Sociologists for Women in Society

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Social Media Guidelines

Updated: March 2025 by SWS Council

As a general practice, SWS will primarily follow organizational and institutional accounts on social media. SWS reserves the right to block any account harassing the SWS accounts. Harassing the account includes, but is not limited to, attacking the Association for its posts, spreading misinformation about the Association, excessively or repeatedly tagging the account with negative commentary to try and get a response.   

Posting on SWS Social Media Accounts 

SWS social media posts are for informational purposes only and are not SWS endorsements; they do not reflect and represent the views, position, or “voice” of SWS.    

Individual SWS members posting to their individual/personal social media accounts does not constitute a post nor endorsement by SWS, even if they hold SWS leadership positions within the Association or for the Gender & Society journal. 

General Information on  SWS Social Media Accounts and the Role of the SWS Communications Coordinator

OVERSIGHT: The SWS Communications Coordinator is a part-time employee of SWS. The Executive Officer supports and coordinates the social media related communications of the Association in consultation with the SWS Communications Coordinator. 

Overview of DUTIES for the SWS Communications Coordinator: The SWS Communications Coordinator is responsible for the following items:

  1. Post regularly via SWS social media accounts (up to 4 items daily, excluding weekends and holidays) including but not limited to: news articles, research news about SWS and our members, Op-Eds or other public-facing publications written by current SWS members, links to Gender & Society blog posts, and other related blog posts.
  2. Follow organizations, journalists, presses, and news outlets as sources of new information to share with members, and to foster professional networks with these entities.  
  3. Compile a Weekly Digest of news articles, research news about SWS and our members, links to Gender & Society blog posts, and other related blog posts to share with membership each Friday.
  4. Assist the Executive Officer in publicizing organization news and announcements to membership.
  5.  Produce a yearly report of activity on social media accounts for the Executive Officer. 
  6. Please refer to the SWS Manual for additional information about the duties of the SWS Communications Coordinator.

Best Approaches to Posting on SWS Social Media Accounts

  • Ensure each SWS Social Media Account has the disclaimer: “posting is not an SWS endorsement.” 
  • Post news articles from reliable and verifiable sources of interest to our membership. Topics should not be confined to gender and feminism, but include intersectional issues such as race, education, employment, immigration, healthcare, families, social movements, economic inequality, poverty, etc. Share news articles that are diverse in that they cover race and issues impacting non-white communities and trans/queer issues (i.e. non-cis women). Also post news articles that are international, covering a variety of countries and peoples. 
  • Share opinion pieces and blog posts only when the author is a scholar and the piece is well supported with evidence. 
  • Distribute links about current SWS members in the news. If an SWS member writes a news article or opinion piece, or is featured (quoted) in the news, post with the tagline “By SWS member…” or  “With SWS member…”. 
  • Post links to news articles that cite Gender & Society research, and current SWS members’ research published elsewhere (books, etc.).  
  • Use hashtags to link posts to specific issues and events (e.g. #InternationalWomensDay or #TitleIX etc.). 
  • Share news and announcements upon request from the SWS Executive Office and Council (e.g. awards applications, upcoming meetings, membership drives, etc.) 
  • Block an account posting comments deemed sexist, racist, ableist, ageist, homophobic, or hateful to any group or person. If an SWS post receives offensive comments in response, then the post itself could be removed.
  • Ensure posts are as accessible as possible. Write descriptive image captions for people with visual impairments, include alt text where allowed, ensure video content is subtitled, and use #CapitalizedWordsInHashtags for screen-readers to work correctly. 

Posting Practices to Avoid on SWS Social Media Accounts

  • Do not include your own commentary that agrees or disagrees with the article. We share for informational purposes, not to argue a specific perspective.  
  • Do not post your own ideas or commentary (sans article) because that is in conflict with posting for informational purposes for an organization (i.e., post is not for yourself).  
  • Only sharing posts that everyone in membership agrees with diminishes the goal of disseminating informational posts. 
  • Do not post anything that would constitute campaigning for a political candidate during an election, or appear to support one candidate over another. SWS is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization, so we are not allowed to participate in a campaign or support a specific candidate as doing so would jeopardize our tax status. 
  • Avoid following political parties, politicians, or political candidates. 
  • Refrain from posting articles that use dubious sources or cite non-scholarly research. 
  • Do not post opinion pieces that advocate only on one side on controversial topics among feminists and women—i.e. Breastfeeding.
  • Avoid engaging with trolls or otherwise inflammatory commenters.