NEOMED Social is a part of the Office of Marketing and Communications. NEOMED Social maintains the strategic direction and development on all university-wide social media accounts, as well as colleges, centers and program presences.

NEOMED Social maintains an official inventory of accounts, provides consultation/training services and offers best practices. The department is focused on encouraging collaboration and promoting a unified campus message.

The best social communication is data driven and adaptive. Hard metrics allow brands to objectively evaluate their content and adapt their strategy. NEOMED Social monitors platform-based performance analytics on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis to assess channel health and trends in audience behavior.

Periodically measuring the success of your social media presence is an important part of determining how you should make content decisions moving forward. The way you measure success may differ depending on the goals of your account or content. NEOMED focuses on these five analytics: amplification rate, post impressions, post clicks, total followers and post engagement rate.

For training on how to evaluate social media analytics and performance, schedule a meeting with Julia Colecchi at jcolecchi@neomed.edu

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Like most other forms of communication, social media is most effective when it is rooted in strategy and collaboration. The platform on which a brand or organization communicates, or the form in which that communication takes place (video, gif, animation, tweet or snap) does not negate the need to have associated goals, thoughtful design and clear expectations for performance, accountability and value added. This page contains the governing strategy, best practice guidelines, tools and resources.

• • NEOMED recognizes the importance and benefits of communicating through social media. Social media is a powerful tool vehicle through which NEOMED may disseminate relevant news to the NEOMED community, listen to voices and perceptions about NEOMED and connect with your audiences online.
  • NEOMED supports the use of social media to share news and engage in conversations with a variety of audiences around the world and encourages schools, departments, programs, offices and units to evaluate which, if any, social media platforms are appropriate for supporting their overall communication goals.
  • These guidelines are intended to provide individuals with the tools to speak effectively through social media on behalf of the University and its schools and units. These guidelines are a set of rules and regulations put in place to ensure a positive brand identity and reputation for NEOMED across social media. All colleges, departments, programs, offices, organizations, units and affiliations of NEOMED are expected to adhere to these guidelines.
  • Social media accounts must support and uphold the university’s brand identity, integrity and reputation. Their use must be professional, protect the reputation and brand of the university, align with university priorities and comply with NEOMED policies.

The Northeast Ohio Medical University social media policy guides employees using social media to communicate with audiences on matters concerning or impacting NEOMED.

• • Registering Accounts – registration and approval are required before launching a social media account with university content. The standards apply to all university employees who use university computing resources, and they cover all forms of social media. Authorization to present a social media account as an official university account must come from the Office of Marketing and Communications. A departmental administrator should be provided log-in access to serve as a backup when needed. Please note that your unit might have additional standards and requirements.
    • Creating a New Account – You should be able to answer the following questions before creating social media accounts
      • Will your channel support the mission and goals of your unit? A social media plan is strongly encouraged before creating accounts.
      • Is there an existing social media account with an established following that can help you meet your goals and share your message?
      • Who is the audience?
      • Are your proposed social media platforms the best way to reach that audience?
      • Do you have enough solid content for each proposed social media platform? Remember that each platform is different, and posting the same content everywhere is not a best practice.
      • Have you connected with Marcom on NEOMED social media best practices?
      • Have you reviewed the NEOMED brand guidelines?
      • Do you have sufficient staff time and resources to manage the platform(s)? Consistent and frequent posting, interacting and engaging are essential to a successful social media presence.
      • Do you have a social media backup contact?
      • Have you evaluated what your peers are doing on social media?

• • Guidelines For University Affiliated Accounts
  • Guidelines for Student Groups and Organizations

• Community Commenting Guidelines
  • NEOMED welcomes your comments on our social media posts and encourages interaction among Walking Whales around the world. We also encourage our community to foster respectful and vibrant online connections. Before you post, please consider the NEOMED Core Values and review these NEOMED Community Commenting Guidelines
  • We review all comments made, and when necessary, we reserve the right to remove comments that are:
    1. Off-topic
    2. Containing links to third-party websites or content
    3. Made in violation of Ohio or federal law
  • Comments made by outside users are the authors’ opinions, not the university’s.
• Branding and Style Profile Requirements
  • Avatars – Official NEOMED-affiliated social media accounts must adhere to the Northeast Ohio Medical University social media guidelines to ensure that consistency across platforms and are encouraged to use the NEOMED flame with their college, department, program, etc. name. Marcom can help design your logo.
  • Naming – Official university accounts should include “Northeast Ohio Medical University or NEOMED” in their username @handle and account name. If “NEOMED” is used, accounts should mention our full name “Northeast Ohio Medical University” in their bio. Fully populating an account profile allows others to discover the account and content easily, so they should add the appropriate location (i.e. Rootstown, OH) and link to their website. Maintain consistency with social account naming conventions across platforms whenever possible.
  • For example:
    1. com/NEOMEDAlumni
    2. com/neomedalumni
    3. com/NEOMEDAlumni

Getting Started

• Identify the person(s) who will run the account for your area. Keep in mind, each account must have at least one faculty or staff administrator, and the email address registered to the account should be shareable with all admins.
• Decide who your audience is:
  1. Am I using it to communicate important dates, deadlines, etc.?
  2. Am I using it to marketing and grow our program or organization size?
  3. Am I sharing news about what our students are doing?
• Decide which social channel fits your message best. Do not feel the need to be present on every social platform. Think of your audience and choose the best possible platforms for your audience.

Facebook

Community: faculty/staff, alumni, donors, community members, some students

Content Suggestions: sharing stories (news, events, accomplishments, etc.), student life, campus photos

Instagram

Community: prospective and current students

Content Suggestions: photo or video (reels), trending topics, student life, campus photos, sharing students prospectives through takeovers, utilizing stories

LinkedIn

Community: faculty/staff, alumni, donors, some students

Content Suggestions: sharing stories (news, events, accomplishments), utilize tagging people and organizations

Twitter/X

Community: prospective and current students, alumni, community members

Content Suggestions: memes (within guidelines), trends, replying back to tweets builds rapport, sharing stories

These are the top four platforms NEOMED typically engages with users, but know there are a number of new and emerging social media channels each day. It’s highly recommended to start with one social channel and grow a fan base of followers who consistently engage with you content before moving on to the next platform.

Do not hide or delete a comment or post just because it is negative, but only if it contains spam/links, profanity, hate speech, attacks on others, commercial advertisements, political endorsements or unlawful activity. Try to resolve any problems by responding as soon as possible when appropriate to do so. Note: if an online conversation becomes hostile or overly negative, please contact the Office of Marketing and Communications with documentation of the conversation for next steps.

Accessibility

Make your content accessible, remove barriers and create inclusive content.

• #CamelCase your hashtags so that assistive technology can interpret each word – when using acronyms, test these with a screen reader to determine the appropriate letter case
• Always add alternative (alt) text and captions, and never rely on auto-generated options. THEY ALWAYS NEED EDITS.
  1. All primary social platforms except for Instagram stories allow for alt text.
  2. Remember that Twitter is the only platform where you can’t retroactively edit or add alt text.
• Shorten URLs and remove “www., https://,” etc.
• Consider how assistive technology interprets emojis – avoid overuse and don’t replace words with emojis.
• Use person-first language
• When designing social graphics, check color contrast and combinations, keep text minimal and consider typeface legibility and readability – left-aligned is best.