VIMS Social Media Strategy & Policy

Supervision of social-media channels at the Virginia Institute of Marine science is the purview of the News & Media Services office. Please consult with us for best practices before considering the use of social media for strategic communications at VIMS.

Oversight of accounts

Internal units at VIMS that wish to start their own social-media account should first contact 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.")