SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY AND GUIDELINES - UiN
It is in University of Nordland’s interest to be aware of social media and participate in
information, interactions, and idea exchange available on the internet. As an institute of
higher education, we believe in the importance of open exchange, learning, and honest
communication.
The goal of this policy is to guide all our employees regarding how they use the social media
and how that relates with the responsibilities that they have as a UiN employees. This policy
is simply a guideline for ensuring positive experiences and consistent brand representation
of the university.
UiN and the social media
Social Media is defined as: “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable
publishing techniques. Furthermore, social media uses web-based technologies to turn
communication into interactive dialogues (Wikipedia).
Social media will help us achieve our information goals, as stated in the current information
strategy:
“UiN aims to strengthen the national knowledge base and secure a regional distribution of
competence and knowledge development. Furthermore, UiN should be a prominent and
attractive knowledge institution on the international market.
The University of Nordland can achieve these information goals by:
• Actively spreading information about UIN’s activities, both nationally and
internationally.
• Making relevant knowledge form our academic disciplines available to the outside
world.
• Establishing a uniform visual identity for all our marketing and communication
activities.
• Appearing as a uniform organisation by actively using our visual identity”.
Main objective
We want to be present in the areas where our students and other key stakeholders are. To
provide service, promote and engage in dialogue. Proper use of social media will also
increase our visibility and make the public more aware of the study possibilities that we
offer.
The main objective of using social media is to showcase The University of Nordland’s work
and help build relationships with key stakeholders and add value to the process.
UiN has indentified the following groups as key stakeholders:
• Students
• Research communities and researchers
• Academic and administrative staff
• Public and private industry and commerce
Social Media Guidelines
The University of Nordland‘s marketing and information department wants to help all
university staff, faculty, and students to engage in social media and the online community.
Therefore the marketing and information department offers these guidelines for engaging in
social media.
Introduction
We believe it is important for all university units, faculty and stuff to be aware of social
media and how social technologies can help everyone create and maintain relationships,
share information, participate in important conversations and collaborate on new ideas.
The University of Nordland’s social media presents consist of the following accounts:
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/UniNordland
Twitter: http://twitter.com/UniNordland
Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/UiNordland
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/UniNordland
SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/UniNordland
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/university-of-nordland
As an employee of UiN, you have the freedom to participate and engage on behalf of the
university. Please have in mind that your online interactions always have the potential to
impact the university, even those you make on a personal level. Therefore, these guidelines
are established to ensure appropriate and effective use of social media. The guidelines will
be constantly reviewed as the social media services and technologies develop in the future.
General Guidelines for Staff
These social media guidelines relate to your professional interests as a faculty or staff
member of The University of Nordland and how you represent the university and your
faculty. This document does not address publishing or regulating personal content on
privately maintained social media accounts.
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You are personally responsible for the content that you post on the university managed
social media accounts.
Be transparent to your audience when posting on behalf of the university about work
related matters or other issues related to the university. Be sure to identify yourself with
your name and connection to the university when contributing your personal comments
and statements on a university managed social media accounts.
Examples of disclosure methods could include link to a bio or “about me” page or a
statement in the post itself, such as “I work for The University of Nordland, and this is my
personal opinion.” Posts that do not mention work related topics would not need to
reference your university relationship.
Protect confidential or personal information from UiN and of students, faculty or staff
members.
 Always give people credit for their work and make sure you have the right to use
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something with acknowledgment before you publish.
Always show respect. Do not publish content containing personal insults or attacks, and
do not engage in any behaviour on social media that would not be acceptable in UiN’s
workplaces or classrooms.
Make sure that your online activities do not get in the way with your job activities.
For Social Media Moderators
Before starting a social media initiative, you need to fill in Social Media Brief where you need
to describe your purpose, goals, target audience and how you will maintain the social media
presence. In addition, your social media presence should be aligned with the overall
communication goals of your faculty. First you need to be approved by the marketing and
information department before releasing the social media activity to the public.
If you have been authorized to start an official UiN related social media activity, please
consult with the handbook of the graphical profile for visual identity guidelines. Please also
contact the department of marketing and information for related images and to ensure
coordination with other UiN’s accounts and content.
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All UiN’s social media accounts should be marked “official” in some way, where
appropriate (for example, in a Twitter bio or in the Facebook “about” section).
Official University of Nordland social media accounts should provide contact names and
e-mail addresses, or correct Web site URLs that point back to the university’s Web site.
All UiN’s social media accounts should be monitored and moderated.
If a team of moderators and content contributors is posting content on a University of
Nordland social media site, each post should be “signed” by the person who posted it
(for example, /Iris – HHB on Facebook or “^NM” or @Neskooo on Twitter).
