The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI) uses the following content standards for its social media channels. If you have questions about CMEI social media, contact the CMEI social media team.
Learn more about DOE’s social media guidance and social media policies.
Best Practices for Social Media Content
CMEI posts social media updates following best practices for targeting audiences and garnering engagement.
CMEI staff are encouraged to work with your technology office communications lead to prioritize content requests and submit topic suggestions. If you are submitting draft social media content, your copy should:
- Lead with a clear, audience-focused hook that quickly conveys why it matters.
- State the impact of the post from the audience’s perspective rather than starting with organizational context. Use first person (we/our) as the subject instead of using office or department names.
- Include one to two relevant hashtags per post, integrated within the post text if possible.
- Including one or two relevant emoji in posts may also be beneficial, but not for all topics or platforms. Work with your social and communications leads to determine what types of content may benefit.
- Tag relevant partner organizations within the post to help amplify engagement. Tagging individuals is not recommended unless they are high profile, known accounts, such as the Secretary of Energy.
- It is important to note that organizations can have different handles, or names, on different platforms, so double check any accounts you want to tag. For example, NLR's X account is @NatLabRockies, while its Instagram account is @nationalrenewableenergylab.
- Use relevant visuals or videos with posts, instead of using the autogenerated image. Remember that all images we use for social media must be Section 508 compliant and accessible, including using alt text.
- Amplify relevant content from other established government brands.
Where applicable, photos and videos uploaded to social media should use DOE's updated branding and templates. Do not use unapproved or older DOE/CMEI logos in photos or videos.
CMEI staff are welcome to submit photos to the U.S. Department of Energy's Flickr account. Contact your communications lead if you have images to post on Flickr.
CMEI offices are welcome to add videos to the DOE Vimeo channel.
All videos must follow CMEI's video requirements. Before beginning to produce a video, please consult with your office's communications lead, who will submit your idea for review via the CMEI Policy Calendar. You can begin producing the video after receiving approval from CMEI Communications.
CMEI offices can post videos on the DOE YouTube channel. Before beginning to produce a video, please consult with your communications lead.
If you want your video posted on DOE's YouTube channel, follow the process on the Video page.
CMEI staff are encouraged to submit content topic ideas for the CMEI Facebook account after first coordinating with their office's communications lead, who will work directly with CMEI Communications.
Based on analytics research, types of posts that are ideal for CMEI's Facebook audience include:
As Facebook users largely access the site through mobile devices, content should be optimized for mobile viewing. This may include creating vertically aligned videos and the use of mobile-friendly images.
CMEI staff are encouraged to submit content topic ideas for CMEI's LinkedIn account after first coordinating with their office's communications lead, who will work directly with CMEI Communications.
Based on analytics research, types of posts that are ideal for CMEI's LinkedIn audience include:
CMEI staff are encouraged to submit content topic ideas for CMEI's X account after first coordinating with their office's communications lead, who will work directly with CMEI Communications.
Based on analytics research, types of posts that are ideal for CMEI's audience include:
Twitter posts for non-verified accounts are limited to 280 characters, including links (which take up 23 characters, regardless of URL length).
Additional branding information, including assets, can be found on X's support site.