Facebook Tips

Managers of Facebook pages at Tufts should be able to check on the page at least once a day and should have enough content to post at least once a week.

Before creating any social media account, you must fill out the Account Request form. Once your account is approved, you must register your channel(s).

Differences Between Profiles, Pages and Groups

• Pages are designed for businesses and brands to connect with their customers and communities and need to be created by a personal profile. Pages have admins who post the vast majority of content to the page.
• Groups are designed for more personal interaction around a common interest and usually contain more dialogue among the members. Although there are admins, many group members post content and initiate conversations. A group is created for the new undergraduate class each year at Tufts where they meet and chat with their future classmates.
• Profiles are individuals’ personal Facebook accounts. Do not set up a personal Facebook account to represent a group or organization; it is against Facebook’s terms of service and violates the Tufts Social Media Policy.

Setting Up Your Page

• Category: Choose “Companies & Organizations → Education”
• Name: Your page name should include “Tufts University” or “Tufts” (e.g. “Tufts Office of Sustainability,” “Tufts Dining”). Pages are external-facing channels so you want the name to be something easy for search engines to find. Think of what people might search for to find information about your department or organization. For example, if creating a Facebook page for the Tufts football team, good names might be “Tufts University Jumbos Football” or “Tufts University Football,” not “Jumbo Pigskin.”
• Username: The username you choose will become your page’s Facebook URL and it should uniquely describe your page. Remember, once you create your URL, it cannot be changed. You can set up your username at http://www.facebook.com/username/. Make sure you are setting your page username and not the username for your personal account.
• About: Briefly describe your department or organization and how it is unique at Tufts.

Profile Picture and Cover Photo

View up-to-date ideal sizes for Facebook photos.

Profile photos need to be at least 180×180 pixels. Profile photos for Tufts pages should be unique to your department or area and represents what makes you unique at Tufts. Departments with their own logos may want to use that logo. Only the main Tufts University page may use the Tufts University logo for a profile  photo. You may not use the university seal as your Facebook profile photo (please see University Visual Identity Guide).

Cover photos are 851 pixels wide and 315 pixels tall. If you upload an image that is smaller than these dimensions, it will get stretched to this larger size, making it blurry and pixelated. For best results, upload a 851×315 pixel photo. You may not use the university seal as your Facebook cover photo (please see University Visual Identity Guide).

Be sure the photos you select do not violate copyright rules (see the Social Media Policy for more details).  If you are looking for suitable images to use for Facebook profile or cover photos, please contact Communications and Marketing or Tufts Photo.

Posting on Your Facebook Page

Successful Facebook pages at Tufts consider what kind of content their audience would like to see on Facebook as well as the key messages that the department or group would like to convey to their audience. Working these two ideas together will result in pages that engage our audiences while supporting our messages.

• Post photos. Photos take up a lot of real estate in the Facebook newsfeed and therefore often make for popular posts. (Photos posted online should be your property, in the public domain, have a Creative Commons license, or fall under fair use. For all other instances, you should seek permission from the copyright holder. See the Social Media Policy for more details.)
• Share timely content and news (events, news stories, blog posts, pages from your website profiling programs or individuals)
• Post videos. (Videos uploaded to Facebook should be your property, in the public domain, have a Creative Commons license, or fall under fair use. For all other instances, you should seek permission from the copyright holder. See the Social Media Policy for more details.)
• Post links to related organizations or information (Tip: once you’ve pasted the link onto Facebook, a box will appear containing the link and a picture, if available. You can then delete the link you pasted, since it is now clickable in the box. Deleting the original link makes for a cleaner post that is more appealing to users.)
• Ask questions and solicit feedback
• Engage with your audience by answering questions, liking comments, etc.

Facebook uses an algorithm to determine what posts users will see in their news feeds. Posts that their friends have liked, commented on or shared and posts from pages they have interacted with in the past are more likely to appear. Choose content that will interest and engage those who like your page and they will be more likely to interact with the content.

Adding Milestones

The Timeline format is a great way to tell the story of your organization or department. You can include when you were founded and other important milestones and be sure to include photos (photos found on Tufts Digital Archives should be attributed to the “Tufts Digital Collections and Archives” with the URL.). Milestones give the complete background for your group and can be a fun way for users to get to know you.

Managing Posts on Your Wall

People may post to your page’s wall. These posts will appear on the right hand side of your page in a box entitled, “Visitor Posts.” Check your Facebook page regularly (at least once a day) to respond to messages and questions or remove inappropriate postings (e.g., ads, commercial postings, spammers, offensive, obscene, or inappropriate content). Clicking “Visitor Posts” will open a new box that allows you to see all the posts that have been posted to your page.  Clicking the three dots at the top right of a post produces a drop down menu, where you can choose other options, including deleting, hiding, or reporting it.

You may want to add a disclaimer to the page’s “About” section that informs users of how and when comments or posts will be deleted: “We reserve the right to remove content that is spam, commercial, harassing, obscene and/or derogatory.”

People may post reasonable criticism (e.g., “Last night’s event was too crowded and the music was too loud!” or “I am annoyed that I didn’t get into your program”). To build credibility and authenticity, it is usually best to allow these comments to stand, allowing other users to see the exchange.

Be mindful of Facebook’s Terms of Service and policy for reporting abuse.