of that individual. The Office of Communications & Marketing will not assume responsibility for the accounts or create content.

Starting a New Account

All new accounts must be created in conjunction with the Office of Communications. To request a new account, set up a meeting with the Assistant Director of Social Media and Marketing via the Communications Request Form.

Platforms

Muhlenberg College departments, offices, teams and organizations are permitted to maintain a social media presence on the following platforms if there is a relevant demographic on the platform:
- Instagram
- Facebook
- Twitter
- LinkedIn
- Other accounts may be approved on an as-needed basis

Account Holder

Accounts cannot be associated with student emails. Ideally, department and team accounts should be associated with the department or team email. If this is not possible, the account must be tied to a staff or faculty member's email. Facebook and LinkedIn pages, which are tied to personal pages, must have a staff or faculty member and a staff member of the Office of Communications as primary administrators.

Passwords

Password Policy

The Office of Communications will maintain a centralized backup of passwords. Any time a password is changed the Office of Communications should be notified via the Service Request Form.
For Facebook and LinkedIn pages or accounts where it is not feasible to share the password, at least one member of the Office of Communications should be made an administrator on the page.
Communications will not log into or post any content to accounts they do not primarily maintain without notice. Once a year, the Communications team will check all passwords on file are accurate and all social media campus partners will be notified in advance.
Passwords should be changed regularly. Passwords should be changed before and after Instagram takeovers, when someone who previously had the password will no longer be associated with the account or at least once a year to maintain security.

Locked Out of Account Problem Solving

If an account owner is locked out of their account, they should first check with the Office of Communications to confirm the login information (username, email, password, etc.). If there is no information on file or the information is out of date, the account holder should reset the username/password natively on the platform and share the new login information with the relevant parties.
Do not request to create a new account when unable to log in to an old one. Some departments wishing to create a social media account may find there is an existing account tied to an old staff or faculty email or that the password is no longer on file with the Office of Communications. Instead of creating a new account, work with the Office of Information Technology and the Office of Communications to get access to the already existing one. Having duplicate accounts creates confusion for new and old followers alike. It creates a disorganized directory and harms search engine optimization. If the login info cannot be recovered internally, work with support from the social media platform itself to regain access or, in a worst-case scenario, to have the old account removed.

Best practices to prevent future lockouts:

Tie social media accounts to department emails when possible so a password reset can be done if necessary.
Never tie Muhlenberg accounts to student emails.
Make the Office of Communications aware of username or password changes.
Responsibly maintaining and handing off account information is part of maintaining a Muhlenberg-affiliated social media presence.

Avatar and Username

Campus partners that maintain accounts on multiple social media platforms should use the same avatar and, whenever possible, the same username on all platforms.

Avatar

The Office of Communications will provide a properly formatted avatar with your department’s name and the Muhlenberg logo. Departments and organizations that already have a College-approved logo are welcome to use that as the avatar.

Username

Usernames should include the full word “Muhlenberg.” If the full word cannot be used due to username character restrictions, use an abbreviation such as “muhl.”
Avoid dashes and underscores in usernames if possible.
Avoid using the abbreviation “berg” in usernames.
- Many other colleges and institutions use “berg” on social media. For example, @bergreslife and @bergadmission on Twitter represent Heidelberg University in Ohio. When tagging another department in a post, double-check the username and account to ensure it is a Muhlenberg account being tagged.

Content & Voice

Voice

The Muhlenberg voice on social media should be relatable, inclusive and professional. All content should adhere to official College policies and the College style guide, graphic identity program, general web accessibility guidelines and specific social media accessibility guidelines.

