The Open University social media guidelines

1. For staff who run accounts representing
a non academic department within The
Open University
January 2018
Department Social
Media Guidelines

2. 04/01/2018
Don’t be daunted by the terms. We have created a number of resources and support
materials to help you get to grips with all aspects of social media. If you have any
questions or require one to one support on social media usage, please contact our
social media engagement team in Communications on social-media@open.ac.uk
If you have content which you think is appropriate for the corporate OU social media
channels, please let the team know well in advance. There is further guidance in this
document to help you tailor your content for each social network and therefore
maximise the opportunity to be shared by the corporate channels.
[REPLACE WITH LOGO / LINKS]
Facebook, twitter, Linkedin, Instagram, YouTube
DEPARTMENT SOCIAL
MEDIA GUIDELINES
For staff who run accounts representing a
department within The Open University

3. WHY DO WE NEED
GUIDELINES?

4. 04/01/2018
WHY DO WE NEED
DEPARTMENT GUIDELINES?
It’s important that we have guidelines to help staff get the most out of social media while
maintaining quality and standards. Social media may be free but your time isn’t and building a
strong, engaged community on any social network will require a significant investment of time and
resource – It is not an activity which can be successfully delivered “on the side”.
These guidelines are the perfect partner to the training resources and support on our updated
Social Media Toolkit.
There are already strict guidelines for using The Open University brand [LINK TO PAGE ON
SMTK]. It’s important that we extend these quality controls to our activity on social media.
These guidelines are not designed to stop you using social media for your department but to
ensure you get the most value out of the time and resource you’re investing.

5. 04/01/2018
• Reach a more specific audience for their message that is too ‘niche’ for the corporate OU
social media channels or has a totally different audience
• Showcase work happening within their department that is relevant to the wider university
population and highlight available resources
• Give staff a platform to talk in more detail about their specialist areas to students and
colleagues
[INSERT IMAGE WITH QUOTES ON THIS SLIDE]
WHY WOULD WE WANT TO
USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
Here are some of the reasons university departments
are currently active on social networks

6. 04/01/2018
WHY WE WANT YOU TO
USE SOCIAL MEDIA
The corporate Open University social media channels would love to showcase all the great work
coming from each of the university departments, and endeavour to do so at every opportunity.
However, sometimes things happen unexpectedly which mean they have to focus on a policy
announcement or communications issue and put a hold on any other news and updates.
This empowers each department to be able to create and manage their own communities where
appropriate, as well as work with the corporate channels to reach a wider audience when
required. It is also worth noting that social media might not always be the best channel for your
message.
Fundamentally, social media works best when people engage with each other. By departments
and individuals being more active, we can share each other’s messages and ensure that we reach
the widest, appropriate audience possible.
What are the benefits to The OU?

7. 04/01/2018
DO WE NEED AN
ACCOUNT?
There are strict guidelines for official university
accounts. Make sure you are working within them.
Before creating an account, fill out the request form on the Social Media Toolkit homepage. In
preparation, go through these questions:
1. Why do you want to start an account? What would you like to achieve with it?
2. Could working with the corporate Open University social media channels achieve the same
outcome?
3. How much time do you have to dedicate to running your social media accounts? For example,
to run a successful Twitter account takes a minimum of 10 hours per week, every week.
4. Who is your target audience and do you have content which they will find valuable?
When you complete the questionnaire, someone from the social media engagement team will be in
touch to discuss next steps.
The Open University marketing department have strict brand guidelines. It is important that any
official accounts created for use by your department adhere to these. If you have a specific brand
query, please email Marketing at brand-enquiries@open.ac.uk

8. WHAT IS
SOCIAL MEDIA?

9. 04/01/2018
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
Social media is the collective term for websites and
applications that enable users to create and share
content or participate in social networking.
Social networking refers to activities which take
place within an online network where people are
joined by a common interest. For example: Friends
and family sharing pictures on Facebook or users
finding and following accounts that interest them on
twitter.
Social Media Guidelines: Staff

