Michigan Tech Social Media Blog

Day: January 24, 2022

Get Your Social Media Icons and Connect

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Now that you named your account something with Michigan Tech or MTU in it so your community can find you, it’s time to go for a social media icon. 

Find social media-sized icons in UMC’s brand resources. If you want a custom icon with your unit’s name, email social@mtu.edu and we’ll submit a design request.

Your platform banner should be a sharp, impactful photo. It’s best to avoid pasted-together collages, poster-style imagery or photos that aren’t high-quality.

All of the University’s active social media accounts are listed in our directory. Take a look and take the time to follow University accounts. Those moments you spend exploring other University accounts (those of us who tend to fall down the rabbit hole set a timer) will pay off in the long run. Because you’ll find excellent shareable content and see posts that inspire creation. See something you like? Do that.

We’ll take a look at the anatomy of a strong social media post next time. In the meantime, keep the social media questions coming to the University Marketing and Communications team at social@mtu.edu. We’ll get to as many as we can as fast as we can.

For more tips, check out our social media field guide.

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Administrators, Page Roles, and Not Getting Left in the Lurch

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Ever been locked out of your department’s Facebook Page? It’s happened more than once at MTU. As a best practice, because Facebook is tied to personal accounts, it’s important to have one to three full-time permanent employees in your office as administrators, so that when a student graduates or an employee moves on, transitions can be handled smoothly. Having a core team of admins is also vital in emergencies. If the person who posts to your social accounts isn’t available and there’s a problem you need someone you can depend on to fix the issue fast. University Marketing and Communications has key leaders on both our communications and digital teams for just such social media situations. 

Some people don’t want to use their personal account for a department or organization Facebook. We understand. But you can’t make up a fake account for an administrator. If and when Facebook follows up—and the platform has become more vigilant about verifying identities—they’ll take down the page if the administrator is not a real person tied to an authentic account. That’s happened at MTU, too.

In the case of all the admins being shut out or if the only admin is no longer with the University, a person listed as an editor can try to get admin privileges if there is no administrator. This will require searching around in a morass of often unhelpful Facebook Help pages to find the correct form—the platform doesn’t make it easy! Here’s a WikiHow that may be helpful. This help page on Facebook might also lead you to somewhere useful.

Bottom line: the time has long passed when a social media account can simply be handed over to a student intern. A recent survey showed that 82 percent of your digital interactions with prospective students and other people you want to be in touch with will be on social media (Cision, State of the Media 2021). Having a fail-safe backup system for account administration is essential.

We’ll talk about icons and more getting-started tips next time. In the meantime, keep the social media questions coming to the University Marketing and Communications team at social@mtu.edu. We’ll get to as many as we can as fast as we can.

For more tips, check out our social media field guide.

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How to Choose a Social Media Account Name

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Michigan Technological University 1885 with a Husky on a boulder sign with soft-focus trees in the background shows MTU's logo.

When you’re naming your social media accounts, make it easy for folks to find you by using your actual name.

Bands are a good example of why that makes sense. Unless you’re a super fan or the group is Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, remembering individual band member names is nowhere as easy as simply knowing the name of a solo performer who goes by their actual name. 

Sure, we get that your department or organization’s full formal name is usually too long for a social media handle. You can include the formal name in your About section and choose something more abbreviated for your account name. What do the people you already interact with call you? Go with that. Examples include @michigantechhumanities (Instagram) and Michigan Tech College of Business (Facebook). 

Avoid symbols, acronyms, numbers and any other choices that aren’t intuitive to the audiences you want to engage with—for example, @AASMM_1885 doesn’t have the same search capability or user-friendly qualities as @MineralMuesumofMTU (the Facebook Page for A.E. Seaman Mineral Museum of Michigan Tech).

If it’s a University account, make your Michigan Tech affiliation clear, using MTU or Michigan Tech. Please follow MTU’s editorial guidelines by not using Michigan Tech University in social media or anywhere else. It leads to confusion about what kind of university we are.  

If you can, use the same name across all platforms where you have a presence. If you might join other social platforms in the future and want to ensure the name is reserved, as well as preventing others from unofficially nabbing the name, it’s a good idea to set up an account under your preferred name. You can activate it when you’re ready.

If you have the resources, it can be useful to set up a brainstorm with others in your unit to narrow down name choices. Once you settle on a name, head over to the Michigan Tech Social Networks directory and submit your account using the handy-dandy button in the right navigation pane. 

We’ll talk about account administrators next time. In the meantime, keep the social media questions coming to the University Marketing and Communications team at social@mtu.edu. We’ll get to as many as we can as fast as we can.

For more tips, check out Michigan Tech’s Social Media Field Guide.

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