Social Media Guidelines and Standards
The guidelines and standards outlined here have been created to protect, promote, elevate and enhance the University of Delaware (UD) brand on social media platforms. As these platforms are in constant flux, these guidelines and standards will be updated periodically to reflect the ever-changing social media landscape.
Jump to section:
- Expectations of Those with Social Media Responsibilities
- Social Media Account Requests and Approvals
- Account Branding
- Account Ownership, Security and Continuity
- Content and Posting
- Accessibility
- Community Engagement
- Non-Approved and Non-Compliant Accounts
- Conduct on Personal Social Media Accounts
- Related Policies and Processes
Expectations of Those with Social Media Responsibilities
The UD Office of Communications and Marketing (OCM) requires that personnel who have social media responsibilities within their unit review the University’s policy on the Use of Digital and Multimedia, the University of Delaware’s Brand Guidelines and the University of Delaware’s Social Media Guidelines and Standards (this page).
OCM also strongly recommends the completion of ConnectingU training courses in the following areas:
- Digital Accessibility
- Secure UD and HIPAA Training
Social Media Account Requests and Approvals
To better strategically promote University messaging and priorities, consistently communicate with internal and external audiences, and protect the UD brand and image, the University has put in place specific processes and restrictions on the creation of new social media accounts.
All accounts representing UD—whether in name, as a program, group, entity, etc.—must receive final approval from OCM.
Before a social media account request is submitted to OCM, the requesting unit must first discuss the creation of a new social media account with the communications director of their respective area to determine: if the creation of a new account is strategic, sustainable, and within the scope of the parent area’s digital strategy.
In cases where the requesting unit does not fall under the purview of a specific communications director, these conversations will be had with OCM’s Digital Team, who will coordinate with the administrative supervisor of the requesting unit to ensure the accounts are strategic and sustainable.
As part of the social media account request process, we ask that units provide the following:
- The justification for why existing UD and unit channels cannot meet the unit’s communications needs
- The intended audiences for the requested channels
- A list of the channels the unit plans to use, including how the requested channel(s) will complement or enhance the unit’s strategic goals
- A content plan outlining 4 weeks' worth of content for each channel that is being requested
- A proposed list of users and administrators, detailing the unit’s posting approval and community management processes
- A proposed plan for how the unit intends to advertise the new channel(s) and build an audience
The final request will be submitted to OCM by a unit’s communications director, if applicable, or directly by the requesting unit, for review through the University of Delaware Social Media Account Request form.
If a new account is approved, the unit will need to provide the following details:
- Desired Account Handle (name)
- Description (requirements dependent on platform)
- Tagline (requirements dependent on platform)
- Website link
- Desired profile picture
- Contact information for administrator(s)
Unless otherwise discussed, OCM will create the approved account and share the final login credentials with both the requesting unit and communications team for the parent unit, if applicable.
Provisional Period
All approved accounts are subject to a 6-month provisional period, after which they will be reviewed by OCM to determine if the account is achieving the desired outcomes, being sustainably managed, and providing value to the University.
This review will assess the quality and performance of content, frequency and consistency of posts and account updates, follower growth, and overall engagement with the account.
The review will consist of a meeting via Zoom including the individual who is running the social media accounts and their supervisor.
The creation of a social media account may be denied for reasons including but not limited to:
- Misalignment with the University or a parent area’s marketing and communications strategy
- Proposing content duplicative of established UD channels
- A lack of personnel equipped to support the requested channels’ needs
In the case of an account denial, OCM will work with the unit, parent area and their respective communications and marketing team to implement a social media strategy using existing UD social media channels.
Account Branding
Every account representing UD in an official capacity must include “University of Delaware,” “UD” or “Blue Hens” in its username or, depending on character restrictions, in its tagline or description.
UDelaware is the social media username trademarked for the University of Delaware.
For avatars and thumbnails, UD's primary social media accounts use official University logos and marks; all secondary accounts will use an avatar created by OCM at the end of the account approval process.
If a photo is used for a unit’s avatar, it must suit the topic of the account and UD must own the rights to the photo.
