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Social media profiles at MIT Libraries
The Marketing Team and Communications Officer oversees all use of social media for the MIT Libraries.
Tool | Profile | Who updates? |
|---|---|---|
Twitter/X | Brigham Fay | |
Katharine Dunn | ||
Facebook (not actively posting) | Brigham Fay | |
| MIT Libraries | Ned Wolfe | |
| YouTube | MITLibraries | Brigham Fay, UXWS team |
Policies and best practices
Social media is an important component of the integrated marketing effort that's coordinated centrally by the Marketing Team to support our overall communications strategy. When we post to social media outlets on behalf of the MIT Libraries, our postings represent the Libraries’ brand/identity, as well as the larger MIT brand. With this in mind, we follow MIT's social media guides for MIT communicators.
We also use the following best practices in our social media posts and interactions. We strive to:
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Be friendly and approachable, informative and entertaining
- Use a tone that is upbeat ,
- and personable. See below for more information about the Libraries’ voice on social media.
- Use the first person plural “We”
- “we” when taking about the Libraries (i.e. “We’re excited about this new service…”)
- speaking for the Libraries
- Avoid using library jargon .
Be entertaining and informative
- Post content that is useful to our
- the 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
Re-share posts by fellow MIT
departments (especially posts with a library, research, or literary connection).accounts
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
- Let people know we do not answer reference questions via social media and refer MIT community members to Ask Us.
- Don’t engage if a comment is threatening, harassing, or obscene. If you are truly concerned that someone poses a threat or is harassing a member of staff, alert Libraries leadership; we have a protocol for online harassment.
- See MIT guidance on trolling.
Be thoughtful and judicious with potentially sensitive content
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Be mindful of the diversity of our audience
, and sensitive to a wide
-range of views and perspectives
Engage with topics around diversity, inclusion, and social justice, but do so thoughtfully. Make sure our
language or tone does not offend anyone- Steer clear of posting about controversial topics in the news, and political views
MIT's guidelines: http://web.mit.edu/cps/social-media-guidelines.html
How to contribute: send your ideas!
messages are in keeping with the Libraries’ mission/vision/values, MIT values, and general tone of all official communications from the Libraries.
It's not always necessary to address controversial topics or current events. If we must, is good practice to look to communications from MIT leadership
Be conscious of previously scheduled posts when news breaks or tragic events happen -- the tone or content might not be appropriate in light of what’s happening.
Accessibility
- All videos must be captioned (including Instagram Reels)
- All images on Twitter/X should include alt text
- It is our practice to include alt text/image descriptions within the caption on Instagram
- Put hashtags in camel case (e.g., #WomenAtMITWednesday)
- Put hashtags at the end of text where possible
What/how to post
The Libraries’ voice
Engaged, friendly, irreverent, caring, approachable, down-to-earth, fun, knowledgeable, helpful, collegial, goofy/nerdy, open, human, supportive, relevant, welcoming, balanced (academic and fun, work/life), global/part of a bigger conversation
Should I Post It?
- Does it reflect our brand?
- Does it reflect the unique culture of MIT? Does it make people feel connected to the campus? (nostalgia, hacks, campus vistas, history of MIT, Archives, quirkiness)
- Does it reflect our values (of MIT, the Libraries, and/or librarianship)?
- Does it help someone get something done?
- Is it an event or resource relevant to the MIT community?
How staff can contribute: Send your ideas!
The social media team To prevent having splintered social media outlets across the MIT Libraries, profiles representing the Libraries in an official/professional capacity are centralized through the Marketing Team. The Team encourages creative input from all Libraries’ departments and staff. If you'd like to have something posted through any of the social media platforms listed below, fill out the Marketing Support Request form and the Marketing Team will help you to communicate your message through appropriate mediums.
Contacts
Heather Denny oversees all use of marketing and communications in the MIT Libraries.
Social media profiles at MIT Libraries
See our current MIT Libraries' social media profiles:
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Tool
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Profile
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Who updates?
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Ann Adelsberger, Melissa Feiden, Jeremiah Graves, Stacey Snyder
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Katharine Dunn in the Scholarly Publishing Office
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Ann Adelsberger, Melissa Feiden, Jeremiah Graves, Stacey Snyder
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Cate Gallivan
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Lareese Hall (primary) + Ann Adelsberger, Melissa Feiden, Jeremiah Graves, Stacey Snyder
, email us at socialmedia-lib@mit.edu. Submitting an idea does not guarantee it will be shared. Photos must be in focus.
If you have already submitted a marketing request form to promote an event or service and checked the "social media posts" box, please do not submit an additional request via email to the social media team.
We encourage submissions such as:
- Unique photos of library spaces
- Suggestions for an ongoing series (e.g. #MarbledMonday on Instagram)
- Interesting, little-known facts about MIT history or Libraries collections, especially as they relate to current events, milestones, or anniversaries
- Positive feedback from a library user (quoted with their permission)
- Behind-the-scenes glimpses of life at the Libraries
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Flickr
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MIT Libraries (for public photos)
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Currently under review
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