It is encouraged to link to UiN’s sites from university managed social media accounts.
If you wish to direct someone to a UiN service, link to a university-owned Web page that
then directs visitors to the password-protected site. For example, “To access this service,
visit (faculty home page) and log in to UiN.”
UiN - managed social media accounts cannot host advertising.
If someone shares opinions that are not true, conflicting or opposing to UiN’s work, keep
the response short, professional and polite. Please do not comment on posts related to
legal matters or pending legal actions.
Since social media sites are privately owned and operated be sure to check their privacy
policy and term’s of service from time to time. Accounts on social media sites that sell
personal information or share personal data without prior permission should be
removed or closed. No further presence will be allowed on social media sites that violets
privacy or sells personal information.
Guidelines for Individual Social Media Websites
Please refer to the guidelines below if you are managing or considering creating UiN related
social media account.
Facebook Guidelines
Facebook is the most widely used social networking site with more than 550 million users
worldwide. It is great tool to use for building relationships and for having ongoing
communication with followers, as well as a place to share video and photography and event
invitations.
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There is one main Facebook page form where all the activity on Facebook will be
directed. Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish a consistent voice and accountability for updates and moderation.
Customize the tabs as much as possible but keep the design close to the official logo
and graphic style so the fans know that you are associated with UiN. Remember to
always refer to the handbook of graphical profile for guidelines.
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ThruSocial has proven as the most flexible and affordable solution for customising
Facebook tabs. For answers to common questions and learn more about using
ThruSocial, please visit ThruSocial Widget Overview for answers and guidelines.
When buying solutions from ThruSocial please remember to choose the pricing plan
that does not involve advertising. For questions and guidelines related to UiN content
always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and Information
department.
Try to post every day and avoid posting more than 2 times in 24 hours, unless
specific promotion is ongoing or where critical information needs to be published.
Do not connect Facebook with your website for automatic publishing of posts. Post
manually all the time without any exceptions.
Do not write long posts. Please stay up to 2 sentences per post. Should the post
include more information try to include links, pictures or videos in order to keep the
post clear and as short as possible.
If there is a need to publish posts one after another please wait at least 1 hour after
the first post is published. This does not apply where specific promotion is ongoing or
where critical information needs to be published.
Use the @ symbol when referring to other Facebook members and @Universitetet i
Nordland when referring to UiN.
Remember to “sign” each post on Facebook. General posts from UiN does not need
“signing” but posts published from faculties should be signed (for example: Iris – HHB
or just /HHB)
Remember to spell check your posts before posting them.
To avoid having to post corrections, check all the information with sources before
you post. If you make an error in posting, correct it quickly and visibly.
Actively build your page by adding photos, videos, event postings etc.
Facebook has guidelines for promotions (contests, competitions) that require UiN to
obtain prior written permission from Facebook for administering any promotion.
Please check the list of general limitations in the guidelines document before
planning your promotion. Also remember to check the Facebook advertisement
guide for beginners prior submitting Facebook ad.
You do not require prior written approval to use Facebook to advertise your
promotion if it is managed without Facebook involvement.
In addition, always consult UiN Marketing and Information department before
making a final decision about your Facebook ad.
Should the need for separate faculty Facebook page arise in the future, be sure to
make the UiN’s main page a “Favourite Page” of your faculty Facebook page.
Remember to always refer to the handbook of graphical profile for guidelines and
read Facebook Guidelines for Pages before creating separate page.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using Facebook, please visit
Facebook Help for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related to
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UiN content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and
Information department.
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Please subscribe to Hyper Alerts to ensure timely notification when somebody posts
or comments to UiN managed Facebook page.
Respond immediately to comments and posts (within 24 hours).
 Post meaningful, respectful comments. Do not spam or make remarks that are off
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topic or offensive.
Posts that are off-topic, insulting, or threatening will be deleted.
Excessively long comments are subject to editing for length, clarity and space
limitations.
UiN reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate
any of the conditions noted above.
Twitter Guidelines
Twitter is a micro blogging site with more than 100 million users worldwide. It is best used
(allows only 140 characters per post) for brief updates and press releases.
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There is one main Twitter account form where all the activity on Twitter will be
directed. Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish a consistent voice and accountability for updates/moderation.
Add a short bio. Refer to the University of Nordland (twitter.com/UniNordland) bio as
an example.
Try to post every day (retweets also counts) and avoid posting more than 4 times in
24 hours, unless specific promotion is ongoing or where critical information needs to
be published.
Do not connect Twitter with your website for automatic publishing of posts. Post
manually all the time without any exceptions.
