Social Media

Date: November 2024

Supersedes: N/A

The following standards apply to all social media¹ accounts created by the College’s Boards2, employees, and students which include registered student organizations3, academic departments, affinity groups, or any other department or division for official business purposes of the College. All accounts must comply with the College’s social media guidelines and graphic identity guidelines as well as any applicable federal or state laws and College policies. The Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications encourages employees and students who post about the College on their personal accounts to also observe the College’s Social Media Guidelines and Best Practices.

A. COLLEGE AFFILIATED SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNT LOGIN CREDENTIALS 
 1. Login credentials: Credentials to access College-affiliated social media accounts must   be managed by more than one individual in a secure method in compliance with the   College’s Social Media Guidelines and Best Practices.

B. POSTING AND REMOVING CONTENT 
All College Boards, employees, and students conducting official business over social media should be aware of the following: 

 1. Accuracy, fairness, and respect of copyright and intellectual property  

a.) College employees and students should take the time to ensure that all the facts are gathered before posting.  
b.) Correct any errors in a timely and public manner.  
c.) Cite and link sources whenever possible. If the employee or student does not own copyright to content created or written by others, the individual must either have the copyright owner’s permission or the individual must come within the “fair use” exception. To determine whether you fall within the fair use exception and individual must conduct a fair use analysis {See Copyright Ownership policy (5.11)}.

2. Awareness of liability  

a.) College Boards, employees and students are legally liable for what you post on your own site and on the sites of others.   

3. Adherence to College policies 

a.) When College Boards, employees, and students create, administer, or interact with College social media, the individual(s) are subject to the College’s Acceptable Use of Technology Policy (5.6) and all other applicable College policies.  
b.) Violation of law, College policy and/or improperly disclosing another person’s information in connection with use of social media can have serious ramifications, any questions about the content of a specific post should be shared with your supervisor (employees) or the Director of Student Life (for students and student organization advisors). Some potential consequences include: defamation lawsuit; copyright, patent or trademark infringement claims; violation of privacy complaints; workplace grievance; criminal charges, especially with respect to obscene or hate materials; damage to the College’s reputation and business interests; campus discipline, up to and including expulsion (students); work-related discipline, up to and including termination (employees) and exclusion from College social media. 

B. CONFIDENTIALITY
1. Protect confidential and proprietary information by refraining from posting it. Account managers should also abide by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) policy (4.5), if applicable. Note. Faculty may not require a student to post to or interact with a social networking site as a part of an academic assignment. If included in an assignment for class a notation needs to be made in the syllabus that students should be made aware that by posting to a social-networking site, they may be waiving their rights under FERPA.  

D. MONITORING OF SOCIAL MEDIA 
1. All social media may be monitored and be subject to disclosure as public records  

a.) All social media posts, comments, tweets, and mentions can possibly be archived by officials of the state and/or the College and as such are considered public. There should be no expectation of privacy in any social media communication, whether personal or official. The College reserves the right to access any College social media sites to investigate issues that are reported or discovered to enforce applicable federal, state, or College policies.  

E. REMOVAL OF CONTENT  
1. In addition to sanctions that may apply through application of College policies, the College reserves the right to remove, but is not obligated to remove, any postings, comments or other content that it determines to be in violation of any law; that contains unauthorized commercial solicitations (such as spam); that are factually libelous, obscene or profane; that are deemed unlawful harassment; that are threats4; that are unjustifiable invasions of privacy or confidentiality not involving a matter of public concern; or that substantially disrupt the function of the institution.  

2. With the exception of spam, page managers should notify Strategic Communications and their supervisor (employees) and the Director of Student Life and Strategic Communications (students and student organizations and their advisors) before they remove other users’ content from their pages.  

3. Those who need assistance addressing rude posts, derogatory comments or other urgent matters should contact the Office of Strategic Marketing and Communications
(marcom@mc3.edu) for guidance on a response or course of action with copy to the following in their e-mail:  

• Supervisor (employees)  
• Director of Student Life (students and student organizations or their advisors)