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Office of Public Relations, Marketing & Info Services

University Social Media Guidelines

 

With the advent of an increasingly significant role played by social media as a means of communication, Texas A&M International University has set up various standards and communication guidelines for designated social media managers. Each manager is assigned to create and administer their respective social media accounts. These official individuals maintain accounts to encourage interactive dialogue and communication in an environment of mutual respect.  

Social media managers should adhere to the following social media standards: 

Responsibilities 

  • Social media managers must contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing, and Information Services (PRMIS) before creating an official social media site(s). Proper notification ensures placement in TAMIU's official online Social Media Directory.
  • Only full-time staff members can primarily manage all social media platforms. You’ll need at least two full-time staff members on Facebook to serve as page administrators. On Twitter and Instagram, you’ll need to share your login information with at least two full-time staff members so that they can access the account, if necessary. Sharing your login information should be done safely and securely. 
  • Social media channels will be monitored as noted in the Standard Administrative Policy. Posts that do not follow University and System guidelines will not be elevated to the University’s main social channels and may be reviewed for further action.  
  • Social media sites must comply with the copyright and intellectual property rights of others and the University. 
  • Social media managers are responsible for making consistent and relevant postings on their social media channels. 
  • Always strive to remain accurate. Whenever possible, include a link in your post to a relevant University website. Always link to a TAMIU news source as opposed to an outside source. Before posting, we ask you to review the content for grammatical and spelling errors. Grammarly is your friend.
  • Social media content should remain accessible. We’ve included additional insight regarding accessibility in this Guide.  

Conduct 

  • Maintaining the highest standards of conduct expected of all University faculty and staff is essential. Dialogue on social media should be respectful, helpful, and informative. Conversations on social media should refrain from being hostile or disrespectful. 
  • Social media sites must protect confidential information. Refrain from posting any restricted or sensitive information about the University and its students, staff, faculty, or alumni - this includes private Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)-protected student information.
  • Social media sites must remain secure. Failure to do so may lead to hacking of your account, which can also lead to posting inappropriate or illegal material on your behalf. If you’re posting on behalf of your department or office’s social media accounts, use different passwords for each account. 
  • Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn offer two-step authentication, such as a phone number verification or an authentication app like Duo Mobile. When accessing University-affiliated social media accounts, these features should be enabled. Websites only require this second factor on an unrecognized device or browser. 
  • Social media accounts must utilize a University email account accessible by various individuals within your College, Department, or Office. This will ensure the successful transfer of account access if you are no longer responsible for updating social media accounts affiliated with your College, Department, or Office. Passwords to social media accounts should be safely shared with individuals who may be handling the social media account. At least two full-time University employees must act as administrators on any University-affiliated Facebook page. Under no circumstances should part-time or student employees have use, access or privileges.
  • In accordance with state agency rules, social media managers should not endorse any product, vendor, or site unless permitted. 
  • In addition to vetting and approval through the Office of Marketing and Public Relations, individuals looking to create social media content that promotes job listings at the University should first notify the Office of Human Resources prior to posting content on any social media network.

  • Social media accounts should be set up as Business accounts, not Personal accounts.
  • When setting up your social account, we also ask that you conform to a consistent naming standard throughout your social media channels. Social media channels should always begin their accounts with ‘txamiu’ – for instance, @txamiucoas is the username for both the College of Arts and Sciences on Facebook and Instagram accounts. 
  • Facebook administrator roles should be monitored and vetted. Employees no longer affiliated with the University or those whose responsibilities no longer include social media management should be promptly removed. Role updates should be shared with socialmedia@tamiu.edu for directory updates.
  • Monitor your social media accounts regularly and consistently. This includes reviewing the comment section of your social media posts. All viewpoints are welcome, and comments will not be removed based on the viewpoints expressed, provided the comments otherwise comply with this policy.

Texas A&M International University’s affiliated social media accounts may review and remove comments on posts based on the following criteria. 

Comments must be directly related to the topic of the original post. Unrelated comments may be removed.  

