Social Media

No matter which discipline, office, division, college, or other party within the university your social media presence represents, it first and foremost represents UNC Charlotte as a University-affiliated account. Our collective audience doesn’t have visibility into our internal structure, making it that much more important that we appear aligned in our collective approach to social media, which attracts the viewership and attention of both internal and external stakeholders alike. While we each have unique content offerings and audiences, the below style guide and related resources are designed to equip you with the foundation to ensure your social media presence is on brand and optimized.

A note on terminology

• University-affiliated account: For the purposes of this guide, university-affiliated account refers to accounts that operate in an official capacity representing a division, college, department, office, unit, or other delineation. Student groups and personal accounts are not considered university-affiliated accounts.
• Social media presence: Defined as the collective presence of a division, college, office, or department on social media (i.e. UNC Charlotte’s social media presence)
• Social media accounts: Refers to the specific accounts created on the various social media platforms that make up a social media presence (i.e. UNC Charlotte’s Twitter account).
• Social media platforms: Refers to the various social media sites in existence, most prominently Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

University Social Media Policy and the rebrand

• The social media presence of all university affiliated accounts representing a division, college, office, or department in an official capacity must be registered, approved by the UCOMM social media team, and must be compliant with the social media policy — all found on socialmedia.charlotte.edu — to receive rebranded assets.
• If you have previously registered, there is no need to register again. A member of the social media team will be in touch with you to provide updated branded assets and account changes.
• If you have not yet registered, please do so now using this link to be included in the reband.
• Unregistered accounts and accounts not adhering to the social media policy are subject to disciplinary action in accordance with the status and classification of the Account Administrator, including loss of access of account, or other disciplinary action.

Logo usage

In general, the logo should be used as an identifier of the brand, not as a graphic element itself. The general rules in the visual imagery section of the University style guide should be applied to use of the logo in the social media space.

• In the context of social media:
  • Do not use the logo in the background of graphics or images.
  • Do not alter the transparency or color of the logo.
  • Scale the logo proportionally to prevent uneven skewing.

What we call ourselves in the social media space

The general rules in the editorial style guide of the University style guide should be applied to use of the university name in the social media space as well. In addition to those, a few key considerations apply solely to the social media space:

• Avoid use of ‘UNCC’ in any context. This includes use in hashtags, in reference to a program or event, or in any other capacity.
• Instead of ‘UNCC’, begin to weave ‘Charlotte’ more informally into communications.

Related Resources

While this guide is in relation to the university brand, other key resources exist to optimize your holistic social media presence in line with university standards and the university social media policy (2020).

• Socialmedia.charlotte.edu – One stop resource for social media managers across campus to manage their social media presence, including registering their presence with University Communications, receiving branded assets, optimizing content presentation, using link shorteners, fixing errors, and more.
• University Social Media Policy