Social media

Utrecht University uses social media to strengthen the reputation of the university. Social media enable us to raise the profile of our research, education and organisation. Our online platforms also contribute to organisational objectives such as recruiting new (international) students and employees. We use these channels to answer students' questions quickly and easily. The use of social media strengthens the sense of community at Utrecht University.

The eye catcher on the social media platforms is the avatar (or profile photo). In order to streamline the use of the various Utrecht Univeristy avatars , and thus increase the visibility and recognisability of the UU, guidelines for avatars have been developed.

Avatar-template for subsenders

A special template is available for avatars to use for units within Utrecht University. This template recognizes UU as the main brand and leaves sufficient room for the unit to profile themselves.

Many social media platforms show the avatar in a circle, others in a square. Our template is set up in such a way that it works well in both ways.

If your department of the organisation does not have an avatar yet, you can have an avatar made by one of the internal designers at UU. A basic file (.psd) that can be altered is available for designers.
Please contact the designer of your organisation department or the Corporate Identity team to support you in this.

N.B. the avatar template is for use on social media only and should not serve as a logo. All rules regarding logo use and our brand architecture can be found here.

Tips for your avatar

• You will always see the avatar in combination with the name of the social media profile next to it, so you don't necessarily have to mention your name in the avatar. Do you have a good photo, illustration or icon that beautifully depicts your sender? Then use it!

• If you want to use text in the avatar itself, think carefully about it. In many cases people see the avatar in a small format, so the shorter the better.

Corporate avatar

There is one uniform avatar for all corporate Utrecht University social media profiles: the sol, without motto, well aligned on a white surface. Please note: this avatar is only meant for corporate social media profiles and not for social media profiles of subsenders.

Netiquette and social media

Utrecht University believes it is important to make good use of social media in work and educational situations. That is why Utrecht University has drawn up a 'netiquette', which contains the general rules of conduct for the use of social media. You can read these rules on the Utrecht University intranet (for employees, login required).