At the college I work at, we do have a social media policy, which I never realized until I started this assignment. There is a full social media policy which includes students, employees and anyone associated with my college, in addition to tips to ensure that your social media encounters meet the college standards.
What I found interesting was that the policies are not really policies, more procedures. I found from working at this college for 5 years, that there is some grey areas when it comes to how social media should be used at the college, especially if you are in charge of your departments Twitter or Facebook page. I am excited to come up with something that will be a better guideline for any college employee.
Ideally, I would have preferred to have these ideas vetted and discussed in a committee of like minded instructors, support staff, and administration that use social media and those who do not. This will enable that we get the full picture and a great deal of feedback from everyone. But using the same idea, I would take these polices and have them vetted through the same committee and they can give feedback and we would make any alterations to the policies as required. For the purpose of this assignment a Social Media Policies Committee will be formed, the membership will include participants from all the faculties at the college, administration and support staff.
Social Media Policies for College Employees
This policy applies to anyone at Stackhouse College that is contributing to any social media site representing the college.
- Standards: Stackhouse College encourages the use of social media for purposes of communication and ensuring student success at the college. Social media can include, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, Blog accounts (WordPress), Photo sharing (Flickr) and LinkedIn.
- Housekeeping: Before any social media activities are created, the Associate Dean or designate of the department, must contact Marketing. The AD must put into writing what the site(s) will be used for and any applicable user names of those corresponding site(s). The AD or designate must always have the login information of the social media sites ensuring continued access if an employee leaves the college. The marketing department must also be made aware of who will be the main contact (administrator) of the site(s).
- College Policies: Site Administrators must familiarize themselves with the Social Media Policies set forth at the college. Employees must also follow the Stackhouse College, Code of Conduct at all times.
- Department Social Media Policy: Each department is encouraged to develop their own specific social media policy regarding their social media activities. This can include, best practices, tips and tricks, and the goals of the social media site(s).
- Social Media Activity: Once the social media site(s) have been set up and are active. The site administrator must check the site daily, responding to any messages and/or questions. The site administrator also needs to remain active, posting new content regularly.
- College Branding: All college branding must meet the branding standards set forth by the college. The marketing department will regularly monitor all social media site(s) to ensure all standards are met.
- Think Before You Post: The site administrators are representing the college. There can be a fine line between the site administrators personal view of something and what is considered professional behaviour. Ensure that before any interaction is posted, that the site administrators have carefully looked at how the message can and will be portrayed.
- Posting Pictures: When posting pictures that include people, the site administrator must have written consent and all privacy standards must be met. If the site administrator is posting any other visual media that is not owned by the department, copyright and creative commons rules apply.
- Roll With It: The site administrator must remain calm and positive at all times and correct mistakes quickly. With any social media outlet, the site administrator could get negative comments. Always remain calm and if the behaviour of the person is considered bullying, the site administrator should contact his/her manager immediately.
- Monitoring Activity: Ultimately, the site administrators manager will be responsible to monitor any social media activity ensuring that the college is being properly represented. Do not harm the reputation of the college by positing rude or offensive comments. Site administrators can be disciplined, including dismissal, if any unacceptable behaviour is discovered.
- Reviews: Every 2 years the policies set forth, will be reviewed and revised as required by the Social Media Policies Committee.
References
Anderson, S. (2012). How to create social media guidelines for your school. Edutopia. Retrieved July 30, 2015 from http://www.edutopia.org/how-to-create-social-media-guidelines-school
jenniferfrost.wordpress.com 
Jennifer your social media policy is great! I knew I wanted to be part of your PLN because I could learn so much from you. Also, part of my desire was to see what is expected at the college level to assure that I am building my curriculum as a scaffold that will lead students to be college ready. For example, I think it is wise that you suggest departments build their own social media policies to fit the curriculum of the particular department.
I particularly enjoyed numbers 7-9 on your list. So many don’t think before they post and this is rather important for college students. They are branding themselves and building a professional profile to make themselves marketable for future employers. Anything can taint their reputation. This is a great skill for both college and secondary level students to learn about. I don’t think my high schoolers consider the implications of what they post now and the potential impact it can have on their futures. This is uncharted territory for society, but manageable if we teach approachable social media use.
Number 9 is hands down my favorite. How we are remembered in life is often in close association with our response to situations. Our reaction in good and hard times is what defines our character. Keeping one’s composure in rough situations is vital to maintaining the integrity of a social media account. This is a skill I intend to share with my students thanks to you!
Hi Jennifer,
Great ideas for getting buy-in from stakeholders. I agree that use of a committee or some kind of task force that includes a broad range of employees is the best kind of transparent policy making. It will also give you a better picture of who is already using social media and how they are doing it.
What I really liked about your idea for these policies is how you weave in the need for site administrators. I now see how practical it would be to have site administrators identified for each department and how efficient that model would be when it comes to updating the policies. I hadn’t really thought it through that way and sort of left that whole piece out of my set of policies, but it makes good sense to build that responsibility into the organization. That person could then be a kind of social media expert in their department and be the contact person for when things need to be updated. They could also be the person who you tap for ideas for further professional development in the area of social networking.
I got a bit more generic with my definition of social media. I took a cue from the social media policy I saw for Maricopa County Community Colleges and tried to cover as much ground as possible with types of social networking platforms – basically anything anyone could post and share on in the name of the college. I think you were smart to include that bit of “but not limited to” when giving examples.
Apps change so quickly that I think you have to either keep updating or be as expansive as possible when it comes to naming them in policies.
I also liked your housekeeping policy of needing to indicate what the purpose of the site is and anyone who will have the access logins. I think I shared with Megan that our college didn’t do this at first when social media sites started popping up around the district and it was very hard to reign things in when people left or deleted accounts. We still have a long way to go with this issue, but at least we now know who to have the conversations with.
Finally, I think you hit the nail on the head with the “Roll With It” section. If you put a social media site up, you can guarantee that there will be comments and posts that aren’t always kind. But how the site admin responds is going to be key in keeping a lid on anything negative. Great idea to remind people that they are representing the college.
I always enjoy reading your posts so I can kind of compare how our two colleges operate – its very interesting how different institutions approach their social media and communication in general. I don’t think I was as aware of potential issues until I started researching it for my classes and through other courses I’ve taken at BSU.