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We also use the following best practices in our social media posts and interactions. We strive to:
Be friendly and approachable
- Use a tone that is upbeat, and personable.
- Use the first person plural “We” when taking about the Libraries (i.e. “We’re excited about this new service…”)
- Avoid using library jargon.
Be entertaining and informative
- Post content that is useful to our MIT community and beyond.
- Use the 80/20 rule—entertain and inform 80% of the time, promote ourselves 20%.
- When sharing outside content, make a library or MIT connection to give it context.
Be a good neighbor
- Follow, re-tweet, and like posts by fellow MIT departments (especially posts with a library, research, or literary connection).
- Be an active participant in the MIT community—stay aware of current MIT events and initiatives, and find ways to join the conversation.
- Be an active participant in the greater academic library community.
- Give credit to ideas and content from others.
Be helpful, responsive, and transparent
- Respond promptly and thoughtfully to any questions (that are not spam).
- If we get questions that aren’t quickly answerable say, “thanks for your question, we’ll check on it and get right back to you…” and check with the Ask Us team.
- If we get negative comments–address legitimate criticisms by acknowledging and addressing in a positive way. Don’t engage if the comment is harsh or threatening.
Be timely
- Keep an eye on our home feeds to stay current with posts, mentions, and retweets
- Space tweets and posts throughout the day (aim for 3 tweets a day/ 1-2 Facebook posts)
- Experiment with posting at different times of day, other than during 9-5 on weekdays
- Cover weekends and holidays with at least 1 scheduled tweet/post a day.
- Post events a week or so before the event, and remind again on the day-of.
- Post breaking news, such campus weather closings, or other alerts ASAP.
Be visually engaging
- Use photos as much as possible (especially on Facebook), but be mindful of copyright
- Use our own image collections, and Archives images
- Take informal smart phone pics and video at library locations, share “behind the scenes” shots
Be sensitive, yet neutral
- Be mindful of the diversity of our audience, and sensitive to a wide-range of views
- Make sure our language or tone does not offend anyone
- Steer clear of posting about controversial topics in the news, and political views
How to contribute: send your ideas!
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