Social Media Guidelines

Account Creation

When setting up a social media account to represent a Lakehead University unit, account managers are strongly encouraged to consider the following:

1. Fill out Social Media Worksheet and submit to Communications, Marketing and Web Development.
2. Create a name
   1. To avoid confusion and to optimize your discoverability across search engine results, include ‘Lakehead’ as a keyword across your handle, account name, account bio, etc. Find our Naming Guidelines in our Social Media Toolkit.
3. Set up a profile
4. Profile imagery
   1. Visual appeal and brand unity are important considerations for your social channel set-up. Find Lakehead-branded social media icons for your channel(s) in our Social Media Toolkit.
5. Define your goals
   1. It is important to have structured and clear goals when launching social channels. You have to define whether you are working to raise awareness (impressions), generate audience activity (engagement), or establish an online portal for the audience’s information, education or a combination of both.
6. Frequency of posts
   1. To maintain a social presence once a channel is established, by engaging with audiences and generating unique content beyond re-tweets and re-sharing articles. An inactive or a stagnant social media account can damage a brand as much as not having an account. For example: Facebook (2 to 4 posts per week), Twitter (daily), Instagram (3 to 5 posts per week), LinkedIn (2 to 3 posts per week), etc.

Posting and Commenting Online

Conversations are a two-way street – The goal is to become part of the community conversation. This can be through blogging, commenting, contributing ideas, voting on content, posting/responding to questions, or tweeting, including re-tweets. When you start contributing, remember to share the “link love:” when you see something interesting and relevant, link to it. This will do the community a service and will also generate links back to the community.

Appropriate faculty and staff interaction with students – As a digital citizen, model the behaviour you expect to see online from your students. Maintain a formal, courteous and professional tone in all communications with students to ensure that professional boundaries with students are maintained. Alert students to appropriate online behaviour and the proper use of comments and images.

Know your audience – Your audience is the centre of the focus, not you. Understand what they care about, why they are reading what you are writing, and what their interests are. The more you know about your audience, the better you can connect with them.

Transparency – Be honest and forthright about your identity and your official relationship with the University. When you identify yourself as a member of the Lakehead University community (student, faculty, staff), be clear that the views expressed are yours and not those of the institution. Remember, what you say publicly on social media reflects your own personal brand and, by association, the brand of the University. Be cognizant of separating your own opinions and keeping them separate from the professional account you administer.

Be interesting – There is no point in contributing if the community doesn’t find it interesting and useful. The upside is that if you are contributing about industry best practices, feature details, or future enhancements and you know what you are talking about, these are very interesting topics to the community. Being interesting also comes from bringing your personality to the forefront. Contributors that use their own voice and let their self-expression shine through are the best contributors.

Remember that quality matters – The devil is in the details, so use your spell-checker and review your work. If you are a contributor, ask someone who is seasoned to review your post and provide feedback. If you find you’ve made a mistake, be up front about it and correct it quickly and transparently by leaving a note about what was changed.

Think before you post – Before you post anything, whether it is to a personal account or an official channel, think about how it will be perceived. With the real-time web there is no undo button, so imagine what you are about to post is plastered on a billboard. Imagine your employer or kids seeing it and ask yourself if they would be okay with it. Also, recognize that you are legally responsible for any content you post and you may be subject to liability if your posts are found defamatory, harassing, or in violation of any other applicable law.

Be timely in responding – Effective social media consists of timely interactions as much as it does the content being shared. Wherever possible, provide a response to an inquiry, comment, or suggestion and do so in a timely manner.

Only the President speaks on behalf of Lakehead University – Be clear that any posts, comments, or responses you make are your own or of the unit you are representing. Only the President of Lakehead speaks on behalf of the University at large.

Response Guide

When and how do I respond? It's one of the most common questions we receive. We've put together some tips on when and how to respond, as well as a Social Media Response Tool diagram (PDF) to help you navigate challenging situations. 

Responding to positive comments

If you have something constructive or valuable to contribute to a discussion about Lakehead University, do so following the general response considerations outlined above.

Responding to negative comments

When to consider a response:

“Misguided”: When the post or comment has its facts wrong. If you wish to correct misinformation, do so in a constructive manner, providing evidence or web links whenever possible.

“Unhappy customer”: Someone who is unhappy with something related to the University. If you’re able to rectify the negative experience that the person is complaining about, doing so can be to everyone’s benefit.

“Reasoned discussion”: When a comment is a well-written piece of constructive criticism. The issues raised may be important enough to warrant a response, but do so in such a tone that avoids a harsh or prolonged debate.

When to avoid responding:

“Troll”: Posts that are senselessly aggressive, angry or harsh. These comments are trying to bait an argument, and readers generally know not to take them seriously. You shouldn’t either.

“Rager”: Rants that don’t mention specific concerns to respond to. People often go online to vent, so unless you can offer a solution to the problem, its best to consider these comments, but not respond to them.

“Social solution”: When others in the Lakehead community (or elsewhere) have sufficiently responded to the concern. Sometimes our community members are better spokespeople than we are, because they have more credibility with their friends and online network.

Emergency Response

The very nature of social media makes it an immediate communications tool with our audiences in times of crisis.

An emergency can be different than a crisis and can be different than a moment that requires positive public relations. In the event of a campus-wide emergency or crisis, Lakehead University social media accounts will support the Lakehead University’s communication policy.

In the event of an emergency like a snow storm, or loss of power, you can use your social media accounts to support messaging on the University homepage.

In the event of potential public relations issue, seek direction on how to manage and control messaging on your social media accounts. In such cases contact chiefofstaff@lakeheadu.ca.