10. SOCIAL
NETWORKS

11. 04/01/2018
Organic - In social media terms we use ‘organic’ to refer to any activity that we don’t
spend money on. Organic activity is at the whim of any algorithm a social
network uses. For example, Facebook hides most of the organic status
updates that companies post. If you want to ensure your followers see
your content, you need to make sure they ‘engage’.
Engagement – This is any action a follower takes on your status update. These include
clicking on links, liking a post, adding a comment or sharing the update
with your own followers.
Hashtag – On twitter and Instagram, hashtags are a way of organising any status
updates which use the same #tag. For example, if you search
#UKEducation on twitter or Instagram, you will see a page of the most
recent status updates that have included #UKEducation in their text. They
are used as a way for a community to identify themselves. You will find
more on hashtags in our best practice section.
PPC or Paid content – This is anything that has been promoted by an organisation to a specific
target audience. The company will either pay per click on a link (PPC) or
pay for visibility (reach).
*Please visit The Social Media Toolkit for more comprehensive jargon buster resources
JARGON BUSTER
Get to know your social media terminology

12. 04/01/2018
FACEBOOK
Facebook is by far the largest social network with 2 billion active users
every month worldwide. It is predominantly used for networking with
friends and family as well as getting news and updates from publishers
and brands that you like.
Managing a Facebook Page is a big commitment where gaining followers
and organic reach for your posts is challenging and time consuming. On
average, only 4% or less of your followers will ever see your updates
organically (without having to pay to promote to your followers). In order
to maximise that, you need to be consistently optimising your activity to
get your followers to respond. There are resources on the Social Media
Toolkit which will help you to do this.
The corporate OU Facebook Page does have the ability to target specific
audiences so if you cannot commit to posting at least three quality
posts per week for the long term, perhaps working directly with the
social media engagement team on an ad hoc basis would be more
beneficial.

13. 04/01/2018
TWITTER
Twitter is much smaller than Facebook in terms of users with only 328
million monthly active users. However, Twitter is much more widely used
for networking outside of one’s immediate friend circle.
The culture of Twitter is to seek out users who have the same interests as
you and connect. Twitter makes this easier by the use of hashtags to
search for relevant interesting topics. For our purposes, Twitter is also by
far the most popular social network in the academic space, making it a
core focus for The Open University.
Twitter makes it very easy to follow and listen to interesting accounts
while you decide exactly what you want to get out of the network.

14. 04/01/2018
LINKEDIN
As the professional network, LinkedIn carries far less risk of online trolling
and makes managing your reputation much simpler. With 106 million
monthly active users it is even smaller than Twitter. This isn’t surprising
as LinkedIn is for professionals who are serious about networking within
their industry. You can use LinkedIn’s own search to find out how many of
your target audience are using LinkedIn.
LinkedIn won’t be the best place to network as a department, but
members of staff will benefit from having up to date profiles. Journalists
and event organisers looking for experts will use LinkedIn as a database
and we want them to be able to find you!

15. 04/01/2018
INSTAGRAM
With 700 million monthly active users, Instagram is twice the size of
Twitter.
Work with the corporate account if you would like to use Instagram as a
social media channel. Submit your images to social-media@open.ac.uk
If you’re unsure about style and sizing visit the Social Media Toolkit.

16. 04/01/2018
YOUTUBE
YouTube is the second largest search engine and popular videos will turn
up in search results where appropriate. With over one billion users
worldwide, YouTube reaches one third of all internet users worldwide.
The Open University has an established YouTube channel where they
can upload your video content. By using the same channel, you will
maximise the chances of users seeing your videos as ‘recommended’
after watching other OU content.
It is also worth noting that you should not share YouTube videos on
Facebook and where possible Twitter. You will get more reach for your
video if you upload it directly to the social network you are posting to.
See best practice for guidance on video standards.

17. PLAN FOR
SUCCESS

18. 04/01/2018
ACCOUNT BASICS
If you have been approved to use The Open University brand for your
department social media channel, there are some naming and biography
conventions you need to be compliant with. If you are unsure about any
of these things, please email social-media@open.ac.uk
Naming conventions
Twitter: Account username -
ie.
Facebook: Page name -
Page username -
ie.

