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Social Media

Purpose of Social Media Guidelines

This document summarizes the best practices for TCU pages on social networking sites. These guidelines were established via a committee headed up by the Marketing and Communication division and are Cabinet approved.

Social Media Worksheet

Before signing up to join a social media site for your school, college or organization, make sure you have a plan. First, work with a member of TCU’s Marketing and Communication team to see how social media will fit into your overall marketing plan. Expect to discuss these topics:

Administrators: Who will be responsible for posting content and monitoring your site? Avoid having an hourly employee take on responsibility since this can be a job that requires hours beyond 8-5, Monday – Friday.

Goals and Strategies: What do you hope to gain from having a presence on social media? List your goals and the strategies you will use to obtain those goals.

Content: Is there enough content to post at least twice per week? Do you have opportunities to post rich content such as videos and photos? Content should be both relevant and engaging.

Audience: Who is your audience and how will they benefit from your social media presence? List your primary audiences. Do you have secondary ones, too? How will you reach out to them initially? Remember, simply setting up a social media account isn’t enough – you have to invite people.

Approval: Now that you’ve defined your social media goals and strategies, get approval from your dean or supervisor to use social media for your area.

Evaluation: Regularly evaluate your efforts based on the plan you outlined. Many social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) provide metrics that you can use in your evaluation.

Overall Guidelines

  1. Be honest and transparent in all your social media interactions.
  2. Remember that all posted content is available to the public, including media.
  3. Use the university-approved school, college or department wordmark on all social networking sites. Contact Amy Peterson for assistance if needed.
  4. Use the same naming convention across all platforms.
  5. Monitor sites throughout the day, over the weekend and after business hours. Consider the pay implications and discuss details with a manager before asking a non-exempt employee to monitor after normal business hours.
  6. Post a variety of relevant, valuable and engaging content. Examples include articles, photos, videos, events, and links that refer back to an official TCU web page or social media site. Content also can be selected from the TCU News and Events site, TCU Magazine or the TCU video library on YouTube.
  7. Passwords must be changed when a social media administer leaves the university or is no longer performing duties pertaining to social media.
  8. The director of communication is responsible for developing the university’s response in a crisis. This response must be used to answer questions related to university crises. In a crisis, the response will be posted on the TCU homepage.
  9. Social networking sites should be kept social. If possible, retweet or share posts from other TCU schools, colleges, or organizations.
  10. Anyone in charge of social media for an official TCU page must adhere to University conduct and policy when operating in such a capacity. (https://hr.tcu.edu/employee-services/faculty-staff/facultystaff-handbook-2/ and https://it.tcu.edu/policies/network-and-computer-usage-policy/)
  11. All non-athletic social media accounts should be accessible to Vice Chancellor of Marketing & Communication, Tracy Syler-Jones, and Social Media Specialist, Amy Peterson. Athletic social media accounts should be accessible to Associate Athletics Director for Digital Brand Strategy, Kyle Seay.
  12. TCU social media accounts should not be used to solicit for entities outside of the university. This includes people, non-profits, and for-profit organizations.

Moderating Comments

Encourage lively, thoughtful and civil conversations that stay within the following guidelines:

  1. Comments should be clean and constructive.
  2. Accept the good and the bad, but not the ugly. Swearing, discriminatory or derogatory language should be deleted.
  3. Negative comments should be addressed in a positive and honest manner. Avoid direct arguments with a fan or follower.
  4. Delete solicitors’ comments on official TCU social networking sites.
  5. Monitor sites throughout the day and over the weekend to remove unwanted comments and quickly answer questions.
  6. Post expected guidelines for conversation on social media sites. For an example of these expectations, click here.
  7. For more help responding to comments, contact your Strategic Communications account executive at x7810. Neeley School faculty and staff should contact x6034.

TCU Social Media Policy

TCU’s social media accounts are a resource of TCU. Any and all content posted by followers is the property and responsibility of the user, not TCU.

All comments posted to TCU’s social media pages are subject to the administrator’s discretion. The intent of this policy is not to keep negative information from being posted, but to protect the privacy and rights of TCU’s students, faculty and staff and foster a welcoming community. We welcome your thoughts and comments, however, our top concern is maintaining a spirit of courteous discussion.

We will delete comments that contain vulgar or abusive language; pornography; personal attacks of any kind; offensive terms that target specific ethnic, religious or racial groups or incite violence. We will also delete comments that are spam, are clearly off-topic or that promote services or products.
If you are featured in a photo we posted to our social channels and do not wish to be, or have an issue with any content displayed on the our social media accounts please email tcusocialmedia@tcu.edu.

Thank you for your support of TCU!