TSTC Visual Standard Guide 2020
TSTC Visual Standards Guide 2020
TSTC Visual Standards Guide 2020
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COMMUNICATIONS / SOCIAL MEDIA<br />
Social Media<br />
<strong>Guide</strong>lines<br />
Applications that allow you to interact with others<br />
online such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and<br />
others require cautious consideration to assess the<br />
implications of using and accepting the use of these<br />
outlets. <strong>TSTC</strong> will strive to stay abreast of best practices<br />
in the social media field and update guidelines as<br />
necessary.<br />
• Social media includes social networking sites such<br />
as Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn; Twitter; blog<br />
accounts (WordPress, etc.); video-sharing sites<br />
(YouTube, etc.), and photo-sharing sites (Flickr, etc.).<br />
• Familiarize yourself with <strong>TSTC</strong> social media guidelines<br />
and follow them in any social media activities in<br />
which you may be posting as a representative of <strong>TSTC</strong>,<br />
and not as yourself. Departments considering creating<br />
a social media site should consider the following<br />
questions:<br />
• What are the goals of creating such a site?<br />
• Who will be the intended audience(s) for this site?<br />
• What messages do we want to share on this site?<br />
• Who will write the messages for the site?<br />
• Who will update the site?<br />
• How often do you plan to post content to the site?<br />
• No <strong>TSTC</strong> Department or Program is allowed to<br />
create their own social media site. All pages/groups<br />
connected to <strong>TSTC</strong> must be approved and managed<br />
by the Dept. of Communications.<br />
• The <strong>TSTC</strong> site (tstc.edu) remains the official external<br />
communication vehicle for the college, and keeping<br />
the college website timely and up to date should be<br />
the priority. Departments should consider posting<br />
announcements on both their respective <strong>TSTC</strong> Portal<br />
and social media sites to reach a broader audience.<br />
• Contact the Executive Director of Communications,<br />
Kristina Campos-Davis, via email at kristina.campos@<br />
tstc.edu to register or to create a social media account<br />
for a department within <strong>TSTC</strong>. Dr. Campos-Davis will<br />
use a dedicated administrative account to create<br />
the social media site so that the account does not<br />
belong to any one individual at <strong>TSTC</strong>. (Support<br />
departments are encouraged to post their messages<br />
on the main campus social media site.) We will then<br />
make individuals in your area editors of the site and<br />
a communication specialist will be assigned as an<br />
administrator.<br />
a. This allows us to remove individual administrators<br />
from the site when they leave the college.<br />
b. This also allows us to promote all the social<br />
networking resources at <strong>TSTC</strong> in one place.<br />
c. The only exception to this is YouTube. <strong>TSTC</strong> already<br />
has an established YouTube site, and all videos<br />
should be posted there.<br />
• <strong>TSTC</strong>’s Executive Director of Communications<br />
will review sites periodically to be certain these<br />
guidelines are being followed and that sites remain<br />
active. If a social media site becomes inactive for<br />
a continuous three months or does not follow<br />
guidelines established by <strong>TSTC</strong>, the college will ask<br />
that the site in question be discontinued.<br />
• Participating in social media is very timeconsuming.<br />
To do it well, page editors should be<br />
checking the page at least daily, if not more often, to<br />
respond to questions and posts. Editors should also<br />
be posting often to encourage participation and to<br />
stay relevant to users. If faculty members are not able<br />
to dedicate time to this endeavor, then they should<br />
not start a social media presence for their respective<br />
unit.<br />
• Furthermore, social media is a very public<br />
activity. Editors posting on these pages do so as<br />
communicators representing <strong>TSTC</strong> and must abide<br />
by the college social media guidelines. If employees<br />
wish to post items that do not meet with these<br />
guidelines, they can participate in social media using<br />
their own personal account, posting on Texas State<br />
Technical College pages, as well as other<br />
104<br />
<strong>TSTC</strong> | BRAND IDENTITY