Creating a Social Media Account for Your Department
So, you’re thinking about creating an Instagram account for your department? Congratulations! You are well on your way to becoming an official brand ambassador for CCS. Before you get busy posting, here are some tips, tricks and policies to help guide you along on your CCS social media journey…
Getting Started
First things first, before creating your official CCS social media channel, please send a proposal to Marketing & Communications for review and approval:
Social media accounts that represent an official CCS department are considered to be sponsored by the institution. Before creating an official CCS social media channel, a proposal must be reviewed and approved by Marketing & Communications. All accounts must be approved through the Office of Marketing & Communications, who will provide governance, oversight, and advice to all department social media administrators. If your account predates this new process, we are requesting that all existing accounts go through this same approval process. Approvals will be sent back within two business weeks. Please consider the following questions when considering a new social account:
- How will this support the college as a whole as well as the individual department/office?
- What are your goals for the account?
- Who is your target audience?
- What platform are you hoping to use & why?
- What kind of content will you post and how often will you post?
- Are you able to provide enough content to maintain a social presence year-round?
- Do you have the time to do this well?
Any College-sponsored account must follow CCS’s branding guidelines, including but not limited to:
- Handles & accounts names:
- For undergraduate programs, @ccs_departmentname
- Ex: @ccs_interiordesign, @ccs_photo, @ccs_transportation
- For graduate programs, @ccsgrad_departmentname
- Ex: @ccsgrad_cmd
- For undergraduate programs, @ccs_departmentname
- The profile picture must include the official CCS logo and be approved by the Marketing & Communications office.
- Your biography or about section must include the College’s main handle (ex. @ccs_detroit Product Design Department).
- Your biography or about section should reflect your department description found on your CCS department site.
- Your biography or about should Include the link to your program page on the CCS Website.
Once the account is active it will be added to the Marketing & Communications social account inventory. Account Administrators are responsible for keeping the Marketing & Communications team up-to-date on any changes to their account including password changes and changes in contributors to the account.
Content Creation
Best practices to encourage quality content, with additional suggestions in Later’s 2024 Content Creation Guide:
- Regularly create, maintain and monitor content on respective social media platforms and engage with users.
- Post consistent, clear, quality content.
- Moderate content that violates hosting terms of service or is of a threatening/harassing nature.
- Follow CCS’s main accounts and share when appropriate.
- Ensure all content is relevant to the goals and objectives and upholds the standards and brand pillars of CCS.
Practices to Avoid
- Don’t use the College’s brand/name to endorse any view, product, private business, cause or political candidate.
- Don’t represent personal opinions as college-endorsed views/policies.
- As a non-profit organization, the College is prohibited from promoting third-party fundraising and individual crowd-funding efforts.
- Don’t solicit funds or donations on social media for the College, your department or office, or any individual at the College, including yourself.
- Don’t promote individual or other organizations’ fundraising efforts.
- Any fundraising activities must be conducted in consultation with Institutional Advancement
- Don’t violate copyright and intellectual property rights
Brand Standards and Style Guide
Given that CCS is an art and design school, our social accounts should stand out from traditional university accounts. To ensure that, follow these simple brand guidelines:
- Follow CCS’s Style Guide when designing posts, stories, etc. Consider using our official fonts, the official CCS colors, logos, etc.
- Images should be sized properly for each platform
- Graphics should be clear and accessible
For more sizing info, check out Sprout Social’s “Always Up-to-Date Guide to Social Media Image Sizes”
Hashtags, Tagging & More
Hashtags are an easy way to connect your content to a specific topic, event, theme or conversation. Hashtags also make it easier to discover posts around specific topics, because hashtags aggregate all social media content with that same hashtag.
We request you use the following hashtags when posting:
#CCSDetroit #CCSAlumni #CCSFamily
Be sure to tag the official @ccs_detroit account on all posts. This will give the Marketing & Communications team an opportunity to see all posts and share on the main account, when appropriate. Mentioning and tagging brings awareness to additional pages from the CCS community. Tagging also shows your content to a broader audience — the audience of both your account and the page you tag — meaning your message will reach more people.
CCS Marketing has a library of fun, engaging GIFs at your disposal. Find them by searching “CCSDetroit”, “CCSDet”, “CCSAlumni” “CCSFamily” “College for Creative Studies”, “CCSPride”, “CCS Family”, “CCS Alumni”, or “CCS Detroit” in the sticker search bar.
Personal Accounts
CCS students and employees are welcome to represent CCS on their personal social account, following these guidelines:
- Including CCS in your profile is one way to spread the word – but doing so means agreeing to act professionally on your account. Be respectful and note that your opinions do not represent the views and opinions of CCS, unless specifically authorized to do so.
- Sensitive information should never be shared via social platforms (yes, even over Direct Messages).
- Be aware of liability. You are legally liable for what you post on your own sites and on others.
Questions or Advice?
Starting a social media account can seem overwhelming at times. Don’t hesitate to reach out to our Social Media Manager, Amber Zundel for strategy and advice.
Amber Zundel
CCS Associate Director of Marketing & Communications
[email protected]
