{{{edit-button 'social_media.html' 'section'}}} {{#markdown}} ### What are social media? Social media allow online publication with interactive communication, including, but not limited to, social networks, blogs, Internet forums, and wikis. Examples of social media include, but are not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Wordpress, and Instagram. ### Guidelines Because social media blur the lines between personal and institutional voice, we have put together these guidelines to help you make effective use of social media as part of your work here. We encourage staff to use social media in either a personal or institutional capacity, but ask that you clearly label your personal accounts as such. Lab/team/group/official accounts should follow our guidelines. You do not need to ask permission before starting an account, but please let Rodica Petrusevschi in External Relations know. She is on hand to help you participate effectively and professionally on social media, and works with Laura Howes in the Heidelberg communications team. If you're on Twitter, Rodica and Laura can also add you to the directory of EMBL users. ### Types of social media usage We distinguish between the following types of usage: - Private: you work for EMBL, but you use a social media channel in a personal capacity and your link to EMBL is not acknowledged or stated overtly. - Associated: you work for EMBL and while your use of a social media channel is largely personal, you have declared an association with EMBL via that channel (for example in a Twitter bio). - Representative: your use of a social media channel is representative of a part of EMBL, such as a service, department or laboratory. The EMBL Staff Rules and Regulations, particularly 1 3.03-04 and R 1 3.03-05 and Internal Policy 54 apply to staff members using social media. Please make sure you are familiar with them. The EMBL logos and emblems are protected, and should not be used for private purposes. ### Using social media in a 'private' or 'associated' capacity Treat professional social media space and communication like a professional workplace. Always keep in mind that you are representing the organisation - all of us - in a public space. If a particular type of behaviour is inappropriate at work, then that behaviour is also inappropriate on professional social media. Even if you only have a few followers, you should be aware that anything you say is public. Please be especially mindful of this during important events. ### Using social media in a 'representative' capacity Social media are open, visible channels that foster open exchanges and learning and can allow our message to be amplified by other users. Using platforms such as Twitter and Facebook helps EMBL access an audience in the many millions, and to foster positive relationships with target groups including researchers, partners and collaborators, the public and employees. Through a collective social media presence, EMBL aims to join, shape and inspire conversation, and open up a respectful and knowledgeable interaction with people on the internet. Social media are important tools that complement our work in media relations, print and online communications and outreach events. ### Before you start Before launching into social media, ask yourself: Don’t just set up an account without knowing why. You might do better to use an existing EMBL social media account to get your message out. Meet with the account owner and talk to them about what you hope to achieve. #### Be prepared If you’re sure you want to get started, have some content ready for the first few days/weeks - some tweets, some posts, some events, notifications. The information you provide should be interesting, relevant and useful. (Don't worry - it doesn't have to be all three at once!) #### Be prepared to engage Do you have adequate time to dedicate to this? Social media is an active conversation with your audience. Be prepared to engage with them. #### Stop, watch and listen Before getting started on any social media channel, observe activity on the site. Get a feel for the style of contributions, the nature of the content and any ‘unwritten’ etiquette that other contributors might follow. For example, Twitter users frown upon requests for retweets. #### Best practice Know your platform. What are you going to use? Twitter, Facebook, College blogs, Google +, LinkedIn...the face of social media continues to evolve and each platform can suit different purposes at different times. Make sure you select an appropriate platform for your target audience. #### Try it out yourself. If you have never used your chosen platform before and are going to be involved in the management of an official account, you might like to try using it for yourself first. If you have never used your chosen platform before and are going to be involved in or responsible for the management of an EMBL account, you should try using it in a personal capacity first. We are on hand to offer advice about this. #### Make a plan Create a long-term plan for keeping posts up to date, relevant and timely. Readers won’t have a reason to return if they can’t expect new content regularly, but they’ll also soon tire of being overloaded with insignificant information. #### Be professional Protect our organisational voice by always remaining professional in tone and treating your audience respectfully. Never share confidential