Social media setup for comms leads

Creating new infrastructure, schools and units accounts

Before creating a new social media account - consider the following:

• What is the expected lifetime of the account? If short-term, could an existing NIHR account be used?

• Which audience(s) are you looking to reach? Are they present on this platform and how will you reach them?

• Do you have sufficient resource within your team to create content, build a following and manage engagement?

• Do you have enough content to share new posts with followers on a regular, ongoing basis?

• Would the account have additional value if it was a regional or scheme-wide NIHR account?

New channels should only be created if you have sufficient resource and content to build a following and maintain these as active and engaging channels on an ongoing basis.

Infrastructure should not have more than one account per platform. Please contact the social media team (social.media@nihr.ac.uk) before creating new accounts to answer any questions and to see if there are existing channels that you may be able to use to promote your content.

If you do set up a new account, please email social.media@nihr.ac.uk so they can add this information to a shared list of accounts enabling people to identify where other NIHR accounts exist that might be mutually supportive.

Twitter/X identity conventions 

Aims and principles

To improve the coherence and accessibility of NIHR on Twitter, the below naming/identity conventions should be applied to all NIHR Twitter accounts. This will ensure that:

• Accounts are quickly recognisable as part of NIHR.

• Families of accounts (i.e. accounts of the same NIHR scheme/type, whether a centre, school or unit) can be found alongside each other when searching, enabling the user to see that NIHR schemes span a number of locations and/or research theme.

• Accounts can be easily found by users irrespective of whether they know the acronym we use to label them.

Naming/identity conventions

• All accounts use the standard social media roundel

• All account names begin with "NIHR"

• Names include the centre acronym and location/region (or specialty e.g. NIHR school research theme) separated from each other and NIHR by a space

• The format of these will be consistent across centres in the same family e.g. all BRCs have the same format. This should reflect the existing way a group of centres are named

• Location/region is written in full where character count allows. If abbreviations are required these should avoid the town, city or country name. eg:

  • NIHR RDN Greater Manchester not NIHR RDN Grt Man

  • NIHR Newcastle BRC not NIHR Newcstl BRC

• Bios include the mention @NIHRresearch, most likely in place of the word NIHR e.g. 'We are part of @NIHRresearch…' (see Moorfields BRC Twitter for an example)

• Bios include the centre acronym written in full e.g. Biomedical Research Centre

• Bios follow a standard template for each family with standard definitions and flexibility for host account mentions where applicable

Supporting information

• Existing handles can remain unchanged to minimise disruption. New ones should follow a similar format to the name, accepting abbreviations may be needed owing to character limits, and ideally mirror handle structure for other similar parts of infrastructure

• Centres that support NIHR work but are not directly contracted (e.g. separate centres of an NIHR school), those that are co-funded under a non-NIHR scheme (e.g. ECMC), or those representing funded projects are out of scope for the above and should be discouraged from identifying as NIHR in their name and profile image. They should instead acknowledge the NIHR connection in their bio, including a mention of @NIHRresearch as above

• Partnerships with their own visual identity, such as Join Dementia Research, should similarly acknowledge the NIHR connection in their bio

• Where a Twitter account does not exist for a centre it is not a requirement to establish one

• Dormant accounts will be reviewed by the NIHR brand or social media groups and recommendations made

• Any accounts falling outside of what would be considered an NIHR account but that currently identify as NIHR in some way will also be reviewed on a case by case basis

• The above conventions should inform guidance for other social media channels where accounts exist/are permitted

LinkedIn - guidance and identity conventions 

New pages

If a LinkedIn page is required, please be sure to follow the guidance below:

• A company page should be used, not a personal profile. This provides more functionality and provides the future option of affiliating your LinkedIn page as part of an NIHR group

• Check if one exists, perhaps created by LinkedIn because it has recognised a number of personal profiles with the same employer listed.  Contact LinkedIn Help to take ownership if one does exist

Naming/identity conventions

• All accounts use the standard social media roundel, as indicated in current visual identity guidance

• All company names begin with "NIHR..."

