University Communications

SECTION 1 | Best practices for all social media sites, including personal sites
To achieve the best results, these best practices should be implemented by anyone within the university community when engaging in any social media channel.

Think before posting.
There is no such thing as privacy in the social media world. Before you publish a post, consider how it would reflect on you, your department/unit and on the university. Search engine databases store posts years after they were published, so posts could be found even if they were deleted; and comments may be forwarded or copied.

Be accurate.
Verify your information for accuracy, spelling and grammatical errors before posting. If an error or omission ends up being posted, post a correction as quickly as possible.

Be respectful.
The goal of social media is to engage your audience in conversation. At times, that comes in the form of opposing ideas. Consider how to respond or disengage in a way that will not alienate, harm or provoke.

Remember your audience.
Though you may have a target audience, be aware that anything posted on your social media account is also available to the public at large – including prospective students, current students, staff, faculty and peers.

Be a valuable member.
Contribute valuable insights in your posts and comments. Self-promoting behavior is viewed negatively and can lead to you being banned from a website or group you are trying to participate in.

Ensure your accounts’ security.
A compromised account is an open door for malicious entities to post inappropriate or even illegal material as though it were from you. If you administer a university/school/college/department/unit social media account, be sure to use a different password than for your personal accounts. Follow best practices in selecting and protecting your university account passwords.

SECTION 2 | Guidelines for all social media sites, including personal sites
These guidelines should be adhered to by anyone within the university community when engaging in any social media channel.

Protect confidential and proprietary information.
Do not post confidential information about the university, students, faculty, staff, patients or alumni; nor should you post information that is proprietary to an entity other than yourself. Employees must follow all applicable Federal privacy requirements for written and visual content, such as FERPA and HIPAA. Failure to do so comes at the risk of disciplinary action and/or termination.

Respect copyright and fair use.
When posting, be aware of the copyright and intellectual property rights of others and of the university. Refer to CU System policies on copyright and intellectual property for more information/guidance.

Do not imply university endorsement.
The university logo, wordmark, iconography or other imagery shall not be used on personal social media channels. Similarly, the university’s name shall not be used to promote a product, cause or political party/candidate.

Follow site terms of service.
Each social media site has its own terms of service. Familiarize yourself with them, and follow them:

• Facebook | www.facebook.com/terms.php
• Twitter | www.twitter.com/tos
• LinkedIn | www.linkedin.com/static?key=user_agreement&trk=hb_ft_userag
• YouTube | www.youtube.com/t/terms

SECTION 3 | Guidelines for university social media sites
These guidelines should be adhered to by all people posting on behalf of the university, our schools/colleges and/or departments/units, or as an official individual member thereof.

Notify the university.
If your school/college/department/unit has a social media presence, or would like to initiate one, notify the university Social Media Manager. This will facilitate future cross-promotional opportunities. All institutional pages should have the equivalent of a half-time employee whose responsibility is content generation and social media ‘listening.’

Develop a plan.
Your school/college/department/unit should consider your objective[s] for leveraging social media channels. Generate your interim goals and success metrics to measure progress toward your objective. Consider your audiences, messages and content development strategy. All institutional pages must reflect regular activity [posting at least once per month], or they should be un-published/deleted until a viable content update strategy can be developed.

The 60:40 rule.
No one likes to listen to people talk only about themselves. Similarly, your content should be a balance between creation (either original or linked to a page on www.ucdenver.edu) and curation (linking to content/sites elsewhere on the web). Industry standards call for roughly 60% creation : 40% curation.

Promote the institutional voice.
Posts on institutional sites should be conversational, but should protect the institutional voice and be in good taste. No individual/school/college/department/unit should promote its social media site as representing the university as a whole. Similarly, your personal views/opinions should not be included in a university/school/college/department/unit post.

Support the brand.
All university/school/college/department/unit social media channels should adhere to established logo, naming and branding standards. Not only will this prevent dilution of the university brand, it will facilitate your audience’s immediate connection of you to the university.