19. 04/01/2018
ACCOUNT BASICS
• Bio
• Logo
• Header

20. 04/01/2018
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Now that you have your social
media account set up, you need
to plan for success. This 4 step
method will help you to focus
your time and resource on the
activities which are most
important when it comes to
reaching your faculty goals.
The Cube Method©
Department Goals:
What are you trying to
achieve?
Target Audience:
Who are you trying to
engage?
Which social networks do
they use?
Measure & Improve:
Make sure your time and
effort are getting the
results you need
Content:
What can you share that
your audience will really
value?

21. 04/01/2018
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Goals - Make sure you are completely clear on what you are trying to achieve with
any social media account you set up. Avoid vanity goals like followers or
views for your content. Keep asking yourselves ‘why?’ until you are at the
absolute core of what you want. This is also a good time to decide which
metrics are going to represent success so that you can track your
achievements accurately.
Target Audience - Who exactly are you trying to engage with your social media activity? Are
they already served by the corporate OU social media channels? If not,
which social network are they actively spending time on? The social media
team can help you to find this out if you’re unsure. It’s important you don’t
make assumptions here. Audiences move and grow daily so you may be
surprised.
The Cube Method©

22. 04/01/2018
SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
Content - Do you have quality content ready to share? Spend some time on your
chosen social network reviewing the content your audience are currently
engaging with. It’s a good idea to set up a Content Calendar to help you
organise your time and resource for content creation.
There are resources available on the Social Media Toolkit to help you get
started with content creation. Please also check with the social media
team for advice and guidance on best practice if you’re unsure.
REMEMBER: Creating compelling content takes time, resource and
listening to your audience. Don’t underestimate the work that this will take!
Measure & Improve - Your time is precious so it is vital that you make sure you’re getting the
most out of your efforts. Go back to your agreed goals and check whether
your activity is working for you. Again, you can visit the Social Media
Toolkit for further support and advice.
The Cube Method©

23. 04/01/2018
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
LISTENING
You can find all kinds of people and organisations on social media,
especially Twitter. By setting up an account and simply following others
you will learn a lot about the culture of a network, how best to conduct
yourself and avoid mistakes and faux pas.
With Twitter you can create lists to focus on different groups of people at
a time. Follow some of The Open University’s own lists on Twitter to get a
feel for how these work. To create your own visit the Social Media Toolkit
for simple instructions.

24. 04/01/2018
WHEN AND WHAT TO
SHARE
Listening will help to shape your thoughts on what is best to share with
your audience. It takes a bit of confidence to share things for the first time
so build up slowly:
• On Twitter or Facebook you can start by re-sharing relevant content
from the corporate OU accounts
• Talk to the social media team about the type of content you have
available and how best to showcase it
Timing is also very important when it comes to success on social media.
It will take a bit of practice to find out the days and times that work best
with your audience but you can get started by scheduling the following:
• Twitter – 3 updates per day (working towards 6)
• Facebook – 3 updates per week (working towards daily posts)
• LinkedIn – 3 updates per week

25. 04/01/2018
TONE OF VOICE
It’s important that The Open University brand tone of voice is represented across all public social
media accounts. Luckily, the official tone is well suited to social media communication:
Be open - We’re not for the few, we’re for anyone. So we use everyday words that
everyone can relate to.
Be trustworthy and authentic. Inspire with real quotes and stories.
Be warm - We’re engaging and encouraging. We talk to people as very different
individuals.
Be personal. Say ‘you’ and ‘we’. Use we’ll’ and ‘we’re’. Avoid jargon.
Be positive - Share a view of the world that is confident and brave. Stand tall, have a
point of view, be precise. And get to the point – make every word count.
Be dynamic - This is the future of learning – we’re changing lives and changing society.
Be forward-looking and innovative. Write with energy. Vary sentence
length. Have lots of white space.
If you have any questions about the brand guidelines on tone of voice, contact Marketing on brand-enquiries@open.ac.uk

26. 04/01/2018
PASSWORDS & SHARING
INFORMATION
The safest form of password you can use to protect your accounts from
being hacked is using 3 separate words that would never be used
together in a sentence. For example:
Tiger Nappies Bookshelf
Some platforms will force you to use numbers, capitals and symbols so
it’s also useful to have a tool which saves all your logins for you. One we
would recommend is LastPass but you could also use the password
saving function within your browser. Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge all
have secure password saving options.
Keep accounts secure by changing your passwords regularly.

