As a part of our CLAS website revamp project, we’ll be reviewing each social media asset under the CLAS umbrella to ensure that it is unified with our overall marketing strategy and in the best position to serve students, build the department’s brand, and enhance the university’s reputation overall.
Before we begin… If a social media account has been inactive (no posts) for more than a year, it should be discontinued. Although it’s nice in theory to have a “presence” on a particular social network, it looks unreputable and distasteful if the account appears abandoned. It’s better to focus your team and resources on the one or two social accounts that you can consistently be active with and serve students, faculty, staff, and the community.
Here are the checkpoints that we’ll be reviewing for each CLAS site’s social media assets.
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Does the social media page name reflect the university identity?
The social media page, i.e. Wayne State University College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, name may different than the account, “handle,” or URL name, i.e. @WayneStateCLAS.
Names for social pages should lead with one of the following:
- Wayne State University {DEPARTMENT NAME}
- Wayne State {DEPARTMENT NAME}
- Wayne State Department of {DEPARTMENT NAME}
- WSU {DEPARTMENT NAME} (only when spacing limited)
This is done so that the department is properly associated with the university identity at a glance, in search results, etc. Please refrain from leading with the department name, i.e. Sociology at Wayne State University.
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Does the social media account, handle, or URL name reflect the university identity?
Social account handles or URLs should be updated to reflect the following:
- WayneState{DEPARTMENTNAME}
- WSU{DEPARTMENT}
The handle or URL name should be as short and recognizable (use casing as shown, so spaces) as possible while also reflecting the university identity. Please refrain from leading with “WayneStateUniversity” as it’s too long in this case, as well as dashes or underscores (when possible).
The end result will look something like this, twitter.com/WayneStateCLAS or facebook.com/WayneStateCLAS, and gives us a uniform page and handle/URL naming structure.
*Although you’re changing the social handle/URL, people within the social network will still be able to search and locate your account (if you’re concerned that you’ll lose followers).
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Verify that all page information is correct and up to date, i.e. phone number, mission statement, etc.
It should reflect that which is on your website and other marketing materials for uniformity.
This information can be found in the social media page’s about section or bio/profile.
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Verify the page.
Page verification raises its visibility and reputation. Page verification is easiest on Facebook and a little more difficult for Twitter and Instagram because they are based on follower counts. For most of if not all of you, verify Facebook and carry on.
Steps to request verification for:
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If you haven’t posted in some time, find one to two articles from either the CLAS site or your department’s site to share to your social media page.
The goal is to appear active and have some interplay between the website and social media account. This helps rankings for the site and the social media page.
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Update the page with a fresh logo and background (if applicable).
We’ve created a series of CLAS social media logos branded with the new Warrior Strong shield and tailored with the department’s area of discipline in the background, fitted to exact size for each social network. See examples: Criminal Justice, AFAM Studies, Urban Studies and Planning
When installing these logos, be sure to minimize scaling or skip it completely as our logos are designed to exact dimensions. See examples for Facebook and Twitter.
While departments are free to be creative with their social media logos (not required to use those that we provide), they should be consistent with the following:
- High aesthetic quality (not blurry, distorted, incorrect size/cut off, indeterminate)
- Reflect the university’s identity in some way, shape, or form
Social media logos that use the official Wayne State logo must adhere to the Logo Identity Guidelines (no exceptions). If it looks janky, take it down and let us help you 🙂
Backgrounds for social pages can be much more free-form but should at least maintain a high aesthetic quality standard. We’ve put together some branded background images for Facebook and Twitter at bit.ly/clas-social-artwork. If you have a custom image that you’d like for your background with the university branding, just reach out to us at clas@wayne.edu.