Once official avatars are established, they do not change unless required due to branding changes. Cover images may be changed to reflect seasons, initiatives or curated calls to action, but should adhere to the current dimensions of the platform.
A regularly updated list of image sizes for social media channels can be found on the Hootsuite blog.
In addition to previously stated requirements in usernames, “University of Delaware” must be included in the about information or description section of your unit’s social media profile.
Please be sure to also include links to your unit’s approved UD website and provide both an up-to-date contact email and phone number, if applicable.
Account Ownership, Security and Continuity
With the continued risks of cyberattacks, account hacking, and the loss of account access, the following social media account ownership, security, and continuity guidelines have been established to help mitigate avoidable incidents of account compromise.
Account Contacts
Please refrain from using individual email accounts or phone numbers for a unit’s social media account(s) where possible. Using a unit email address—socialmedia@udel.edu for example–and phone number ensures that, if the main person managing the account leaves for any reason, the account can still be accessed and reset. Personal email addresses and phone numbers should never be used as the contact information for a social media account representing a UD unit.
UD social media accounts must be overseen by non-student, full-time UD personnel. Except for extremely limited circumstances, third-party (external to UD) management of social media channels is against UD policy and not allowed.
We suggest that all units establish page roles for all members who will be accessing the social media account. Some social media platforms, like Facebook or Linkedin, and social media management tools, like Hootsuite, have predetermined user or page roles that can be used to control who has the power to perform certain tasks or access specific information for an account.
If you have questions about establishing account roles, contact the OCM Digital Team.
For the unit’s records, keep an updated list of all personnel who have access to the social media accounts at all times. This list should show which personnel have access and detail their role for each account.
In addition to developing account roles, it is important to develop a continuity plan, establish levels of review, and determine who has top-level approval authority.
A continuity plan will help with succession when people who have access to the account(s) leave the unit. Consider who will take over the account when the main operator leaves or how responsibilities get transferred during times of transition. Put this plan in writing and share it with the appropriate members of your team, your area’s communications and leadership teams, and OCM.
In content planning and posting, it is helpful to develop a system for reviewing posts to ensure quality and accuracy. These levels of review will also be helpful when approaching and responding to comments and messages on your account. Social media management platforms like Hootsuite, the platform administered by OCM, allow for the creation of approval workflows.
Additionally, determine who has final approval authority in case of the need to respond to emergencies or other sensitive matters via social media.
Student Social Media Managers
Student staff members and interns are allowed to create content for social media accounts but must be supervised by a full-time professional staff member and all content must be reviewed and approved before being posted to UD social media channels.
It is recommended that any personnel who may be assisting with the management of social media accounts for your unit sign a statement of confidentiality agreement.
Passwords are the first line of defense in protecting social media accounts. In many cases, account administrators have been using the same passwords far longer than they should, and many are too simple.
Passwords should be changed regularly, at the end of each semester or when someone who has access to an account leaves UD.
Passwords should conform to the same standards established by UD Information Technologies for UDelNet passwords:
Must be 12 to 30 characters in length.
Must not consist of a single word or name.
Must contain at least three of the following:
An uppercase letter
A lowercase letter
A number
A special character, including punctuation marks and symbols (dependent on the platform).
Should not be an obvious University-related phrase (e.g., "BlueHens2023").
For more information on developing secure passwords, review the Secure UD strong passwords best practices.
Content and Posting
Before developing and selecting content to use on your social media channels, please familiarize yourself with the University’s brand standards and style guides.
Posting Guidelines
When posting to an approved UD social media account, please adhere to the following posting guidelines:
Use proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Review the UD Editorial Style Guide for assistance with style and the use of inclusive language.
Do not use vulgar language or profanity.
Do not share information that is confidential, proprietary, or not public.
Do not plagiarize or steal visual content—this includes screenshots. When sharing content from another creator, be sure to obtain permission in advance of use and always credit the source.
Visual Content
As a best practice, strive to use only high-quality photo, video, and design content on your unit’s social media account(s). Avoid the use of screenshots and text-heavy graphics. The account reflects the University of Delaware, and as such the content should be finely curated and of the highest quality, putting forth the best possible image of UD.
