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Milner Library

Milner Library Social Media Content Strategy and Guidelines

Social media is an important part of Milner Library’s marketing and outreach efforts, allowing us to communicate with Illinois State University students, faculty, alumni, and supporters, as well as enhance our community partnerships. Quality social media content supports both the Milner Library strategic plan as well as the Excellence by Design strategic plan.

Goals for Milner Library Social Media

  • Advance the library’s mission

    Milner Library strives to be central to the teaching, learning, and research excellence of the Illinois State community. Social media content should demonstrate how the library supports students, faculty, alumni and staff through its services, programming, resources, and physical space.

  • Engage students

    Increase awareness of library initiatives that support student success.

  • Enhance public reputation

    Increase engagement and deepen relationships with scholars and community members by sharing content that highlights Milner’s collaborative relationships with campus and community partners.

  • Advance philanthropic goals

    Demonstrate the positive impact of donated support on library services, resources, and spaces.

Strategies

  • Tell creative stories through photo, video, and text that highlight Milner’s resources and their accessibility.
  • Develop mutual relationships with Illinois State partners to create and share relevant content in a broader campus context.
  • Highlight the diversity of Milner’s available resources.
  • Share successful philanthropic outcomes and recognize donors’ impact on the library’s daily operations.

Guidelines

These guidelines pertain to all Milner Library and affiliated social media accounts—these include the library’s general account (@isumilnerlib), the Dr. Jo Ann Rayfield Archives account (@isuarchives), and the Milner Library Special Collections account (@isumilnerspc). No other library-affiliated accounts should be created without prior approval of the Dean.

Library social media is managed by:

Rules

Adhere to University-wide standards concerning privacy, confidential or proprietary information, photo releases, copyrighted information, etc. These rules and standards can be found on the University Marketing website. The social media manager is also responsible for knowing and following the terms and conditions of each social media site (currently, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram).

Social media content and profile images must also meet University brand standards, which can also be found at University Marketing.

Timing

Posts to each active account should be consistent and timely. There should be at least one post per weekday on the main Milner Library account during the semester, and 3-5 scheduled posts during holiday breaks. Special Collections and Archives accounts should aim to post consistently, but need not adhere to a strict schedule.

Note that the content should drive the schedule—avoid “filler” content that doesn’t align with the goals above.

Voice and Tone

While the messaging of each social media post should be accurate and professional, because of the nature of social media, the tone can (and should) be more casual than other professional communication. For example, the use of emojis and memes can help drive an effective content strategy for Milner’s audiences. Every communication from Milner should be friendly, respectful and timely.

Advertising

Sharing of content advertising outside goods, products, or services not affiliated with Illinois State University is prohibited.

Comment Moderation

In specific instances according to Illinois State’s social media policy, comments on social media accounts may be deleted according to the social media manager’s discretion. The Illinois State policy regarding deleting comments is below:

ISU's social media managers reserve the right to delete commercial speech; fighting words; incitement of imminent lawless action; solicitations to commit crimes; true threats; abusive, obscene, defamatory, libelous, and/or harassing material directed at an individual (i.e., material based on race, color, ancestry, national origin, religion, pregnancy, sexual orientation, order of protection, gender identity and expression, age, marital status, disability, genetic information, unfavorable military discharge, status as a veteran, or sex/gender including sexual harassment, sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking ). ISU's social media managers may also delete comments promoting a commercial site or product (i.e. "spam") that has no relevance to the post on which the comment appears.

If there are materials posted that are harassing or harmful, the social media manager may be required to share that information with appropriate University departments such as Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution, or Office for Equal Opportunity, Ethics and Access, or Illinois State University Police.

Accessibility

Illinois State has many resources available for creating accessible content. In general, social media posts should use plain, concise language; avoid unexplained acronyms; provide alt text and captioning where possible; and should be available on multiple platforms to maximize accessibility.

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