or proprietary information about the institution. ### Your profile Graphics/logos/icons If you create a social media site on behalf of EMBL (for example a lab or service account), please use simple graphics and relevant images. Think about how the images will look when added to your profile – squashed, cropped, too detailed? Go for simple and clear. If you can choose an accent colour, picking an EMBL colour such as #007c82 (petrol) or EBI #077b7f (blue-green), will make your channel sit well within the brand. Use a sans-serif font if you have a choice. Do not use the EMBL logo (or riff on it) to create your own avatar, as these can easily break our style guidelines. We're not that big - proliferating logos make it harder to build brand recognition for the organisation. If you need some advice about this, please contact us. #### Know your platform What are you going to use? Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google +, LinkedIn... ? The face of social media continues to evolve and each platform can suit different purposes at different times. Be crystal clear about who your target audience is, and make sure you select an appropriate platform for reaching them. #### Pick your name carefully In many cases this might be straightforward, your department name for example. Depending on the purpose and the platform you may need to think carefully about your name and make sure it’s clear immediately for users. Also, make sure it's not an acronym already in common use! (Pheno Image Share, I'm looking at you...) Try running it by a colleague in another team (External Relations, perhaps?). ### Posting content Consider your style. Decide how formal/informal your voice needs to be. For example, you might want to use a conversational style when tweeting to give your tweets a bit of character. If you are posting a blog about important team news, an informational style might be more appropriate. In any case, your content should be authentic. Write knowledgeably and accurately. Remember your audience: keep the language simple. Review content for grammatical and spelling errors and ask a friend or colleague - preferably someone in another team - to look over a post before you publish. Cite your sources and separate opinion from fact. Be engaging. Content that is interesting, informative and timely is bound to reach the right audience. Open-ended content invites feedback: a two-way communication exchange allows for a more meaningful conversation. This isn't always easy. Be prepared to answer questions and monitor comments. Open-ended content invites feedback. A two-way communication exchange allows for a more meaningful conversation. This isn't always easy. Unanswered questions stick out like a sore thumb. This can become time consuming so make sure you have enough time to dedicate to keeping your social media relationships thriving. Your users may become frustrated if their questions are seemingly ignored. Don’t ignore negative comments. If someone is complaining, try to answer them positively. Being defensive might invite further complaint and encourage others to join in. Social media can be a very helpful source of feedback. Avoid censuring people for expressing their opinions, but please consult Laura or Rodica immediately if you receive any comments that are insulting or offensive. Make sure the information you post is accurate. If you make a mistake, try to be the first to correct it. Don’t break copyright rules. Make sure you have permission to post other people's content. If you're posting any EMBL images onto an external site, check that you have permission to do so (sometimes we have strict agreements about how images may be used). Get rid of spam. Use your discretion to remove advertisements, spam, and comments that are hateful, obscene, or defamatory. If someone from an external media organisation contacts you about a post on your social media platform, please contact External Relations for advice and guidance. Stay connected. Cite and link within the organisation whenever possible. This will come back to you, in a good way. ### Keep social media and customer support distinct Feedback is useful, but detailed discussions about EMBL services are best handled directly by group members or helpdesks. Direct people to these. You don't want to use Facebook as a second helpdesk, for example. ### Best practice
### DO ### DON'T
Test the waters first. Launch a placeholder blog/account and see how you do with it. Then go for the official thing. Leap in without thinking
Provide a link to more information Fret too much about how your audience will experience each post
Add context Just tweet a number without a story or hook for context
Stay focused on your main message Be afraid to experiment sometimes (but gather data!)
Establish roles and responsibilities: Who manages the account? What happens to it when they leave? Launch an account if you don't have time to plan the content, post it and follow up.
Add value to a retweet by commenting Work in a vacuum. This media is always changing. Make sure you have someone to talk to when you're planning content.
Look at how far your tweets go. You should have a clear idea of what works and what doesn't. Launch an account just because someone told you to!
Post regularly - ESPECIALLY for blogs. If you only have a couple in you, consider writing a guest post instead. Launch a blog if you haven't already drafted a few posts.