Comments in any of the below categories may also be removed:

  • Encourage illegal activity.
  • Violate the intellectual property rights of any other party, such as copyright or trademark infringement.
  • Compromise the safety or security of Texas A&M International University community members, the public, or public systems.
  • Contain obscenities.
  • Contain sexually or racially harassing content that is severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive.
  • Present a grave and imminent threat.
  • Incite imminent lawless action.
  • Contain fighting words or true threats.
  • Be fraudulent.
  • Defame.
  • Promote a business or commercial transaction.
  • Promote a candidate campaigning for election.
  • Spam comments or comments that appear to have been generated by “social bots.” 

Comments belonging to these categories should be monitored and shared with the Office of Marketing and Public Relations at prmis@tamiu.edu prior to their removal in the event of further evaluation and notice to public authorities. 

  • Each University College, Office, or Department will receive a branded profile photo. Unless otherwise mentioned, use this branded profile photo consistently throughout your social media accounts. 
  • When creating artwork for placement on social media, we ask that you proceed with content creation through Marq https://www.marq.com. Marq is the University’s web-based desktop publishing software application that creates printed and digital content. The user-friendly platform grants a Marq user instant access to all University brands/logos, fonts, and photos. Digital and print materials go through an approval process that streamlines and shortens production times. Once approved, it’s easy to download and add to your social media. You can also create approved content and hold for future use.
  • All social media-based artwork for the University should be branded and include the University’s full name or acronym at the top of all social media artwork.  
  • Posted artwork should refrain from an overabundance of text to remain accessible.
  • Social media artwork should follow the University’s official branding guidelines and identity toolkit . This includes but is not limited to using the University’s official colors and fonts. Posts themselves should refrain from using more than three different font styles. Individuals should also refrain from using burnt orange, green, or a maroon and gold combination on social media posts.

  • When possible, provide alternative text (alt text) descriptions on images. These text descriptions will be read aloud to individuals using screen readers to access social media content. If there is text in your image that is small, low-contrast, or low-resolution, low-vision users who do not use screen readers may not be able to read it. 
  • Apply Camel Case formatting to your hashtags to make them more accessible. The capitalized letters help screen readers identify the separate words, allowing them to be read aloud correctly.
  • Limit your hashtags – make sure they’re Camel Cased at the end of your post status: #LikeThis 
  • Place your emojis at the end of your written content and not throughout the text or in place of bullet points. This practice helps you avoid clarity or meta description issues when an assistive device reads. 
  • Avoid posting flattened creative on social media as it is no longer recognizable as readable text by assistive devices. For instance, social media channels will take a screenshot of an email or a statement and place that screenshot on social – this is discouraged. 
  • Avoid posting flyers meant for print – not only are they inaccessible, they can also be ineffective during social media campaigns. 
  • Do not use tabs or spaces to manipulate formatting on written content. 
  • Video content should be captioned. We recommend videos be uploaded to the University’s official YouTube channel before posting so that these videos can be captioned and transcribed. Videos will also be reviewed to ensure they’re following branding and identity guidelines and avoiding the use of flashing lights or strobe effects. 
  • Live captioning should be enabled for any live videos or streams. 
  • Your Instagram and Facebook Stories should be captioned. A caption button is available on Stories – please review the captions before sharing the video.  

Please get in touch with the Office of Public Relations, Marketing, and Information Services before purchasing an advertised post on social media. Digital marketing consultations are available on a case-to-case basis.  

Currently, advertising is solely available through Meta and Google.  

Individuals should consider the following questions before a digital marketing consultation:

  • (Audience Targeting) Who is my audience?
  • (Budget and Billing) What is my budget?
  • (Creative)  What do I want my ad to say? 
  • (Call-to-Action) Do I have a website where individuals can learn more about the event/initiative I’m advertising? 
    • An accessible website is vital to positive post performance. A call-to-action item is key – this is often seen in paid social media as a Learn More button. Without giving social media users an action to complete, they may just scroll past your content without engaging with your post.
  • (Cycle) What’s my timeline – i.e., start and end date? 

Please note that any artwork created for social media advertising must be vetted and approved by our Office. Artwork should also include a Model Release Form. 

