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Social Media sites can be effective tools for communications, marketing, and building relationships for college initiatives. The College publishes procedures to help Carteret Community College employees and students understand how CCC College policies apply to communications technologies such as blogs and social networking sites, and to guide employees and students in using social media platforms. The procedures apply to Internet communications about the College, information that the College publishes on hosted websites, and communications delivered via College social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and others.
If College employees or students choose to have a social media presence, then they must do so in ways that are both professional and technically secure. This is best accomplished by following the College’s policies and procedures, and by understanding and following the Technology Usage Policy. Social media users who work with college related sites must be aware that these types of communications are considered part of the state’s Open Records law, which requires that public records be kept for a certain length of time and that they can be made available to the public and news media organizations. The goal is to protect employees and students, and to ensure consistency across departments when incorporating social media into their initiatives.
College units and departments are responsible for ensuring that content posted by or on behalf of any unit or department adhere to the College policies and to appropriate federal and state laws. To that end, units and departments must periodically review and comply with the College’s Social Media Policy and procedures.
If you post on behalf of any official Carteret Community College (CCC) entity (i.e., department, unit, class, group, etc.), the following guidelines must be adhered to in addition to all policies and best practices listed:
- Register your site: Departments or College programs that have a social media presence or would like to start one must contact the Marketing Director to register the site and ensure it meets requirements. The College’s Marketing Director will ensure all college social media sites are appropriate and coordinated with other CCC sites and their content. The College’s Marketing Director reserves the right to decline a request for a unique page/site. In those cases, the department or program will have the opportunity to post information on the College’s main information site(s).
- Have a plan: Departments must consider their messages, audiences and goals, as well as a strategy for keeping information on social media sites up-to-date. The College’s Marketing Director can assist and advise with social media planning.
- Set up site administrators: All institutional pages must identify an existing full-time employee who is appointed to be responsible for content. In addition, all sites must have the College’s Marketing Director identified as an administrator, with full access to the site wherever possible. The Marketing Director will not use this access unless something inappropriate needs to be removed, and is not a substitute for regular unit/department review and oversight.
- Brand your site appropriately: Institutional social media sites must include the College logo and other appropriate branding, such as the College’s name displayed in Century Gothic font.
- Link to other college sites: Institutional social media sites must link to other institutional sites wherever possible, including the college website and other social media outlets (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, etc.).
- Keep the site current: All institutional sites must be monitored daily and updated at least weekly. Any site that remains dormant for more than four weeks will be rendered inoperable.
- Acknowledge who you are: If you are representing CCC when posting on a social media platform, acknowledge this.
- Inform your supervisor: If you are not the designated site administrator and intend to post comments regularly as a contributor, you must inform your supervisor so that he/she understands and approves of your goals and tactics for use on behalf of CCC.
- Protect confidential and proprietary information: Do not post confidential or proprietary information about Carteret Community College, students, employees, or alumni. Employees must still follow the applicable federal requirements such as FERPA and HIPAA. Adhere to all applicable College privacy and confidentiality policies. Employees that share confidential information do so at the risk of disciplinary action or termination.
- Respect copyright and fair use: When posting, follow copyright and intellectual property rights of others and of the College.
- Do not use Carteret Community College logos for endorsements: Do not use the Carteret Community College logo or any other College images or iconography on personal social media sites. Do not use Carteret Community College’s name to promote a product, cause, political party or candidate.
- Respect College time and property: College computers and time on the job are reserved for college related business as approved by supervisors.
- Terms of Service: Obey the Terms of Service of any social media platform employed.
- Protect the institutional voice: Posts on social media sites must protect the College’s institutional voice by remaining professional in tone and in good taste. No departments will post for the College as a whole. Consider this when naming pages or accounts, selecting a profile picture or icon, and selecting content to post – names, profile images, and posts must all be clearly linked to the particular department or unit rather than to the institution as a whole.
Best Practices
- Think twice before posting: Privacy does not exist in the world of social media. Consider what could happen if a post becomes widely known and how that may reflect on both the author and the College. If you would not say it at a conference or to a member of the news media, then reconsider whether you should post it online.
- Strive for accuracy: Get the facts straight before posting them on social media. Review content for grammatical and spelling errors.
- Be respectful: Understand that content contributed to a social media site could encourage comments or discussion of opposing ideas. Responses should be considered carefully in light of how they would reflect on the author and/or the College and its institutional voice.
- Remember your audience: Be aware that social media presence can be made available to the public at large. This includes prospective students, current students, current employees and colleagues, and peers. Consider this before publishing to ensure the post will not alienate, harm, or negatively affect any of these groups.
- On personal sites: Identify your view as your own. If you identify yourself as a Carteret Community College faculty or staff member online, it should be clear that the views expressed are not necessarily those of the institution.
- Photography: Photographs posted on social media sites can be appropriated easily by visitors. Consider adding a watermark and/or posting images at 72 dpi and approximately 800x600 resolutions to protect your intellectual property. Images of that size are sufficient for viewing on the web, but not suitable for printing.
Definitions
Copyrighted material – includes material that may be protected by Copyright Law. If information or material is copyrighted, it cannot be publicly circulated without prior authorization from the copyright holder. This includes photographs, music, videos, written material, and other items.
Post – comment made to a user’s social networking page or site. For example, Facebook users can post to another user’s “wall.”
Social networking – the use of a variety of websites that allow users to share content, interact, and develop communities around similar interests.
Social engineering – an attack that involves gathering and using personal information about a target in a deceitful manner to convince the target to provide the attacker permissions to obtain or access restricted information.
Phishing – an attack targeting a specific user or group of users, attempting to deceive the user(s) into performing a routine action, such as opening a document or clicking a link, which the phisher has booby-trapped to launch an attack.
Terms of Service (TOS) – rules by which one must agree to abide in order to use a service. It is generally assumed such terms are legally binding.
URL Spoofing – an attack in which a legitimate web page is reproduced on a server under the control of the attacker and then a target is directed to this site, thinking that they are on the legitimate site.