Content

An account’s focus should primarily be the Muhlenberg experience. Keep unrelated topics to a minimum: when scrolling back through your feed, nine out of ten posts should be directly about Muhlenberg, a link to the Muhlenberg website, a profile on a student or member of the team/department, etc. The staff or faculty member responsible for the account must review all content before it is posted, even if student workers primarily create and schedule content.
Content should ideally be optimized for each platform and accounts should have at least one post a week. For some platforms, more frequent updates are advised. Accounts that are not posting at least once a month should talk to the Office of Communications about finding alternate ways to circulate relevant information either via the primary College social media accounts or other means.
Appropriate content can include:
- Information about upcoming events and deadlines
- Links to stories, articles or departmental pages on the Muhlenberg website
- Live updates from events
- Student and faculty achievements
- Profiles on classes and programs happening in the department
- Recurring series that highlights some aspect of the department built around a theme or hashtag such as #ThrowbackThursday
- Resharing relevant posts/photos from the Muhlenberg community
- Posts about College observances

Working with Main Institutional Accounts to Share Your Content

Muhlenberg’s primary institutional social media accounts are among the College’s most visible marketing tools and most widely used by prospective students. As such, content posted to the main Muhlenberg College social media channels should always aim to answer the questions, "Why Muhlenberg?" "Why now?" and "Why me?" for prospective students and use our strategic messaging framework. It should reflect us and reflect our four messaging pillars.

Social Media Target Audience for Main Muhlenberg College Instances includes:
1. Prospective, traditional undergraduate students
2. Parents of prospective, traditional undergrads
3. Prospective GCE students
4. Alumni and donors
5. The general public

The Office of Communications & Marketing is here to help you promote all of the exciting events and activities happening on campus. If your social media content request is intended for one of the above audiences, there is a good chance we will be able to assist you with promotion. If your social content does not address one of the five audiences above, we can work collaboratively on possible alternative solutions, including a number of internal communications channels available.
- If you have an event or initiative you’d like to promote on @muhlenbergcollege channels, please utilize the Campus Calendar first. Then coordinate with the individual in your department or division responsible for social media to share it on the departmental/office/team account, tagging the Muhlenberg College account when possible.
- For additional amplification for events, registrations, etc., you can select the “Social media assistance” drop-down on the Communications Request Form to request your post be added to the Instagram story and “This Week @ ‘Berg” highlight.

College Observances

The primary institutional Muhlenberg College accounts will post about College observances including but not limited to federal holidays, observances that affect classes/office closures and major religious holidays. A calendar of upcoming observance posts will be made available to campus social media partners at least one month in advance. Muhlenberg accounts may re-share these posts from the primary accounts instead of making their own but are also permitted to create their own content if their target demographic has a vested interest in the observance.

Tagging

Interacting with other accounts on social media by tagging and resharing posts can be a great way to connect with other organizations and individuals, give a more well-rounded picture of the Muhlenberg College experience and spread content to a wider audience. However, any account a Muhlenberg account tags or links to becomes, by association, a part of Muhlenberg messaging—and particularly in the case of personal accounts, not every individual may wish to be tagged. Account holders are encouraged to tag fellow official Muhlenberg accounts to help community members find other College accounts to follow, but should be cautious about tagging non-institutional/personal accounts of individuals, even if they are associated with Muhlenberg.

Do not tag personal accounts of employees and students in content that they created as part of their paid/compensated work for the College. Instead, type the name of the student who created the piece and their class year if they wish to be credited as the creator or photographer.
Do not tag non-institutional/personal accounts of community members who may be in photos from an event, etc. as they may not wish to have their account/username made public.
Be thoughtful about who is in photos, and if an individual in a photo requests that it be removed, remove the photo from social media and any other database it may be discoverable from (such as Google Drive or Zenfolio).
Do not repost an image on Instagram from a non-institutional/personal account without asking permission first; comment on the original post asking for permission to reshare and, after permission is given, when reposting, give credit and tag the original poster’s account.
Before asking for permission or reposting a photo from an outside Instagram account, look through the account’s feed to ensure it is an account you are comfortable linking to.

Comments, Direct Messages and Responding to Feedback

Monitoring Comments and DMs

Comments and direct messages (DMs) sent to institutional pages must be regularly monitored as a routine part of maintaining the account. If DMs are not being actively monitored, an auto-response message must be set up stating this that includes an email users can reach out to in lieu of the social media inbox to share their comments and feedback.