Talk to the Comms team! We are here to help you. It's our job. Ignore EMBL rules and guidelines
Share events you're involved in (especially EMBL/EMBL-EBI ones!) Forget to mention people/events/organisations. Mentioning/tagging will increase your reach. Plus, it's a nice thing to do.
Find the right #hashtag. This will take a little time if you want to do it well. #fillyourtweetwithhashtags
Find your heroes! Who do you think does this well? Why?
### Established social media channels at EMBL #### Blogs We've highlighted some staff and team blogs on our news pages - have a look and see how your colleagues approach this. Please let us know if you have a blog, and if you'd like it to be listed on the blogs page. Starting a new blog? We recommend using Wordpress, as many EMBL-EBI bloggers have their pages here. The content is of course up to you. To choose elements of style, go to Templates and choose customise > advanced. You'll see options to choose the Helvetica font and various accent colours. The main EMBL colour is #007c82 (petrol). EBI accent colours are #077b7f (blue-green) and #73b360 (green). #### Facebook pages EMBL and EMBL-EBI Facebook pages serve primarily to share stories about people behind the stories. You might find posts about a new podcast, photos from an event, news from alumni or a different angle to a news story. Some of our resources have started Facebook pages to encourage dialogue amongst users. There are benefits (engaging a user community) and drawbacks (it's not a help desk). If you are thinking of starting a Facebook page for your service, contact us and we can put you in touch with others who can share their experiences with you. EMBL: Facebook.com/embl.org EMBL-EBI: Facebook.com/EMBLEBI PDBe:Facebook.com/proteindatabank Ensembl:Facebook.com/Ensembl.org?ref=ts&fref=ts EMBL events:Facebook.com/EMBLEvents ELLS:http://www.facebook.com/pages/EMBL-ELLS/151861361512186?fref=ts Szilárd Library:www.facebook.com/pages/EMBL-Szil%C3%A1rd-Library/158354770854326 #### Facebook groups EMBL-EBI staff:www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2315643129 Alumni Association:www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=48002552736 #### LinkedIn EMBL uses Linkedin to share jobs and to show how exciting a place EMBL is to work. EMBL-EBI uses LinkedIn primarily as a place to connect with EMBL alumni and to post job or collaboration opportunities. We also use it to make connections with people attending a particular conference, or to sound out potential and past trainees about their needs. Please consider adding EMBL/EMBL-EBI to your Linkedin acocunt. EMBL: Linkedin.com/company/embl EMBL-EBI: Linkedin.com/company/ebi #### Twitter EMBL posts news and stories about science and the people through the organisation, and endeavours to engage with a more general audience. The purpose of this feed is to raise awareness of the organisation amongst people who are interested in science and to build our reputation and community. EMBL-EBI posts news, events and jobs to Twitter in an automated fashion. We also retweet posts from our service and research teams or from EMBL leaders. We occasionally also share posts from our closest collaborators. The audience is purely scientific. The purpose of this feed is primarily to signpost to useful content for data consumers. An EBI Jobs feed also shares all job listings for the EBI. EMBL is looking to also implement this and automate the postings. EMBL: https://twitter.com/embl EMBL-EBI: http://twitter.com/emblebi EMBL events:http://twitter.com/EMBL_Events #### YouTube The EMBLMedia channel is used to share high quality corporate videoes about the lab and its staff as well as the course and conferences that we offer. The EBIMedia channel is used primarily as a supplement to Train Online, and hosts 'how-to' content related to EMBL-EBI services. - EMBL: YouTube.com/emblmedia - EMBL-EBI: YouTube.com/EBIMedia - Ensembl Helpdesk:YouTube.com/user/EnsemblHelpdesk?blend=3&ob=5 ### Contact If you have any questions, comments or suggestions about creating and maintaining a social media presence on behalf of EMBL, please contact: Rodica Petrusevschi, Communications Officer at EMBL-EBI Laura Howes, Social Media Manager for EMBL {{/markdown}}