Social media guide

Creating a new account

• Identify your goals, content coordinator and platform (Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)
• Notify our team by emailing socialmediateam@umassd.edu.
• University Marketing can assist in the launch of a new social media account but does not provide support in account management.
• Student clubs and organizations that are recognized by the university and registered with the Office of Student Affairs may create and manage social media accounts to promote their activities.
• Student club and organization social media accounts should use the UMass Dartmouth name or a variation of it, i.e.”UMassDartmouth” or “UMassD” in the account name or handle to be recognized by the University.
  • For Example: @umassd_students, @umassd_recretaion, @umassd_SAA

Account administrators

• All social media accounts officially recognized by UMass Dartmouth must have a UMass Dartmouth full-time faculty or staff member as an administrator at all times.
• Should a UMass Dartmouth employee administrator of an account leave the University for any reason or no longer be assigned an account administrator, it is that individual’s responsibility to designate another employee to be an account administrator prior to removing himself or herself from that role. University Marketing should be notified when a new administrator takes over.
• No personal email addresses should be used in the creation of a social media account. All accounts must be setup using a shared inbox setup by the University IT Department that can be accessed should an administrator leave the University.

Personal social media accounts

• UMass Dartmouth does not provide marketing support to faculty, staff, or student personal social media accounts.
• Personal social media accounts used to represent the UMass Dartmouth brand should reflect content guidelines mentioned above.

• Attract - What will my ideal follower find interesting, inspirational, or entertaining? Would they share this post?
• Educate - What questions are people already asking? How can my page solve a problem they have?
• Engage - Show you're an active community member by cross-promoting other content that is relevant to your audience. This can be UMass-related or from other external resources (news, education blogs, etc.)
• Advertise/Recruit - Posts that convert followers into taking an action (Attending events, next steps, deadlines, etc.).

• Do not include confidential information about the university, students, faculty, or staff. 
• Represent UMass Dartmouth by always using a professional tone. 
• Stay on topic, use common courtesy and be respectful of others. 
• UMass Dartmouth accounts are encouraged to positively engage with their audiences. We do not engage in online, public arguments. 
• Review content for grammatical and spelling errors. 
• Presenting your personal opinions on university social media platforms is prohibited. 
• You may not use the UMass Dartmouth name to promote any opinion, product, cause, or political candidate. 
• By posting content to any social media site, you agree that you own or otherwise control all rights to that content, that your use of the content is protected fair use, or that you have permission to post the content. 
• Although we do not intend to delete posts, UMass Dartmouth has the right to remove certain content. Including but not limited to, content that UMassD deems offensive, defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexual, threatening, a violation of intellectual property rights or privacy laws, or otherwise injurious or illegal. 
• If you see a post that you consider objectionable, please email socialmediateam@umassd.edu. 

• Submit a request by selecting "Promotion Options" a minimum of 10 days before content needs to be posted. 
• Clarify the audience you are trying to reach, timeline, purpose and goals of the content with specific detail. 
• Include any visual elements or links that are applicable to the social media post. 
• UMass Dartmouth’s Social Media team will make recommendations and approve messaging posted to official UMass Dartmouth accounts. 

A fan-favorite for our student community! When posting on Instagram, make sure to choose visually engaging photos, video clips or creative, branded designs to share information.

Set a goal of posting to your feed 2-3 times per week. You can post a range of 1-10 photos at a time, or consider creating an Instagram Reel! This type of content is prioritized in your user's feed meaning they are more likely to see a reel vs. a single photo/graphic post.

For posting live, in-the-moment content, IG stories is the way to go. Don't forget to tag campus or community partners so they can re-share your post!

Check out @umassd for inspiration. Plan ahead and make sure to find balance in your content so when users come across your page they see all your department has to offer.

Pro Tip: Use a sans serif font option when typing on your Instagram stories. Select blue, gold or match the color to your story to stay on brand.

Users like to scan posts quickly. The ideal length of a Facebook post is only 40-80 characters.

Include any relevant mentions, as long as the account is active and the names of the mentioned accounts aren’t so long as to be cumbersome.

Don't forget to include a relevant photo or video in each post, unless the link preview already pulls an image in.

Keep it short and sweet! Avoid using more than 3 mentions or hashtags in a single post. Always include a photo or link to a resource or article you so your viewers have a call-to-action. Tweets without a visual get drastically less engagement because they visually take up less space on the platform. Aim for 1-2 native retweets per day for an active content calendar.

Pro tip: When a Twitter handle is the beginning of a tweet, the tweet is hidden under ‘Tweets & replies’ on your profile. Because Twitter thinks it’s part of a conversation, the tweet will only be pushed to users who follow both your account and the account you’re mentioning.

Either incorporate the handle later in the tweet or put a period before the handle.

Example: .@UMassD students have contributed more than 100,000 hours of community service, valued at nearly $3 million. #ProudtobeUMassD

Canva is a free web-based tool that can help create graphics for social media, print and more. Make sure to download our Canva Guide to ensure your account meets our brand standards.

Get started with one of our templates:

General Content:
Social Media Profile Picture
Facebook Cover Photo

Instagram Stories:
- Event Option #1
- Event Option #2

Square (1080x1080) Feed Posts:
- Event Option