27. 04/01/2018
USEFUL TOOLS FOR YOU
One of the best ways to keep you consistently active on a social network is to schedule
updates throughout the week. If multiple staff members are working together on social
media content scheduling, please make sure you use the same scheduler so that you
can easily view each others work. This is especially useful if you are promoting an
event or something you’re currently working on. If you want to build your reputation for
sharing useful content for your community a tool like Feedly or Flipboard could help you
find interesting things to schedule and share.
For more advice and instructions, visit our Social Media Toolkit. Contact the social
media engagement team in Communications if you need access to training on Social
Sign In or any other related software on social-media@open.ac.uk

28. BEST
PRACTICE

29. 04/01/2018
HASHTAGS
Hashtags are used across a number of social networks apart from
Facebook. While you will occasionally see them on Facebook they don’t
serve any real purpose, unless you are representing a brand.
Hashtags were invented for Twitter and it’s where you see them being
used most for community conversations. They enable you to search for
very specific topics and events that are happening by essentially labelling
every tweet about that topic with a hashtag. You can of course also
search for keywords on Twitter but hashtags enable you to be more
specific by grouping words together as a handy filter. Try to stick to one
hashtag per tweet if you can but you’ll get away with two. More than that
and you lose the flow of your status update and risk looking like a spam
account.
Instagram users share the greatest amount of hashtags and it’s not
unusual to see as many as 10 used in one post. This is to enable
interested parties to more easily find you and follow you.

30. 04/01/2018
FACEBOOK BEST
PRACTICE
To succeed on Facebook, followers are not enough. You have to make
sure that your followers engage with your content regularly and
consistently. The algorithm Facebook uses to decide what goes into user
newsfeeds means that followers who never engage will no longer see your
updates.
Scheduling your updates will make a big difference as it sends a signal to
Facebook that you are consistently active and therefore your followers will
get value.
Check your Facebook Page Insights regularly so that you can get a feel
for the content that works best for you. As a general rule video content
gets the most reach organically (without paying to advertise), followed by
images and galleries. However, your audience may react differently so
always test.
It is very important that you do not set up a ‘personal’ account as an
organisation. Make sure any department activity on Facebook is coming
from an official Facebook Page. If you have questions about how that
works, testing or any other aspect of running your FB Page, please
contact the social media engagement team on social-media@open.ac.uk

31. 04/01/2018
TWITTER BEST
PRACTICE
Listen first.
Learn the hashtags that your community use to talk to each other and
use it to feed your content planning. Follow active users from this
listening exercise to form a strong, relevant base for your Twitter activity.
You don’t have to follow accounts back when they follow you. Be
discerning and protective of your timeline. Don’t be tempted to follow
people just to get them to follow you back, it will make Twitter less useful
over time.
Click the heart symbol on tweets to support accounts you are trying to
engage with, retweet them if you feel like your followers would benefit
from seeing them.
It’s fine to reach out to people you don’t know on Twitter and start
conversations but remember, always ask yourself: what would you say if
you were in a room with this person?
Include the @OpenUniversity handle in your tweets when you’re at an
event etc to help the corporate channels share your content where
relevant.

32. 04/01/2018
YOUTUBE BEST
PRACTICE
To ensure the best response to your video on YouTube, we recommend the
following:
• Record in landscape. This uses all the visual space available to you
when you upload your clip to YouTube and is especially important for
mobile viewers
• Make sure you have the best possible audio (even when recording on a
mobile phone) by using a lapel microphone
• Think about the lighting. Can we clearly see the subject of your video?
• Use a tripod when recording to ensure the camera is steady throughout
If you don’t have access to equipment, email social-media@open.ac.uk to
discuss available options.
Finally – make it easy for the social media engagement team (SMET) to draw
attention to your video on YouTube by giving them a detailed description of
the content as well as any keywords you think people would use to search.
It’s helpful if you come with a video title in mind but if you are not sure when
to start, list the keywords and the SMET can help.
Visit The Social Media Toolkit for more advice on recording quality video for
social media.