• Names include the centre acronym and location/region (or specialty e.g. NIHR school research theme) separated from each other and NIHR by a space

• The format of these will be consistent across centres in the same family e.g. all BRCs have the same format. This should reflect the existing way a group of centres are named

• Location/region is written in full where character count allows. If abbreviations are required these should avoid the town, city or country name. eg:

  1. NIHR RDN Greater Manchester not NIHR RDN Grt Man

  2. NIHR Newcastle BRC not NIHR Newcstl BRC

• The overview should be suitably completed and must include information about NIHR as well as an outline of the purpose/remit of the unit or centre the page represents

• Within the text describing NIHR, you should link to the central NIHR LinkedIn page

• Overviews include the centre acronym written in full e.g. Biomedical Research Centre

Redundant pages

If you identify a page (or personal profile) for an NIHR unit/centre that is not used or required, and with few employees, steps should be taken to remove it by deactivating the page (where you have admin access) or contacting LinkedIn Help.

Other platforms (eg Facebook, Instagram) 

• All accounts use the standard social media roundel, as indicated in current visual identity guidance

• All page / account names begin with “NIHR”

• Names include the centre acronym and location/region (or specialty e.g. NIHR school research theme) separated from each other and NIHR by a space

• The format of these should be consistent across centres in the same family e.g. all BRCs have the same format. This should reflect the existing way a group of centres are named. Please check for existing accounts on the same platform, or if there are none, mirror the existing approach on your own Twitter

• For new accounts, the format should again be consistent across unit/schools in the same family on the same platform e.g. all BRCs have the same format. If there are none on that platform, mirror the approach for your own unit/school on other platforms (eg. Twitter)

• Location/region is written in full where character count allows. If abbreviations are required these should avoid the town, city or country name. eg:

  1. NIHR RDN Greater Manchester not NIHR RDN Grt Man

  2. NIHR Newcastle BRC not NIHR Newcstl BRC

• The account description/bio should be suitably completed and must include information about NIHR as well as an outline of the purpose/remit of the unit or centre the page represents. It should also link to the corporate NIHR account (where there is one, such as on Facebook) This may be in place of the word NIHR e.g. 'We are part of @OfficialNIHR…'

• The URL should be to the school or units website, or the relevant local microsite in the case of RRDNs or PRCs

Sharing local stories on national channels 

Introduction

Local communications managers, for example from RRDNs, BRCs and ARCs, have a wide variety of great stories to share with the public. These stories will often be posted on local social media channels, and maybe make local news; however, it is often worth sharing some of these stories to a wider, national audience.

It is best practice not to retweet these posts, but to repost them from a national account. This helps us to present as “one NIHR”. However, it is sometimes possible to retweet from national channels. 

What makes a story suitable?

At the bottom of this page are some examples of regional stories that have been suitable for the national channels, as well as some examples of those stories which are not likely to be suitable.

In summary, a story which has national implications or is in a subject area of national relevance (for example, diabetes affects people across the entire UK), is likely to be suitable for nationwide dissemination.

Which channel?

If you have a story which you think is suitable for the national channels, the next step is to decide which channel it is most suited to. Think about the audience you are trying to reach/who will be most interested. Take a look at our social media pages to help decide this. 

What next?

When you think you have a suitable story, gather the content together ready to email to the social media team. An editor will be in contact with you to discuss any tweaks which may be needed.

Email editors at least 24 hours in advance in order to agree on a timely post.

The email to the editors should include the proposed tweet/post wording, a link to a web page or article as appropriate, and an image or video* to be used.

*You may be requested to replace any local NIHR logos with the main NIHR logo.

Contacting the social media team 

• Email  social.media@nihr.ac.uk to discuss content ideas or if you have any questions about social media.

Examples of good stories

News and Research

Industry

Why it was a good story:

• this story fit with the industry channel as it included a charitable partner

• the article was published in a major newspaper

• the topic is of national interest

The tweet content was changed slightly as individuals were not tagged.

Examples of stories which are not appropriate for national channels

Twitter/X updates

There have been a number of changes at Twitter, which is now called X. This includes the removal of the traditional blue checkmarks, with a new initiative introduced. There are no plans to purchase checkmarks for NIHR-affiliated social media channels.