If you plan to capture photos and videos for use on your unit’s account, please review UD’s video and photo-capturing best practices.
If you need additional help or insights on capturing high-quality photos, creating videos, or designing quality visual content, contact the communications team for your unit or parent area, or schedule a consultation with OCM.
Each social media platform has its preferred specifications for the sizing and formatting of visual content. For help understanding these specifications, please refer to Hootsuite’s Social Media Image Sizes for All Networks and Complete Guide to Social Media Video Specs documentation.
To keep accounts in good standing and to avoid legal risk on behalf of the University, it is important to avoid posting videos containing music that UD is not licensed to use. Doing this can result in a content strike against the account, which can lead to account restrictions and, in extreme cases, legal action against UD.
Please contact OCM for assistance in finding approved music tracks for your videos.
Limit the amount of text that may appear on graphics design to be used on social media and other digital outlets. Most platforms provide ample room to type out the necessary contextual information needed to accompany the visuals you are looking to share. This will provide users with a more accessible and overall better visual experience.
While QR codes can help drive traffic to websites on print materials, we strongly advise against their use in graphics presented on social media. Most social media platforms allow for the sharing of clickable links directly to web content in some way, eliminating the need to include QR codes.
Accessibility
All University staff have a responsibility to make the University’s digital content accessible to everyone. Through conscientious design and collaboration, together we can ensure that our students, faculty, staff and other community members are welcomed at our institution and equipped to succeed.
All University of Delaware digital content must comply with the following digital accessibility standards:
Learn more about the University’s commitment to digital accessibility and the standards we hold our content to by reviewing the UD Digital Accessibility website.
We recognize that there are limitations for how accessible your content can be depending on the platform and some platforms are more accessible than others. Below are general accessibility best practices for social media.
General Accessibility Guidelines
Have your unit’s contact information listed or linked to on your unit’s social media account page on each platform.
Make your content available through multiple channels so that users can access your content on the platform that will give them the best experience.
Keep it simple—avoid using more than three hashtags, abbreviations, or acronyms in your posts—the more straightforward the content the better for everyone.
Images on social media are effective for conveying visual information. For the information to still be useful to someone who cannot see the image, it is necessary to explain the content as completely as possible. This can be done using alternative text (alt text).
Your alt text should describe the image so that the content and the function of the image is obvious.
Your alt text should be succinct. Use as few words as possible to accurately describe your images. Try to stick to under 240 characters unless the image requires a more in-depth explanation.
Do not repeat the same content from the web page in the alt text of the image.
Do not use the phrases "image of..." or "graphic of..." to describe the image excluding cases where the exact type of image is important for context.
More information on alt text can be found on the UD Digital Accessibility website.
All hashtags should be written in Pascal Case, sometimes referred to as Camel Case, with the first letter of each word capitalized. This will allow screen readers to properly read the hashtags.
To avoid causing additional issues with screen readers, it is recommended that you avoid adding hashtags in the middle of a sentence. Hashtags should be included at the end of a caption. If a block of hashtags is being used, it is recommended that they be added in a second comment.
Any videos you create and share should be captioned and any audio should have a full transcript.
Good captions are not just a transcript of what is said in the video. It is also important to describe sounds, particularly sounds for which there is no visual equivalent (e.g., off-screen noises like laughter from a crowd). Tone of voice is also important to note (e.g., jokingly, exclamation, sarcasm). It is helpful to describe the background music as well as that can change how the textual information is received.
For video, it is recommended to include a link to the full transcript in the description of the video.
Audio should be shared with a link to the full transcript.
Although it is recommended to create captions and transcripts at the time of video or audio creation, some social media platforms like YouTube and Facebook offer automatic captioning for videos. Automatic captioning is helpful and can speed up the process of making your multimedia accessible, but you should review and edit the captions created to ensure the accuracy of the content.
Platform-Specific Accessibility Resources
To better meet University accessibility requirements on social media, please familiarize yourself with the various accessibility features and technologies available on each platform:
A regularly updated list of tips for creating accessible social media content and updates to platform accessibility features and technologies can be found on Hootesuite’s blog.
