If you have been designated as a social media manager for an Affiliated College Account that is listed on the Official tab for an academic program, department, school, student service, and/or office, here are guidelines to follow:

• Have a plan in place when managing the account(s) prior to opening or before resuming content (if content is paused between semesters). The following parties must be involved for management of the account.
  • Account manager/admin: The account(s) must be monitored regularly by a full-time Ramapo College employee, who should be the account’s main manager/admin. If needed, secondary admins can also help manage or act as back-ups for the accounts; these should be full-time employees as well.
  • Secondary admins, such as Coordinators, can also assist but the main manager/admin must be the main person responsible for managing and monitoring the accounts. Coordinators can be student staff members and must be supervised by the account manager.
    • Please review the “Guidelines for Hiring/Selecting a Social Media Coordinator/Admin for an Affiliated College Ramapo-Affiliated Account for Schools, Departments, Centers, Academic Programs, etc.” for further clarification between these roles for full-time employees and student staff on your team. 
  • Unit Supervisors should be aware of how the accounts are running and determine the goals and strategic vision of the accounts for their unit. 
• Account login information must be stored and shared with the following parties:
  • Office of Communications & Public Relations
  • Unit supervisor
  • Designated account admin (employee)
  • Account coordinator
• Login information must be stored within the unit by the account’s manager and any designated back-up or secondary managers/coordinators. The Unit Head or Supervisor MUST also have access to any College-affiliated accounts in their area. Finally, this login information must also be shared with OCPR for back-up and support.
• Follow the Responsible Use of Electronic Communications Policy as outlined previously by the College.
• Be authentic when creating a new social media account regarding the College, such as for departments, clubs, organizations or areas of study.
• Represent the College and its community by linking back to the appropriate webpage or connection to Ramapo.
• Have a strategy in place for potential issues that could arise.
• Keep your audience in mind when posting and do not spam followers/friends by over posting or sharing spammy content.
• Use visuals and keep posts concise – users respond more to photos and videos than wordy status updates. With the rise of mobile usage, keep in mind that less is more when users are viewing posts on their mobile devices.
• Have fun and be you! It’s okay to show personality when engaging on social media.
• Employees: Be mindful of the Code of Professional Responsibility.
• Students: Be mindful of the Code of Conduct outlined in the Student Handbook.
• Be aware of and follow FERPA and students’ privacy. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 protects the privacy of student education records. For more information, please visit: ramapo.edu/registrar/ferpa/
• Content shared on social channels should not disclose any private or confidential information about the College and the College community.
• You are responsible for any and all messaging that you write and post. If anything inappropriate gets communicated, it may lead to disciplinary action with your supervisor, Office of Student Conduct or People Operations and Employee Resources Department.
• In the event negative comments are posted to any of your affiliated accounts’ posts, DO NOT DELETE THEM OR THE POST ON WHICH THE COMMENT WAS MADE. Immediately contact the Office of Communications & Public Relations for guidance. 
  • When comments incite violence, are threatening, include hate speech, as examples, the “hide” feature on platforms that have it (Instagram and Facebook, as examples) can be used. OCPR might direct you to do this (or more, depending on the severity of the situation).
    • When a comment is hidden, the original poster can still see them but the rest of the public cannot.

If you have questions about the above, please contact OCPR at: socialmedia@ramapo.edu

Anyone affiliated with and/or posting to or about Ramapo as an individual. This includes students, employees (staff/faculty), community and anyone posting to or about the College:

• Think before you post – before posting anything on social media, especially in regards to the College or members of the College community, take a moment to consider the impact of your post. Think of who could be reading your posts – whether now or later down the road.
• Be authentic and transparent – do not create accounts under false names and represent yourself inaccurately.
• Avoid infringement on copyrighted materials, including official logos of the College. Any unauthorized usage of logos and other copyrighted material will not be tolerated. The account(s) in question will be contacted to remove immediately.
• Remember content can be shared across multiple platforms – even private accounts can have content shared publicly, especially due to screenshot capabilities on computers and mobile devices. Anything you post has the potential to be retweeted or shared.
• Be respectful and promise to do no harm – please do not post anything derogatory or offensive about another member of the Ramapo College community.
• Any posts that may represent a threat or harm to anyone at Ramapo College will be taken seriously. Public Safety and/or Mahwah Police may be contacted and action may be taken to protect the college community.
• If you are an employee of the College, make sure that you accurately represent your job title and description in regards to posting about your employment on professional networking sites such as LinkedIn.
• Be mindful not to take the College voice when posting about Ramapo College. You are encouraged to repost/reshare/link to official College communications and/or webpages to disseminate information. Taking on the College’s voice can be misleading and misrepresenting yourself as an official spokesperson of the institution.

If you have questions about these guidelines, please contact OCPR at: socialmedia@ramapo.edu

Here are guidelines for you to have in mind when hiring or selecting someone to run your Affiliated College account(s) for your department/, unit/office, etc. They may run the account as a coordinator, and can be a full-time employee or student employee.

