Social Media Guidelines

Social Media Guidelines

Lane Community College utilizes social media as an important tool for connection and engagement. LCC is committed to supporting honest, transparent, and knowledgeable dialogue across our social channels.

These guidelines are intended to serve as a set of “best practices” for the college’s official and non-official affiliated promotional social media channels, and may not necessarily apply to social media for instructional use.

Social media is constantly evolving, and these guidelines are subject to change.

Goals

As marketing and informational tools for LCC, our purpose is to provide social media channels that:

  • Build and maintain relationships with students, community members, and supporters
  • Provide relevant, accurate, up-to-date and concise information
  • Encourage discussion of topical events and issues

Our social media channels must also:

  • Provide content related to LCC that is concise and relevant
  • Maintain consistency and branding
  • Allow for ease of navigation

Audiences

Primary target audience

  • Current and prospective students

Other audiences identified include:

  • Alumni
  • Faculty and staff
  • Community and business partners
  • Donors and prospective donors
  • Board members
  • Higher education partners
  • Legislators

While social media reaches many different audiences, our marketing focus is predominantly to meet the needs of the primary target audience. This allows us to effectively provide content designed to meet LCC’s marketing and communications objectives.

Staff Roles

Lane’s Marketing & Creative Services unit maintains official LCC social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and others.

All social media accounts are managed by the Marketing & Creative Services team and its designated agents.

Staff who are granted access to submit content in an official capacity must have undergone training in appropriate conduct specific to each platform as well as reviewed these guidelines.

The Marketing & Creative Services department holds editorial discretion in determining the frequency and focus of material posted to these channels.

Account Creation or Access

The Lane Community College Marketing & Creative Services department creates any social media account that will represent the college and then provides access to the person(s) who will manage the account.

The M&CS team and one responsible person will have administrative access to each existing social media account. This allows for better regulation of content and creates a failsafe if an administrator were to leave the college.

Consult with M&CS to determine if a social media account for your department or organization is the best choice. In many instances M&CS may be able to meet your goals through the general Lane Community College online and social channels, which already have an established audience.

If a department-specific account is deemed appropriate, M&CS will assist in the development of the account and provide training and access. Users that administer LCC social media accounts must take part in a training session with a member of the M&CS team. Once approved, users must develop and provide a content calendar to assure consistency in posting. If the channel goes dark for any long stretch of time, the need for its existence will be reevaluated.

Content Strategy

LCC’s content strategy is based upon the sharing of information and experiences that benefit the communities and members that we serve. Content shared on our social channels should be relevant to the work at Lane, and the interests and values of our community. If we post content on behalf of partner organizations, it should also support our strategic goals and be consistent with our values and beliefs. Information should be shared from credible sources, and when possible, link back to the Lane website.

The overarching goal of Lane’s social media is to spark conversation and engagement. LCC strives to post content which highlights interesting or thought-provoking aspects of our programs.

Finally, it is important reflect the diversity of LCC and our work. No one program, topic, campus, type of post, or issue should dominate Lane’s social media at all times. Content should be posted with a comprehensive approach to our work in mind.

Naming Conventions and Visual Identity

Naming conventions

Include Lane Community College at the beginning of the name of your social media profile. This helps to unify our college across all campuses and centers, and reduce brand confusion with other existing “LCC”s (Lansing Community College, for example). If Lane Community College is too long, use Lane or LCC (but try to use the full name if possible). For Twitter, regardless of the @ handle name (i.e. @LaneTitans), use full name as the title on the account.

Facebook examples:

Lane Community College Library
Lane Community College Foundation
Lane Community College – Cottage Grove

Twitter examples:

@LCCSustainable
@LCCFoundationOR
@LaneSBDC

Visual identity

Only official LCC social media channels should utilize the college logo as a profile picture.

Non-official affiliated channels should use the group or department’s “art mark” as a profile picture.

Timeline or background photos are an appropriate place to express a department or group’s individuality, personality and purpose (for example: a group photo of students or faculty/staff, photo of a building or campus, etc.).

