VIMS Social Media Strategy & Policy

Oversight of accounts

Internal units at VIMS that wish to start their own social-media account should first contact [[v|vimspr, the VIMS social-media manager.]] Please be prepared to answer the following questions:

• Who is your intended audience?
• What is your goal?
• How will you measure success?
• How frequently do you plan to post?
• What type of content do you plan to post?
• Who will be the primary administrator? Is there a back-up administrator available when needed?
• Will the administrator monitor the account on a daily basis to reply to any questions/concerns?
• Is there a compelling reason for not using the VIMS website and/or our existing social-media channels?

General resources for social-media strategy, guidelines, policies, and best practices can also be found on the William & Mary website.

Purpose

The purpose of social media at VIMS is to:

• increase awareness of our three-part mission of research, education, and advisory service
• engage target audiences by sharing content that clearly shows the value we bring to society and the environment
• promote a community of engaged "brand ambassadors" for VIMS
• reinforce our brand and messaging
• drive traffic to the VIMS website
• create a sense of community with both internal and external audiences
• notify external audiences of upcoming events and provide access to logistical details
• alert traditional media outlets to newsworthy stories

Values

The social-media community at VIMS values:

• responsiveness to stakeholders
• active feedback from stakeholders
• conversation, the exchange of ideas, reflection
• user‐generated content
• content that is shared via retweets, likes, and comments
• communication that offers a sense of place and thus differentiates VIMS from other social-media sites
• fun! (the chance to show a culture beyond our reputation)

Policy

General policy related to social media at VIMS includes the following:

We do

• make every effort to ensure our content is factual and based on scientific evidence
• encourage reasonable dialogue and offer a balanced perspective and multiple points of view
• provide proper attribution when citing or sharing content produced elsewhere

We do not

• advocate, persuade, sanction, or prescribe actions concerning legislation or policy issues
• use or allow comments that contain hate language
• allow posts that would be offensive to a reasonable person
• use profanity, or placeholders of profanity, in posts
• allow comments that are personal attacks against public figures, or members of the VIMS community

Brand Management

When you use social media on behalf of a unit at VIMS, your channel should reinforce the VIMS brand. Consider the following:

• everything you post on social media affects VIMS’ reputation; either enhancing the institutional brand or detracting from it
• we expect high editorial quality. This includes limiting typos, grammatical errors, and subpar content
• pages should use compelling images that reflect the work of that unit
• whenever possible, add @Virginia Institute of Marine Science (Facebook), @VIMS_News (Twitter) and @vainstituteofmarinescience (Instagram) to your social-media posts (this adds legitimacy and ties your channel to a strong brand)
• do not feature the VIMS logo as your profile photo, as users could mistake the page for the main VIMS page

Techniques

The News & Media Services office will continue to focus on:

• systematic use of content tied to central themes and messages of VIMS
• measurement and return on investment
• experimentation with Facebook ads
• sharing engaging user-generated content
• enhancing live events via social-media tools

Content

Content is king. Make it great. Great social-media content:

• is factually accurate
• shows the institute in a positive light
• leverages our wealth of visual imagery to make an emotional connection with audiences
• encourages interaction via shares, comments, likes, and other forms of social-media connectivity
• uses relevant hashtags to reach a broader audience
• is not verbose (Shakespeare was right that "Brevity is the soul of wit.")