Community Engagement
Social media by its nature allows members of the community to share ideas, thoughts, and concerns. While these interactions usually will be positive, sometimes the comments and interactions community members have with your account may be negative or even inappropriate. In most cases, refrain from deleting these comments.
For negative comments, assess if it is possible to respond to the poster in a way that would alleviate the issue they are having and, if possible, take the conversation off social media.
In cases where inappropriate comments are made on posts, first, assess if they fall into the category of unprotected speech. Types of speech that fall into this category include:
True threats
Blackmail
Defamation
Obscenity
Child pornography
Fighting words
Solicitations to commit a crime
Incitement of imminent lawless action
Perjury
Plagiarism
If the content in question falls into one of these categories, report the content using the tools provided by the platform it is posted on. This action will usually result in the content automatically being hidden depending on the platform.
If a post or message contains a direct threat of violence against an individual or group, take a screenshot of the material, hide it from other followers of your page, and report the post/message to the University of Delaware Police Department (UDPD) for investigation. Make sure you do not delete these messages or posts in case they are needed for investigation.
For post spammers, those who copy and paste the same message on various posts, some social media platforms will automatically detect this behavior and hide or delete this content for you; however, if they miss these posts, report these posts as spam using the platform’s native tools.
Where possible, set the tone for the unit’s social media account(s) with a statement of use. This statement should reflect the unit’s overall approach and let your audience know what kind of content and feedback is acceptable. This statement will serve as a guide for account administrators when determining how to respond to feedback and what user content should be removed, where applicable. Make sure all administrators understand the policy and are comfortable using it.
Example: We want you to share information, ideas, and opinions on this page, but we reserve the right to remove posts containing profanity, personal attacks, commercial promotions, political campaign materials, irrelevant information, or posts otherwise deemed to be inappropriate. The comments posted by followers of this page reflect the opinions of the individual poster and do not reflect the views of the University of Delaware.
Assessment
Assess the unit’s account activity at regular intervals and consider creating a regular report to track account insights and analytics. Some insights and analytics that may be worth focusing on include:
The net change in followers
The number of impressions the account has and/or the account’s total reach
The number of engagements (likes/reactions, comments, shares, etc.) on posts
The most popular posts
The least popular posts
Any surprising occurrences of note on the account
The assessment can be a helpful tool when reviewing what content was effective for the account(s) and how to better plan content and use social media in the future.
If you have more questions about assessing the performance of your account(s), please consult with the OCM Digital Team.
NON-APPROVED AND NON-COMPLIANT ACCOUNTS
To ensure that accounts representing UD units are within brand guidelines, and to avoid potential legal risk, communications directors and OCM will continuously review existing social media accounts.
Accounts created without receiving prior approval from communications directors and/or OCM, or that are otherwise non-compliant with University branding and/or request procedures, may be removed according to the University’s Use of Digital and Multimedia policy.
Based on the results of a review by communications directors and OCM, these accounts may either be offered the opportunity to make adjustments to move toward compliance and approval, or they may be permanently decommissioned.
REPORTING ACCOUNTS
If you encounter a non-approved or non-compliant account that you wish to report, please contact the communications director responsible for the unit as well as the OCM Digital Team, providing relevant details needed to review and assess the account.
Conduct on Personal Social Media Accounts
Faculty, staff, and students should be aware of how they identify and present themselves to the public via their own social media accounts as they may be seen as de facto University of Delaware authorities.
If you distribute or comment on information related to UD via personal accounts, it is important to clarify whether you are doing so in an official capacity or as a private individual. Make it clear that your comments represent your viewpoints and not those of the University or its administrators.
Keep in mind that your social media conduct may be copied or distributed by others long after you post it. You may be held liable for published information or find that it is used against you in an employment situation.
Faculty and staff should also follow all applicable University policies, including but not limited to those addressing student and patient privacy, when conducting activities on personal social media accounts.
While UD faculty, staff and students are encouraged to engage with any University social media content they desire, there is no requirement to do so.