Social Media

Individual programs or groups wishing to establish a social media presence should contact the Office of Communications for assistance. All social media sites bearing the Law School name must comply with guidelines set forth by the Office of Communications.

Social media accounts also must be accessible by the Office of Communications to facilitate auditing and review processes. The purpose of these activities is to identify and remediate vulnerabilities or risks. It is the responsibility of the account owner/manager to ensure accounts are in good standing and that all social media content complies with University and Law School guidelines for media capture and usage.

The Digital Governance Committee (DGC) may at any time require immediate action to change or remove any element of any digital communication, including social media posts. In such a case, if a good-faith effort to contact the site owner cannot be accomplished in sufficient time, in the judgment of the DGC, web team, and Office of Communications staff are authorized to take steps necessary to try to implement the needed change. The web team and the Office of Communications are at all times authorized to take any steps necessary to protect the integrity of the Law School’s digital presence and reputation, without DGC approval.

Affiliated Account Policies and Standards

Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn are all approved for affiliated accounts.
Existing accounts on Tumblr, TikTok, Snapchat, Clubhouse, and any other social platform should be deleted. Communication can assist with sunsetting these accounts.
New platforms will be evaluated by the Office of Communications as they come online.

A social media manager employed by the Law School should oversee all activity.
Passwords should be unique, strong, and changed regularly. Store passwords in a secure, central location that can be accessed by select other staff if needed.
If an account exists without a specific manager or if an organization can no longer access an account, please contact Communications immediately.
If an organization possesses one or more social media accounts that they no longer wish to manage, please submit a ticket for assistance with consolidation and deletion. Note that some accounts can be absorbed by the larger Penn Law account, which is preferable to outright deletion when possible.

Expected time commitment to meet requirements: 1 - 3 hours, one time.

Handles should reflect the official name of the group or, if constrained by length, an agreed-upon abbreviation.
Handles should remain consistent across all platforms.
Profile bios should include department/group mission and affiliation with Penn Carey Law, including tagging the Law School.
Profile photos must be optimized for the circular crop applied by most social platforms.
- If cropping will render graphics illegible or reduce image quality, they should be edited to accommodate the cropping.
- See Appendix for appropriate sizing.
Header images should be created in accordance with platform needs. See Appendix for appropriate sizing.

Expected time commitment: 1 - 15 hours, weekly.

In order to keep accounts appearing fresh and relevant to audiences, we request adherence to the following post-frequency guidelines:

All channel minimum: 1x/week per channel.
Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram optimum: 5x/week per channel.
Twitter optimum: 10x/week.

Content Standards

Branding

Graphics must follow branding guidelines and graphic templates.
Communications will provide templates upon request.

Accuracy and Style

Posts must use the correct name for the Law School. Review the branding guidelines for more information on appropriate name usage.
Posts should be thoroughly proofread for typos; spelling and grammatical errors; and proper names, titles, and pronouns.
Review the Penn Carey Law style guide for additional information.

Images

Image quality and size: Images should be high quality in terms of file size and quality, composition, and, in the case of photography, focus and lighting.
Guidelines for image content: Imagery can relate directly to the post (i.e. faculty headshot, event graphic) or if such an image is not available, relate to the Law School more generally (i.e. campus photograph).

Accessibility

Follow University guidelines for accessibility.
For social media graphics, visual and text information in images/graphics must also be present in the text of the post. For example, a post promoting an event must include name, date, registration and other information in text, in addition to in the graphic.
Provide closed captions for video when possible.

Reviews

Account managers will conduct quarterly reviews to be shared with Communications.
Communications will conduct an annual review.

Brand

Affiliated Account Policies and Standards

Approved Platforms

Account Access

Profile Data