Use the @username when replaying or referring to other twitter members and
@UniNordland when referring to the University of Nordland.
Retweet as often as possible, provided the content relates back to your goals. For
example, if someone says how much he/she/they like the new logo, retweet it.
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Remember to spell check your tweets before sending them.
To avoid having to post corrections, check all the information with sources before
you post. If you make an error in posting, correct it quickly and visibly.
Leave enough characters empty in your post to allow someone to easily retweet it.
Try to stay around 130 characters, so someone has room to add “RT @username:” to
the beginning.
If there is a room in the tweet, always include relevant hashtags in the end of the
tweet. For general tweets use #UiN or #HHB. Otherwise identify hashtags according
to the tweets that are being published.
Since all posts are limited to 140 characters try to use link custom shortening services
such as Bit.ly. For answers to common questions and learn more about using Bit.ly,
please visit Bit.ly Help answers and guidelines.
Be sure to follow back your followers. You should always follow @UniNordland and
other UiN twitter accounts. Do not follow spammers, robots, or questionable
profiles. If questionable profile (spam, casino, pornography, etc) starts following UiN
on Twitter, immediately block the profile and report it to Twitter.
The majority of the tweets should be own updates (60%), followed by replies to
others (30%) and retweets (10%).
Should the need for separate faculty Twitter account arise in the future, use a
professional photo for the avatar. Try to avoid a generic campus photo for the avatar.
If you’re not sure what to use, just ask. Remember to always refer to the handbook
of graphical profile for guidelines and read Twitter Rules before creating your
account.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using Twitter, please visit
Twitter Help Center for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related
to UiN content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and
Information department.
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Please install TweetDeck in order to ensure better managing and moderating of the
twitter account you are responsible. For answers to common questions and learn
more about using TweetDeck, please visit TweetDeck Support answers and guidelines.
For better managing of links, please integrate UiN’s Bit.ly custom link shortening
service
into
TweetDeck
(Username:
unino;
Api
Key:
R_b2b8cc910c637de826cb926d463440ed).
Respond immediately to tweets (within 24 hours).
 Post meaningful, respectful tweets. Do not spam or make remarks that are off-topic
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or offensive.
Other users that posts tweets related to UiN that are off-topic, insulting, or
threatening will be blocked. Should some user starts spamming UiN or other related
Twitter account then the user will be blocked and reported to Twitter for spamming.
Excessively long tweets are subject to editing for length, clarity and space limitations.
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UiN reserves the right to review all tweets and remove, block and report any tweets
that violate any of the conditions noted above.
YouTube Guidelines
YouTube is video hosting website and the second biggest search engine on Internet after
Google. It hosts more than 2 billion videos and 24 hours of video is being uploaded every
minute. YouTube is great tool for sharing videos showcasing university’s work to the
public.
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There is one main YouTube account form where all the activity on YouTube will be
directed. Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish accountability for updates/moderation.
Make sure that videos are shorter than 4 minutes unless they are compelling enough
to justify extended length.
Post at least 2 times per month.
Try to create quality videos. Videos with bad video quality, out of focus content or
bad sound should not be uploaded.
Please include the following tags/keywords after each video is uploaded:
Universitetet, Nordland, University, Bodø, Bodo, Education, utdanning, Norge,
Norway. Do not forget to include additional tags/keywords that are relevant for your
faculty and the video content.
Make sure also to add appropriate title and description that matches the video
content being uploaded.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using YouTube, please visit
YouTube Help for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related to
UiN content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and
Information department.
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Respond immediately to comments (within 24 hours).
 Post meaningful, respectful comments. Do not spam or make remarks that are off
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topic or offensive.
Posts that are off-topic, insulting, or threatening will be deleted.
Excessively long comments are subject to editing for length, clarity and space
limitations.
UiN reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate
any of the conditions noted above.
Flickr Guidelines
Flickr is an image hosting website with more than 80 million users and 5 billion pictures
hosted. It is great tool for sharing multiple photo galleries and it works better than Facebook
if the main purpose is to share photos, and not personally engage the audience.
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There is one main Flickr account form where all the activity on Flickr will be directed.
Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish accountability for updates/moderation.
Make sure that each of the sets contains at least 10 pictures. If there are sets with
less than 10 pictures they need to be merged so the limit of 10 pictures per set is
fulfilled.
Should the merging of different sets cannot be done due to differences in picture
content, please wait until you gather enough pictures and then upload them.
Post at least 1 time per month.
Try to upload quality images. Pictures that are not clear and sharp and are out of
focus should not be uploaded.