33. 04/01/2018
WORK WITH OUR
CORPORATE SOCIAL
MEDIA ACCOUNTS
Make it easy for the corporate Open University social media channels to
share your updates to a wider audience. As they have strict brand
guidelines and quality control, you will make it easier for The OU to share
your content by keeping things high quality:
• Use the correct size of images for the social network
• Don’t share vertical videos, always record in landscape
• Use high quality images. Visit Social Media Toolkit for further
guidance on images
• Use relevant site links in your status updates and include people’s
Twitter handles where appropriate
• Give The OU social media team as much notice as possible if you
want them to help draw attention to something you’re sharing

34. 04/01/2018
MITIGATE THE RISKS
The best way to avoid making a mistake on any social network is to listen
first. Make sure you understand the culture of the platform by following and
listening and learning from others.
Don’t:
• Say something on social media that you wouldn’t say in person, in public
• Say anything that would bring The Open University into disrepute
• Use social media after a few too many drinks!
If you make a mistake, own up to it. Delete and apologise. Reach out to The
Open University press and social media teams if you need support. Don’t be
embarrassed or worried, it happens and they can help.
If you become aware of a communications crisis happening with the corporate
account, please leave it to the social media engagement team to respond.
Rest assured, they will be dealing with the issue. If you are concerned
something has been missed, email social-media@open.ac.uk
You can contact the press team by email at press-office@open.ac.uk

35. 04/01/2018
Trolling is when someone who sets out deliberately to create conflicts and
generate an emotional reaction. This is done using a number of methods
like:
• Pulling the conversation off topic with something so inflammatory,
people can’t help but respond (top tip – don’t)
• Deliberately misunderstanding the original discussion in order to pull
the conversation in a direction more favourable to them and their
arguments – again with the purpose of getting an emotional reaction
• Targeting keywords and people who they know they want to attack
and/or derail their agenda
This is not to say that everyone who disagrees is a troll. What makes it
trolling is the purpose of the interaction. Trolls do not want to have a
discourse, they want to derail. Often they don’t even care about the
outcome, the desired outcome for them is anger and upset from those
they target.
TROLLING
What to look out for and how to respond.

36. 04/01/2018
If you find yourself the victim of trolling or the target of extreme negativity
online, you can get support from the social media engagement team by
emailing social-media@open.ac.uk
You can also do the following:
• Monitor your own response to trolls – do not feed their agenda!
• Report abuse directly to the social network
• Keep screen shots of any abusive messages as evidence. In the most
extreme cases, you may want to get the police involved
• Look at the accounts posting trolling comments – how many followers
do they have? Are they a part of your community or simply showing
up to sow discord? A lot of this behaviour can be safely ignored and
they will move along to the next target
TROLLING
What to look out for and how to respond.

37. 04/01/2018
BE CAREFUL BUT…
HAVE FUN!
While there are risks involved with being on a social network, there are
many, many benefits and lots of enjoyment to be had!
If you look at the corporate account, you will see that the higher
education community are open to vibrant conversations and engage
enthusiastically with The Open University and what we stand for.
We want you to enjoy the time you spend engaging on social media and
get the most out of it. Here are a few of the things we’ve learned that help
us do that:
• Get into conversations! Social media enables you to talk to a wide
variety of people globally about topics important to them and you
• Share and retweet updates from people you value, it shows them
you appreciate their work and will help you build relationships
• Use visual content to catch people’s attention and help you to tell
your story in the best way possible

38. 04/01/2018
NEXT STEPS
• If in doubt, contact the social media engagement team for support
and guidance
• The Social Media Toolkit has a wealth of training resources and
examples for you to draw upon
• If you’re just getting started, listen first.
• Talk to colleagues about social media, how they’re using it and what
they get out of it
• Ask yourself what you would like to achieve. Social media is not
always the best available option
Social media engagement team email social-media@open.ac.uk
Visit the Social Media Toolkit for FAQs