• Familiarity with Social Media: Make sure the candidate you hire/select is familiar with your organization’s current social media platforms. If they’re not familiar with a certain platform, are they willing to receive training on it? Is the candidate an employee or a student? What level of access should they have to manage and post on the account(s)?
• What is a Coordinator? A coordinator helps to facilitate the gathering of content materials, writes captions, and aids in content and posting plans. They may or may not have access to post directly on the accounts. This person must be under the supervision of a Ramapo College employee, ideally the manager or supervisor of the account(s).If the person is a student, they should still be under the supervision of a Ramapo College employee and be given the unit’s expectations and social media goals/strategy prior to starting.
• What is an Admin/Manager? An admin (also called a manager) is the main person running and managing the accounts – creating content, creating a posting schedule, reviewing posts to ensure goals are being met, analyzing where changes could be made, and engaging with followers. The admin has full access to post directly on the accounts.  This person must be a full-time employee of the College.
• Goals/Messaging: Work with them to understand your organizational goals. What message(s) do you want to convey on the social media account(s)? What kinds of content can help you reach your goals?
• Clear Expectations: What do you expect in regard to coordinating the content on the account(s)? How often should they post? Who reviews their work? Do they need approval before posting? Will they receive training and education on best practices?
• Passwords: Maintain and, if needed, update the passwords for the account to ensure no one outside of your unit has access.
• Best Practices: Once the new coordinator/admin has access, they should schedule a meeting with OCPR (socialmedia@ramapo.edu) to become familiar with social media best practices and expectations of running an Affiliated College account.
• Social Media Group (SMG): As specified in the Social Media Policy, account administrators are required to receive training and information related to industry social media standards, best practices, policy or procedural changes, and brand/design standards as needed or determined by OCPR. One way to do this is to attend Social Media Group Meetings. These can also help with communications and collaborations across campus, and enable networking with other members, when applicable.

Repeat this process each time you choose a new social media coordinator/admin/manager.

We highly recommend following certain best practices when managing your Affiliated College accounts – whether your account is recognized under the Official tab or the Affiliated tab on the College’s Social Media Directory. This will ensure that you’ve set yourself up for success, and can help you maintain a clear vision for the accounts as well.

• Review the resources page for tips on how to post effectively on your Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram accounts.
• Review accessibility standards for social media to make sure you know how to add/write alt text and captions, where applicable.
  • If you need more in-depth explanations, schedule a one-on-one meeting with OCPR. socialmedia@ramapo.edu 
• Designed images (such as repurposed flyers/handouts/posters designed specifically per each platform’s dimensions/requirements) work well on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Story. LinkedIn also does well with designed images in posts.
• Real photography (and videography) works best for Instagram Feed, and is also effective on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
• If posting a video, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn can show videos filmed vertically or horizontally.
• If posting a video on Instagram, that platform prefers videos filmed vertically. If a video is shot horizontally, Instagram will show the video with black bars on the top and bottom. This is not ideal.
• Have a strategy and content plan in place – to get started, you should ask yourself the following:
  • What are our goals?
  • Who will develop or provide the content?
  • How often do we want to post or will we be expected to post?
  • Will we need to rely on anyone outside of our unit/club to provide us with any of our content needs? How can/will this affect our ability to meet our posting plans?
  • Is this an account that can lie dormant over the summer break, or do you need to plan ahead to have content out?
  • What visuals do you expect to use – photography, videos, designed images?
  • Determine someone who can be a back-up in case of emergencies or time off.
  • Have a succession plan in place in case the main admin is out or leaves. Maintain updated login records.
    • Need more assistance? Schedule a one-on-one meeting with OCPR: socialmedia@ramapo.edu 
• If you’re posting about an event, deadline or topic where you plan to send people to a website:
  • For Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn: Add the website/link/URL in the caption of your post. Having the webpage typed out on your visual is not enough. Help your audience to do what you’re asking in the least amount of steps.
  • For Instagram Feed: Add the website/link URL to one of your five (5) “link in bio” options and use that phrase in your caption.
  • For Instagram Story: Use a link sticker to add a clickable link to your visual. You can customize the text that’s seen with the link – it’s ok to edit it to make it more personable or a short call-to-action.
    • Need to learn how? Schedule a one-on-one meeting with OCPR socialmedia@ramapo.edu 
• Do not post a visual on social media with a QR code. A large majority of your followers/audiences are viewing your content on a mobile device and cannot scan the code showing on their screen. This is why we recommend using visuals specifically designed for social media.
• Keep the algorithms in mind – your post may or may not show to your followers right away.
  • Use descriptive language if your post is affiliated with a specific event. “Join us today!” is not as helpful as, “Join us tomorrow, May 11!”
  • If you’re posting something that is happening soon on Instagram, consider if it’s better to post in the Feed or in the Story.
  • If promoting an event/deadline, give your audience/followers enough notice – does this mean you need to post a week or two in advance? A few days beforehand? Day of? Depends on the event.
• Attend the Social Media Group meetings to stay-up-date on best practices, trends and new features.
• In the event negative comments are posted to any of your affiliated accounts’ posts, DO NOT DELETE THEM OR THE POST ON WHICH THE COMMENT WAS MADE. Immediately contact the Office of Communications & Public Relations for guidance. 
  • When comments incite violence, are threatening, include hate speech, as examples, the “hide” feature on platforms that have it (Instagram and Facebook, as examples) can be used. OCPR might direct you to do this (or more, depending on the severity of the situation).
    • When a comment is hidden, the original poster can still see them but the rest of the public cannot.

If you have questions about the above, please contact OCPR at: socialmedia@ramapo.edu