House style for social media
A house style reflects the identity of an organisation. And this also applies to social media. Due to the wide variety and great number of possibilities available within social media, a strong and easily recognisable identity is even more important.
Social media are part of the marketing strategy of an organisation (history/ branding). Everything that goes online remains accessible for a long time. The identity of the university, i.e., its name, profile image, the page and the profile text determine how the university is perceived and how people relate to it. All these factors can influence the reputation of the university. Therefore, it is important to ensure that everything that goes online fits in the university's profile. Online contributions should support and enhance the reputation of a brand.
The content and design of social media pages must go hand in hand with the offline media (graphic and print work). This makes the brand stronger and clearer. Important aspects such as user friendliness and technical possibilities should also be taken into consideration.
General guidelines
- to prevent people from using your photos without consent, we recommend using photos with 72dpi resolution and 800x600 pixels in size: this is ideal for web but not suited for print. UM policy regarding photos applies to the use of photos both online and offline
- base the page layout on the default settings of the social networking site in question (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
- general UM Facebook and Twitter profile photos may only use the UM logo, whereas accounts mentioning a faculty or service centre, or staff social media accounts, may not. Information on the UM logo and requesting a copy
- respect copyrights, confidentiality, and information property ownership when publishing photos/images
- check the pages regularly and update them whenever necessary, and note that new developments/updates can affect the page layout