Social Media Guidance

Posts on social media that align with the university’s brand help audiences connect with Purdue. Discover tips, tricks and platform guidance that promote best practices.

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Audiences: Parents, alumni, general public
Frequency: Once per day
Content: Stories about research initiatives, celebrations/milestones, current student profiles and alumni profiles
Character Count: While 63,206 characters is the maximum count, the ideal length is 50 characters or fewer. When a caption this short isn’t possible, focus on getting the “hook” of the post within the opening part of the caption.
Visuals: Image size: 1200×630 px; video size: 16:9 or 9:16 ratio
Tips: Lead with authentic Purdue photos. Keep text minimal. Avoid logos/co-brands in graphics. To vary posts, consider additional options such as utilizing one 1200 x 630 px image or graphic with two 1:1s or a post with multiple 1:1 photos.

Facebook Stories

Audiences: Parents, alumni, general public
Frequency: One to two times per day. Note: Facebook stories disappear after 24 hours.
Content: Use Facebook stories to post in-the-moment and behind-the-scenes photos and videos to supplement feed posts and to promote upcoming or current events to increase engagement. Use links to provide more information and to drive traffic to your website.
Visuals: 9:16 ratio, 1080×1920 px (image and video)
Tips: Text is needed. Graphics posted to your story will need more context than regular posts. Try to keep word count to a minimum, including the link sticker call to action if applicable. Think concise and catchy for this copy. Leave space in the design for tags, stickers and auto-populating elements. Interactive elements, like polls and quizzes, are great for engagement.

Audiences: Current students, prospective students, alumni, general public
Frequency: Once per day and at least three Instagram story elements per day
Content: Events, student profiles, faculty profiles, student life, celebrations, milestones
Character Count: While 2,200 characters is the maximum count, the ideal length is 50 characters or fewer.
Visuals: Ideal image size is 4:5, 1080×1350 px
Tips: Lead with strong photography. Text can be used to enhance storytelling. When posting a carousel, keep the slide count to 10 or fewer.

Instagram Reels

Frequency: Post as part of daily activity.
Length: Videos up to three minutes can be published using the Reel option in-app. If you’re posting a video longer than three minutes, select the “post” option in-app.
Visuals: 9:16 ratio preferred. Make sure to utilize the “safe zone” when creating 9:16 video. This will ensure that any text or captions are not covered with in-app elements.
Tips: Captions need to be burned into the video. Use trending audio as appropriate, add cover images and use in-app templates.

Instagram Stories

Audiences: Current students, prospective students, alumni, general public
Frequency: At least three stories per day. Note: Instagram Stories disappear after 24 hours.
Content: Events, student profiles, student life, celebrations, milestones
Visuals: 9:16 ratio | 1080×1920 px (image and video)
Tips: Text is needed. Graphics posted to your story will need more context than regular posts. Try to keep word count to a minimum, including the link sticker call to action if applicable. Think concise and catchy for this copy. Leave space in the design for tags, stickers and auto-populating elements. Interactive elements, like polls and quizzes, are great for engagement.

Audiences: Current students, prospective students, parents, alumni
Frequency: Two to three times per week. Youtube Shorts can be published every day. Look in the Audience Analytics section to see the best publish time.
Content: Share stories about Boilermakers. Videos should align with one or more of the content pillars: athletics, education, research and experience.
Character Count: Title: 100 characters or fewer; description: 5,000 characters
Visuals: Video: 16:9 ratio | 1280 x 720 px; YouTube Shorts: 9:16 | 1080 x 1920 px
Tips: Always add captions, transcripts, chapters, end screens and info cards; add to playlists; set videos “not for kids.” Note: Shorts do not have thumbnails. YouTube auto-selects a frame from the video.

YouTube Thumbnails

Design your thumbnail to be legible in small formats. Use large, readable fonts. Don’t forget about proper color contrast for accessibility compliance.
Your thumbnail should signal what your video is about to users.
Leave room in the thumbnail design for populated elements like the time stamp, play button, etc.
Ensure the thumbnail is both high resolution and eye-catching.
If your video is part of a series of videos or a campaign, consider using a thumbnail template.

Lead with a strong, in-brand Purdue photo.
Text can be used thoughtfully to add context and storytelling within the post.
Always use brand fonts if copy is included in graphics.
Design for accessibility. Sprout Social offers 10 guidelines to make social posts more accessible, and we have additional information in the Accessibility section.
Avoid logos/co-brands in graphics since posts are always paired with profile icons and the name of the page.
Don’t forget to incorporate videos when possible.
Do not use QR codes in graphics since a significant portion of your audience views posts on mobile devices.

All social media content created, published or shared on behalf of Purdue University should meet applicable accessibility standards and best practices. This includes images, videos, graphics, captions, hashtags and linked content. For additional guidance on creating accessible social media content, visit the Section 508 Social Media Accessibility Guide.

Alt Text on Images

Text embedded into images or GIFs that conveys the meaning; designed to make visual content accessible to users with screen readers. Alt text should communicate concisely and not repeat any information provided in the text of the post.

Closed Captions (CC)

Refers to captions that can be toggled on or off by the user watching a video. An SRT file, used broadly across all platforms, is a simple, plain text file used to add timed captions or subtitles to videos.
Instagram does not allow for SRT upload, so we opt for burned-in captions for that platform.

Burned-in Captions or Open Captions (OC)

Refers to text permanently rendered directly onto a video, making captions visible to all viewers and impossible to turn off.
Used on Instagram when an SRT file cannot be added.
Should include notice of background music and lyrics as needed if it’s important for video comprehension.
Be aware of the placement of captions to not overlap with the user experience of the platform.

Color Contrast

Refers to the difference between the color of text and the color of the background.
It is best to maintain a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for regular text and 3:1 for large text. This ratio is the minimum required for federal content creators. Use a color contrast analyzer to determine the ratio of your graphic.
Purdue Brand Studio has a digital brand colors compliance chart for easy reference.

CamelCase Hashtags

Refers to the use of capital letters to separate words in a multi-word hashtag (e.g., #ThisIsCamelCase) instead of all lowercase (#thisisnotcamelcase), making them easier to read — notably for screen readers to pronounce correctly.

Use approved vanity URLs (go.purdue.edu, purdue.link, purdue.ws, purdue.university). Start the vanity URL request process here: https://marcom.purdue.edu/contact/request/.
For campaigns, use the Campaign URL Builder to create shortened links with tracking data.

Bitly

Provides URL shortening, branded links and engagement tracking.
Useful for print, email and external communications.
Bitly QR codes auto-populate with the Bitly logo, which can be replaced or overlaid with the Motion P for Purdue branding.

Other free options:

Social Media Guidance

Posting Tips

Managing a Purdue Account

Stay Organized

Sharing Links From Purdue Stories and Purdue Newsroom on Social Media

Platform Guidance

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Exposure Galleries

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