All social media accounts representing any department, program, unit, or group affiliated with the university are required to comply with University of Oregon branding standards and applicable social media guidelines.

For information about UO brand standards, please see the Our Brand, Visual Identity, and Marks and Logos sections.

For information about social media guidelines, please visit the Social Media Strategy, Practices, and Guidelines section.

Account Names and Handles

When naming your department, program, or unit’s social media account, clearly and concisely identify who or what the account is representing. Add the institution name “University of Oregon” or "UO" before your unit name.

For platforms like Instagram and Twitter, in addition to a name, your account will also have a handle (i.e. the name following the “@” symbol). As much as possible, your account’s handle should mirror its name.

Examples:

• Name: University of Oregon
• Handle: @uoregon
• Name: Call Me A Duck
• Handle: @callmeaduck

Wherever possible, your account name and handle should be consistent across all platforms on which you are managing a social media presence.

Avatars and Profile Pictures

Social media accounts representing the University of Oregon and affiliated groups should use an approved, branded avatar or profile photo. These should be consistent across your accounts on the various platforms you maintain a social media presence on.

Avoid using your unit’s informal secondary logo or adding text to approved profile pictures as the text is often too small to read on mobile devices and the name of your department, program, or unit is included on your profile and next to each piece of content you post.

Approved social media icons are available in the UO Brand Library.

Please note the icon featuring the yellow "O" set on the green background is reserved for use by the institutional account. The yellow "O" set on the black background is reserved for use by GoDucks.

Banners, Imagery, and Graphics

UO brand standards apply to all social media banners, imagery, and graphics. The standards are available in Our Brand, Visual Identity, and Marks and Logos sections.

Social media graphic templates are available in the UO Brand Library and include variations where you can insert your own photo and others that are solely text and graphic-based.

When posting photos to social media, ensure you are following the guidelines for photo permissions and model waivers. See the Photography section for more information. In addition, when posting images and graphics to your accounts, please ensure you have the correct permissions to use the images or graphics and ensure you follow copyright laws as applicable. If you are unsure or have questions, please contact the Marketing and Brand Strategy team.

User-Generated Content

Sharing content from members of our community can be a great way of highlighting our community, their experiences, and providing an authentic view of what it means to be a Duck. When sharing user-generated content, first consider the following:

1. Before engaging with the user, review their profile. By sharing their content on a university account, they are becoming a representative of our institution and brand. We want to ensure their account reflects the values of our community.
   1. If the user is a student or employee, you should also check to make sure they are in good standing with the university.
2. Reach out to the user to get explicit written consent from them to share their content on your account. If the user declines, be respectful of their wishes to not be featured.
3. Provide attribution for the photo and any other content to the user by tagging them in the photo and giving them credit in the caption.

Developing UO’s Voice and Tone in Your Content

The voice and tone of your content should aim to inspire, inform, and entertain your target audience. Our Brand Attributes provide a frame of reference when thinking about developing copy and how to make our content stand out in the sea of social media content. The attributes can be broken down further into the following qualities to help inform the voice and tone of your social copy.

Qualities of our brand voice: Energetic, intelligent, bold, inclusive, and confident.

When writing for a social media audience, consider character limits and the following questions to help develop your copy:

• Why should someone care?
• How would you talk about this to a friend?
• How would you communicate the message in 10 words or less?
• What is exciting about this?
• What is the main takeaway you want someone to leave with from this post?

Generally, your copy should:

• Speak from a first and second person perspective (i.e. using “we,” “us,” “our,” “ours,” “you,” “your,” and “yours”). Avoid using “I,” “me,” “my” and “mine” as your account should speak from the organization and not as an individual.
• Keep your copy short and concise.
• Use emojis and hashtags.
• Avoid using slang or language that may not be easily understood by a broad audience.
• Include a call to action to invite additional engagement (e.g. comments, likes, or shares) by followers.
• Provide context for visuals and graphics.

Tips for Posting

Be respectful and inclusive of people, communities, and ideas.

Be accurate. If you make an error, correct it quickly and briefly without defensiveness.

Avoid posts on legislation, court proceedings, or about political parties. See the UO policy on political activities for more information. Any exceptions should be approved by University Communications before posting.

Be supportive of our diverse community and follow our guidelines to not post or engage with racist, sexist, and otherwise offensive content.

Help amplify content from other UO accounts. We are all working to tell the story of the University of Oregon. Sharing and reposting content from other UO accounts helps to increase the reach of our stories, tells a more holistic story, and shows the many different facets and features of the Duck experience.

Understand that your account represents the university and not your personal views. Decisions about content and posting for the account should be based on the university’s mission, values, and stance on certain topics rather than your personal views.

Comply with copyright, fair use, and financial disclosure laws. For more information, see our Social Media Strategy, Practices, and Guidelines section.

Make sure your links work. Use UTM codes whenever possible to support accurate analytics and insights.

Don’t just push content or be a part of trends because they are popular. Create dialogue, advance conversations, and share what makes our university unique and relevant.

Emojis

Emojis are fun and can be an important part of crafting engaging content and striking the right tone. However, they need to be used thoughtfully just like any aspect of copy for a post. Make sure you fully understand the connotations of emojis before using them in your content.

Recommended emojis for use:

• Duck emoji – 🦆
• Green heart – 💚
• Yellow heart – 💛

*When using emojis on platforms like Instagram Stories where the text backgrounds are often different colors, consider the contrast between the emoji and the background.

Hashtags

It is important to use hashtags to brand campaigns, as well as create an organizational structure for audiences to clearly search and understand our content. Use hashtags when relevant and appropriate. It is good to keep in mind the number of hashtags being used. In general, don’t use too many hashtags in a single post.

University Announcements and Social Media Toolkits

Generally, for major university announcements and operational updates, the messages will be posted directly on the UOregon accounts. Specific guidance for other university and university-affiliated social media accounts will be provided to social media managers, but generally, we ask that you reshare the content posted by the UOregon accounts.

In many cases, University Communications will provide a social media toolkit with background information and specific guidance on how your social media accounts can help advance and amplify the messaging on social media. The toolkits are typically sent via email to social media managers in communications roles and will be available through the UO Brand Library.

Questions?

Jesse Summers
Director of Social Media and Brand Strategy
summers5@uoregon.edu
541-346-0402

Ceara Wilson
Assistant Director, Social Media and Student Employment
cearaw@uoregon.edu
541-346-3050

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