Social Media Guidelines

College employees who are considering the launch of a new social media channel to represent Bryn Mawr College should consider the following questions before getting started. Please see the Account Requirements section for further details before you get started

• Is there an existing social media presence that already fulfills your purpose? Not every department or office needs its own account, and sometimes, having one can duplicate pre-existing efforts and send mixed signals to viewers. Consider collaborating with an existing account to share your message.
• Who is your audience? What platform(s) will best serve your needs?
• What will you be posting? Do you have enough content to maintain a consistent posting schedule, or would another platform better serve your needs (e.g., email for event announcements)?
• Who will run the account? Managing an effective social media account requires a substantial time commitment. Do you have the resources to post, monitor, and engage with others on all social media platforms?

• Make it clear to your audience that you are associated with the College by including “brynmawr” or “bmc” in your handle
• Use your account’s bio to clearly state its mission and affiliation with the College.
• Tie all accounts to departmental email addresses (e.g., communications@brynmawr.edu) rather than personal emails to ensure continued access in case of any personnel changes.
• A member of the Bryn Mawr College faculty or staff must be responsible for the account. Student workers may be hired to execute updates, but their work must be supervised by a College employee responsible for posts' content.
• All sub-accounts must back up their log-in and administrator information with College Communications. Any time you update this information, please update it with us as well. Call Helen Christ, our Social Media Specialist, at x5232 to share these details confidentially.
• An administrator from each sub-account must attend social media training with the Communications Office before creating a new account. Training will be offered on a rolling basis. If an administrator of an account does not attend one of these trainings, they will not be considered an official account and will neither be included in the Social Media Directory nor will their posts be elevated on any official College platforms.

• Official sub-accounts for the College must not share the personal opinions of account administrators. Raising issues to stimulate discussion is fine, but do not take a position unless it is consistent with a position officially enunciated by the College. Keep in mind that you are acting on behalf of the College.
• Be respectful. Because social media encourages conversation, disagreements are inevitable. Always keep comments appropriate and polite.
• Remember that everything online is public and can “live” forever. Whatever you post on a social media site immediately becomes public information and can be circulated beyond the original site, even after you have deleted it.
• If you make a mistake, be sure to correct it promptly. Mistakes or misinformation are inevitable (e.g. the start time or location of an event you’ve promoted may change). Send a correction as soon as possible and note that it’s a correction. Include an apology if appropriate.

Unfortunately, negativity is a part of social media. In posting on any platform, you open yourself up to complaints and criticism. By responding respectfully, you can show that you are open to engaging with your audience and want to promote an environment that values others’ opinions. In some cases, negativity may be best dealt with by simply leaving it be and focusing your efforts on promoting positive results elsewhere. If a negative interaction with a post goes beyond the normal bounds of what is appropriate, it may be necessary to remove a comment. In the case of any serious cases of negativity or if you’re unsure of how to respond, contact College Communications immediately.

All Bryn Mawr College social media accounts reserve the right to remove content of comments that:

• are off-topic, trolling, or spam
• are profane, violent, or obscene
• include blatant profanity, racist, sexist, discriminatory, or derogatory content
• include first and last names, locations, or other personal information
• encourage or support discrimination
• advocate illegal activity
• are misleading or contain falsehoods and/or inaccurate information
• incite threats, violence, harassment, or personal attacks toward specific individuals or groups
• are vendor, commercial, or political promotions that Bryn Mawr College does not officially sanction

Bryn Mawr College welcomes the full participation of all individuals in all aspects of campus life, including on social media. Account managers must ensure that the content they post is accessible. This includes 

Formatting text: 

• Use Sans Serif fonts point 11 or higher.  
• Use plain language guidelines to write your post.
• Use emojis sparingly.
• Do not use emoticons or kaomojis and avoid special characters.
• Avoid using underlining or italics. 
• Use the list feature to create lists rather than manually writing them. 
  • Use bulleted list for items in an unspecified order and numbered list for items in a specified order.
• Make sure text passes the WCAG color contrast standards by using a color contrast testing tool.
• Use Camel/Title Case, or capitalize each word, in hashtags (e.g. #BrynMawrCollege, not #brynmawrcollege).

Including Video: 

• Add captions to all videos where there is speech, voiceovers, or lyrics. 
  • Make sure captions are accurate.
• For video, verbally describe meaningful actions and non-auditory information in videos. 
  • For videos that contain text, make sure the text is read aloud in the video. 
• Provide a transcript alongside videos.
• Avoid filming with a shaky or unsteady camera or making fast motions with a camera 

Including Images: 

• Make sure any image can be magnified to 200% without getting blurry or pixelate.
• Provide alternative text for image.
  • Do not rely on automatically generated alt text.
  • Do not include “image of” or “picture of” in your description.
  • Be mindful of assuming gender or race of people you are describing.
  • Write concise 1-2 sentence descriptions that explain the relevant parts of the image in the context it is being used in for the social media post. Add a text description under the photo in a post as well 

Other considerations: 

• Use descriptive hyperlinks.
• Put main content first and then include mentions and hashtags last.
• Don’t use GIFS or auto-playing content.
• Do not post images with text (e.g. flyers, posters) as they cannot be read by screen readers 

Visit the College’s Web Accessibility Policy and the Accessibility Best Practices guide for further information. 

Individuals engaging in social media on behalf of Bryn Mawr must adhere to the Acceptable Use Policy of the Information Services Department regardless of the type of technology they are using, personal or College owned. Of particular note:

• Respect the College’s name and reputation in your electronic communications
• Be a good citizen. You must comply with local, state, and federal laws; you must observe copyrights, licenses, contracts, and College policies.
• Do not engage in commercial, for-profit, or promotional activities unrelated to the mission of the College.

Individuals engaging in social media on behalf of the College must protect confidential information. Do not post confidential information about Bryn Mawr College, students, employees, or alumnae/i. Employees must follow the applicable federal requirements such as Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).

• Tag the official College accounts in your posts so that we can reshare them and increase your visibility.
• Avoid posting graphics and posters as they are not only inaccessible but also garner low engagement.
• Check your social media sites at least once a day to stay updated on feedback from posts and any questions you may have received. New content should be posted regularly. If someone cannot fulfill this time commitment, reconsider whether you have the resources to manage a new account. Unmonitored social media accounts are also vulnerable to comment spam, phishing, and clickjacking schemes that can embarrass the account holders and the College and threaten online security.
• Adjust your content for each platform you share it on. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are best for photos, while videos may be shared best on TikTok or Instagram Reels.
• Use consistent hashtags in your posts and share them with College Communications so that we can add them to our repository.
• Think creatively about your content! Social media is a unique resource for sharing information in unique and varied ways, so take advantage of its benefits.