Monitoring Policy

Social media must be monitored. A qualified staff member should have the responsibility of monitoring social media channels daily, and backup administrators/monitors should be designated so there is no gap in the monitoring.

LCC social media users should be present and responsive, which helps develop credibility and value. If your department or unit does not have sufficient staffing to support responding to questions or comments within 24 hours, your account should be disabled or deleted.

Quickly address any inappropriate messages or misuse of the sites. Such inappropriate posts or comments include those that contain spam or are off-topic, derogatory, discriminating, threatening or violate existing Lane policies.

When posting or replying to a message, take the time to review the content and respond in-kind. Below are additional guidelines for specific situations.

Responding to negative comments

  • Don’t delete negative comments unless they violate college privacy standards, are expressly racist/sexist/homophobic, or are otherwise disparaging to members of a protected group.
  • If a comment is inflammatory or deliberately trolling for a response, do not engage or delete. Hide it instead.
  • Be prepared to respond to negative or inaccurate posts if response is warranted. Some negative comments do not require a response, while others should be taken seriously and addressed. Factors such as the number of followers and the severity of the conversations should temper if and how you respond. When possible, try to move negative discussions to a private medium – direct messaging, email, phone, etc.
  • Direct media inquiries to the Public Information Officer.
  • Refrain from engaging in dialogue that is partisan in nature. As a state school and with Foundation partners holding 501(c)-(3) nonprofit organization, do not participate in or condone expressly partisan positions. Also refrain from discussing specific candidates for office.
  • Refrain from engaging in dialogue that disparages colleagues, partner organizations, or critics.

Responding to positive and neutral comments

  • Keep a friendly and professional tone when posting updates and having conversations with other users.
  • Avoid “corporate” or formal tone.
  • Encourage discussion by asking additional questions, thanking people for comments/sharing, and referring to additional resources (such as the Lane Community College website) when appropriate.

Responding to wall posts

  • Occasionally, members of the community may post content on the Facebook wall that does not have anything to do with LCC or our work. For example, users may share local community events or fundraisers, promote another organization, or ask for support for their personal projects. Use the following to guide your response:
  • If it is inflammatory or disparaging in any way, hide the post.
  • If it is for an Oregon-based event that does not align with LCC values, mission, or the interests of our members, hide or delete the post – but first, contact the user to let them know that while we do not allow outside posts on our Facebook page, they can submit inquiries through our website for other possible help promoting.
  • If the post is commercial in nature, hide or delete the post.
  • If there are any questions on a particular post, refer to the Marketing & Creative Services department.

Terms of Use Statement

This platform is intended to inform users of LCC-related news and events and to foster a sense of community among users.

We encourage you to share your opinions, but ask you that you keep your comments respectful. If we become aware of posts that contain spam or are off-topic, derogatory, discriminating, threatening, or obscene, we reserve the right to remove them.

Commercial Use, Trademark and Privacy Rights

Commercial use and advertising

Staff may not use any LCC social media site for advertising or commercial use.

Logo and trademarks

The logo, name, and all graphics on LCC social media channels are exclusive to Lane Community College.

If an image, quote, or article is used, attribute it to the original source. Users will properly cite sources, and post only items that are covered by fair use or published under Creative Commons. Otherwise, seek permission first.

Privacy for employees

LCC discourages staff in management/supervisory roles from initiating “friend” requests with employees they manage. Managers/supervisors may accept friend requests if initiated by the employee, and if the manager/supervisor does not believe it will negatively impact the work relationship.

Employees who disclose their roles at LCC on social media are advised to be conscientious about the content that they post. Anything that you post reflects both on you and on LCC.


If you work at Lane and have content you’d like to share on any of our social media platforms please email your request to SocialMediaRequest@lanecc.edu

The Social Media Standards is published by the Marketing and Public Relations department at Lane. For more information related to topics in the guide, contact the Marketing and Public Relations Department.

This document has been developed to provide a framework to guide Lane's participation in social media. Having an established framework will help us to build brand equity with our target audiences by reinforcing key messages and establishing a consistent voice to represent Lane.