Please include the following tags/keywords after each video is uploaded:
Universitetet, Nordland, University, Bodø, Bodo, Education, utdanning, Norge,
Norway. Do not forget to include additional tags/keywords that are relevant for your
faculty and the video content.
Make sure also to add appropriate title and description that matches the video
content being uploaded.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using Flickr, please visit
Flickr Help for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related to UiN
content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and Information
department.
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Respond immediately to comments (within 24 hours).
 Post meaningful, respectful comments. Do not spam or make remarks that are off
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topic or offensive.
Posts that are off-topic, insulting, or threatening will be deleted.
Excessively long comments are subject to editing for length, clarity and space
limitations.
UiN reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate
any of the conditions noted above.
SlideShare Guidelines
Slideshare is a business media site for sharing presentations, documents and pdfs with more
than 25 million users worldwide. It is great tool for sharing slides from various documents on
the Internet.
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There is one main SlideShare account form where all the activity on SlideShare will be
directed. Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish accountability for updates/moderation.
Post at least 1 time per month.
Try to upload quality slides. Slides that not complete or missing information will be
deleted.
SlideShare will be the central place where all slide will be uploaded first before
sharing to other social networks accounts.
Please include the following tags/keywords after each video is uploaded:
Universitetet, Nordland, University, Bodø, Bodo, Education, utdanning, Norge,
Norway. Do not forget to include additional tags/keywords that are relevant for your
faculty and the video content.
Make sure also to add appropriate title and description that matches the video
content being uploaded.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using SlideShare, please
visit SlideShare Help for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related
to UiN content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and
Information department.
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Respond immediately to comments (within 24 hours).
 Post meaningful, respectful comments. Do not spam or make remarks that are off
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topic or offensive.
Posts that are off-topic, insulting, or threatening will be deleted.
Excessively long comments are subject to editing for length, clarity and space
limitations.
UiN reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate
any of the conditions noted above.
LinkedIn Guidelines
LinkedIn is business oriented social networking site with more than 90 million users
worldwide. It is great toll for business networking and posting university wide events.
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There is one main LinkedIn account form where all the activity on LinkedIn will be
directed. Please do not create separate accounts for your faculty or department.
Make sure at least one person is identified and responsible from your faculty. This
will establish a consistent voice and accountability for updates/moderation.
Inform the stuff at your faculty that company page for University of Nordland is
established. Advise all stuff to update their profile on LinkedIn with up to date
information.
To avoid having to post corrections, check all the information with sources before
you post. If you make an error in posting, correct it quickly and visibly.
Since posting pictures and videos is not available on LinkedIn, posts that showcase
pictures or videos should be posted in form of links leading to external webpage
where the pictures or videos are hosted.
Should the need for separate faculty LinkedIn account arise in the future, use a
professional photo for the avatar. Try to avoid a generic campus photo for the avatar.
If you’re not sure what to use, just ask. Remember to always refer to the handbook
of graphical profile for guidelines and read LinkedIn Guidelines for Company Pages
before creating company page.
For answers to common questions and learn more about using LinkedIn, please visit
LinkedIn Help for answers and guidelines. For questions and guidelines related to UiN
content always consult first with your faculty or the UiN Marketing and Information
department.
Blogging Guidelines
Blog is a type of website or part of a website where post are usually displayed in reversechronological order. It is usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of
commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. It is great
tool for sharing personal thoughts and opinions on specific topics.
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Identify your audience and what are you trying to achieve with your blog.
Post at least 1 time per week.
Do not write long blogs posts. Keep the content organized by writing short
paragraphs.
Blog entry titles are important. The title is your first impression. Keep your title
simple so it can grab the reader’s attention.
Break up text with headlines, bullets, images, videos and links. Using these elements
within blogs post can draw reader’s attention and add interest to your post.
Remember not to over use the headlines, bullets, images, videos and links since it
can create confusion and take the reader away from reading your blog.
Break down the blog into categories. Try to have one topic per post. This will keep
your blog posts shorter and increase ease of writing.
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Use bullet points or lists. Use formatting such as bold, capitols, italics, to emphasize
points, but do not over use them.
To avoid having to post corrections, check all the information with sources before
you post. If you make an error in posting, correct it quickly and visibly.
Create good content. Keep your blog interesting by creating unique, useful and
insightful content.
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If you allow comments (anonymous comments should not be allowed), respond
immediately to them (within 24 hours). Do not ignore comments visitors make.
Post meaningful, respectful comments. Do not spam or make remarks that are offtopic or offensive.
Posts that are off-topic, insulting, or threatening will be deleted.
Excessively long comments are subject to editing for length, clarity and space
limitations.
UiN reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate
any of the conditions noted above.
University of Nordland march 2011