  • Scheduling your content is one way to maintain and build a social media following. By placing fresh, thoughtful content at least three times a week, you can ensure that the social media algorithms are optimized to help your content reach a larger number of new and returning followers. This also helps ensure a positive distribution score. Content can be scheduled through the Creator Studio for Facebook and Instagram. Scheduling tweets is also available directly through Twitter. 
  • Your analytics are key in determining the kind of content you’ll want to produce consistently. Analytics information is found in the Insights tab of the Meta Business Suite for Facebook and Instagram. An analytics tab is also available on Twitter. Explore your analytics to gain a better understanding of the way your content works and performs. 
  • Your social media post links can use a Rebranded go.tamiu.edu link – using this link adds validity to your post as the link appears affiliated with the University, as opposed to using a third-party URL shortener like TinyURL or bitly. Reach out to  socialmedia@tamiu.edu for a rebranded link.
  • Most individuals interacting with your content are doing so through a mobile device. With this in mind:
  • The average timespan spent by individuals viewing your post is 1.7 seconds (on mobile) and 2.5 seconds (on desktop). – Data and insights as measured and collected through Meta
    • Every post should include an image, social media artwork, or a captioned video. Do not use blurry or copywritten images. 
      • Avoid the use of QR codes on social media posts.
      • Whenever possible, posts should include a call-to-action to a website URL, a form, or an individual contact for more information on your event/initiative.
      • Refrain from using links in your written Instagram content as they are unclickable. Instead, place them in the bio section of your account or in a Instagram Story.
      • Tagging other accounts within a collaborative post is a great way to highlight ongoing connections between campus offices, departments, Colleges, and community partners. Tag other accounts as appropriate, and avoid over-tagging, as it can be interpreted as spam.
      • Follow other University-affiliated social media accounts or public, institution accounts and refrain from solely following personal accounts on social media.
      • Social Media Advising Committee members meet monthly to discuss ongoing campaigns, best practices, and trending topics in social media. Members are encouraged to collaborate and look for cross-promotional social media posting opportunities to help facilitate growth and increase post reach.  
      • Currently, the University maintains and promotes social media presences solely on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
      • On December 7, 2022, Governor Greg Abbott issued an order  to all Texas state agencies banning the use of the social media platform TikTok on State networks and State-issued devices.
        • TAMIU has complied with the Governor’s order and continues to be committed to the protection and security of all information resources used by members of the University community: students, faculty and staff.
        • While this ban does not affect personal devices, individuals will  not be able to access TikTok’s services on campus using TAMIU’s network.
        • As a result of this order, TikTok’s services will be blocked on all TAMIU-owned devices, including laptops, tablets, desktops, and other internet-connected devices. Additionally, software will systematically remove the TikTok app from TAMIU-owned devices.

University-affiliated social media accounts looking to organically promote an existing, approved job listing on Workday, should follow these steps when posting:

  • Posts should be crafted on Marq and follow the approved template in place. Artwork using this crafted template must be used to make relevant job-related social media posts. Posts not created on Marq should be emailed to prmis@tamiu.edu for review and approval.
  • Social media artwork should solely include a job title and R#. The post status must include a link to https://go.tamiu.edu/jobs
  • Posts should always refer any pertinent, job-related questions to the Office of Human Resources for additional clarification and guidance.
  • Job listings will not be posted on the University’s main social media channels. However, a weekly posting on the University’s official LinkedIn account will be made using approved social media posts.
  • The following post statuses should be used on social media when posting about job listings:
  • Social media posts should include the following tagline at the end of each post status:
    • TAMIU is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Veterans/Disability Employer. All TAMIU positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent on the results of the criminal history investigation.

For clarification and additional information, contact the PRMIS Office at 326.2180 or email  socialmedia@tamiu.edu .   

Additional Resources:

Organic Content to Drive Social Media: https://sproutsocial.com/insights/organic-social-content/  

Social Media in Higher Ed – Hootsuite Blog: https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-in-higher-education/

Accessible Social: https://www.accessible-social.com/