Responding to Feedback

Some users take to social media to voice complaints, disagreement and disapproval. Different types of negative feedback require different responses, and many negative comments should not be responded to at all. Keep in mind that everything a department, team or organization posts on social media becomes a part of Muhlenberg’s brand representation. Do not hesitate to reach out to the Office of Communications if you receive negative feedback on social media and need assistance.

In situations where there is a straightforward customer service issue or question, account holders should acknowledge the comment as quickly as possible to let the user know the issue is being investigated.
Depending on the nature of the issue, it may be more appropriate to respond privately rather than publicly.
Institutional accounts should avoid confrontational exchanges on social media. With many types of negative feedback, the goal should be to understand what the post is trying to achieve and where it originates from, as well as if the user is a member of the Muhlenberg community or someone from the outside before deciding how to proceed.
Often issues that users bring up on social media are best dealt with off of social media in one-on-one, face-to-face conversations. If the user posting negative feedback is a member of the Muhlenberg community, look for a way to address the issue offline.

Removing Comments

Just because a comment is voicing disagreement or dissatisfaction with something does not necessarily mean it should be removed. However, the goal of comments and DMs on Muhlenberg's social media presence is to be an inclusive and safe space that fosters productive discussion, and comments that engage with our accounts in bad faith or intend to cause harm must be removed, especially if it can be confirmed the account leaving the comments does not have an affiliation with the Muhlenberg community.

Comments that should be removed include:
- Abusive or discriminatory comments that target an individual or group and are against our institutional policies. Please inform the Office of Communications immediately if an account receives a comment or DM attacking a member of the Muhlenberg community.
- Self-promotional or spam comments that have nothing to do with the topic of the post.
- Comments confirmed to be left by bots

Best Practices

Hashtags

Utilizing location tags and hashtags strategically to connect to a wider audience is a great growth strategy. Before using a hashtag or creating a campaign around a hashtag, account managers should research whether a term is currently active and, if so, the sentiment/direction of content the existing hashtag refers to.

Some teams or departments may have hashtags they commonly utilize. For example, the football team uses #DigInMules and Global Education uses #MuhlenbergAbroad. Including these hashtags when relevant is encouraged. Refer to the Muhlenberg Social Media Accessibility Guidelines for more information on the excessive use of hashtags.

Other frequently used hashtags include:
- #MuhlenbergCollege (not just #Muhlenberg)
- #Muhlenberg20xx (year, for posts referring to a certain graduating class or posts about a student graduating in that year)

Scheduling Content and Third-Party Apps

One of the most effective ways to manage social media is to schedule posts in advance. Take advantage of built-in scheduling tools or sign up for a third-party scheduling application. Meta business suite for Facebook has a robust scheduling feature that can be utilized, and third-party apps connect to most major networks and allow posts to be scheduled across them.

If multiple people post to an account, third-party apps are also a way to minimize the number of people with account passwords. Passwords to third-party apps should be changed frequently and in the same circumstances main account passwords would be.
Be aware of when posts are going live if scheduling them in advance. There will be times (like after a tragedy) it may not be appropriate to post, or that posting can come off as tone-deaf. Make sure to know how to pause posting and err on the side of caution when deciding to take a break.

Filters

To maintain a consistent, professional look, avoid using filters on photos. If photos are taken by freelancers or come from a source outside the College, we may not have permission to edit them in this way.

Bias

Avoid expressing a bias on political or controversial subjects that the College itself does not take an official stance on.

Language

Avoid curse words and obscenities.

Resources

Digital Communications Accessibility Policy - Coming Soon!
Visual Identity Guide
Style Guide
Departmental Account Directory
Instagram Story Takeover Guidelines - Coming Soon!
Additional Resources - Coming Soon!

Roles and Responsibilities

Any individual maintaining an account affiliated with Muhlenberg College is responsible for abiding by the Muhlenberg College Social Media and Social Media Accessibility Guidelines.

Not Covered by Policy

Individual content published by students, faculty, staff or non-College organizations that do not conduct College-related business are encouraged to adopt the College’s policy and standards but fall outside the jurisdiction of this policy.

Last Revised: 03/13/2024