Policies and Guidelines

Overview

The social media team within University Communications manages the university’s main social media accounts and provides standards of conduct across the CU Denver social media landscape. 

The University of Colorado system encourages the use of social media technologies to enhance communication, engagement, collaboration, and information exchange in support of its mission. The use of social media technology follows the same standard of professional practice consistent throughout the CU System. Additionally, each campus has its own set of policies and guidelines. Within that, each department, school, or college might also have established separate policies and guidelines.

This set of procedures is specific to university-related social media channels—school/college, department, program, and office accounts run by employees—and applies to the university community, including, but not limited to, administrators, faculty, staff, academic departments, and administrative offices and programs for the CU Denver campus. The university respects the right of our community members to interact knowledgeably and socially on social media. However, these interactions can greatly impact you, our colleagues, students, and brand reputation. Therefore, the entire university community has a responsibility to uphold community standards when they interact with social media. 

The university also has an interest in protecting the privacy of its community and the academic freedom of its faculty. Nothing in this set of procedures is intended to limit any legal rights. This set of procedures encourages social media use, while ensuring compliance with applicable laws and regulations, and protecting the university's reputation. 

These procedures apply to all university employees, faculty, staff, student workers, and volunteers when utilizing/accessing/posting on university-related social media. This includes school/college, department, program, and office accounts run by employees. Note: A student organization’s social media property is not covered by these procedures. 

Please note that the chancellor is the primary spokesperson of the university subject to the authority of the system president and the Board of Regents. The chancellor can direct or authorize others to serve in this capacity in coordination and consultation with University Communications. Subject to the guidance provided by the system and the Board of Regents, unless authorized by the chancellor and/or directed by University Communications, no other employee, student, volunteer, or stakeholder is authorized to speak on behalf of the university on social media. 

Official CU Denver Social Media Accounts

The university’s official Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and X accounts are maintained by the University Communications social media team. The University Communications team works with campus partners who manage social media accounts affiliated with the university to ensure continuity with the university’s social media guidelines, brand, and mission.

Communication on social media channels for university purposes must comply with all applicable university policies. Please see the university’s social media policies and guidelines for information about engaging with the community across social media platforms. 

All department, center, school/college, or program-level accounts must follow the university accounts.  

Unofficial Accounts

Unofficial and unauthorized social media accounts will not be allowed to:   

• Use the university’s intellectual property, including the logo. 
• Present their account as representing the university or a school/college/unit. 

Expectations of CU Denver Social Media Account Managers

Conduct and ethics:  As a representative of the university, it is imperative for you to maintain the same standards of conduct expected of all CU employees. Be respectful, positive, helpful, and informative. Do not engage in negative banter and do not take a political stand on topics or legislation. 

The assigned social media account manager is responsible for posts on the account and actively monitoring the activity. Content must be current and accurate. Posting on behalf of the university, in addition to its colleges and schools, departments and programs, is not a right and can be rescinded at any time.

University-affiliated accounts should be run by faculty or staff. Employees may consider working with a well-trained student to help run an account, but content should be closely monitored and approved by the social media account manager before posting. 

Comments and questions should be responded to within 24 hours or less.

The Office of Institutional Research and Effectiveness is the authority on CU Denver data. Consult with this office to verify any data presented as accurate and appropriate for public dissemination.

For the most recent student and alumni data, please contact the Office of the Registrar or the Office of Advancement. 

Best practices for event coverage: 

• Get signed media releases for individuals in attendance who are photographed. A media release is official documentation that an individual gives permission to use their photo on social media and for other marketing uses. Please contact [email protected] to get media releases for use.
• Announce multimedia coverage to participants in advance of coverage via:
  • Email (from a professor or organizer of the event/class)
  • In-person announcement before event or class
  • Highly visible signs outside of and around the venue 
• For very large events where it’s not feasible to get individual releases, the multimedia producer, photographer, or social media producer makes themselves clearly visible to participants and asks in-person for permission to be on camera and to share for marketing or social media.
• Always offer subjects the ability to opt-out .

Respect copyright and fair use. Social media account managers must be vigilant about protecting intellectual property rights and proprietary data of the university or any third parties.  Make sure you have the proper usage rights to any images, music, or other content shared on social media, whether they be from CU Denver or elsewhere. Do not post/share images that have copyright restrictions. Copyright free photos/images are available here. University Communications also provides previously approved and cleared images upon request.  

Use appropriate branding:  Do not use the CU Denver logo or any other university images or iconography on personal social media sites. Do not use the university’s name to promote a product, ballot initiative, cause, political party, or candidate. 

Usage of CU Denver’s logo and name must be properly adhered to as described in the university’s brand standards, detailed on the CU Denver Brand Standards website and in the CU Denver Brand Book. Your account image can be found on Brandfolder.  

Ensure the security of your social media account:  A compromise of your university account can lead to malicious entities posting inappropriate or even illegal material on your behalf. This could lead to reputational risk to the university. If you post on behalf of the university to social media sites, be sure to use a different password for each your official social media accounts, personal social media accounts, and your university provided accounts. If you notice or hear about any abnormal activities occurring through your account or feel that it might have been compromised, contact the Office of Information Technology.

Passwords should be kept secure, updated every 90 days, and provided to the University Communications social media team as backup. Passwords should be emailed to [email protected].

More than one individual must have access to the account. Administrative access must be terminated upon an employee’s departure from employment at the university.  Departments, schools/colleges, or other university entities that have a social media account must plan for and facilitate smooth transitions so that accounts are cared for during staffing transitions.

Contests and Sweepstakes. Before facilitating a contest or sweepstakes, consult with University Counsel and the University Communications social media team by emailing [email protected]. These activities are governed by specific law. 

Paid Marketing Campaigns. Do not run a social media ad campaign or boosted post without first consulting the University Communications social media team to ensure your post(s) is in line with the university’s goals.

Emergency/Crisis Information. Department, program, or school/college accounts should never directly post information about an emergency or crisis (this includes weather cancellations). Rather, they should exclusively repost university content to ensure accuracy of information.

Media Enquires. Social media may generate interest from media (print, television, radio, and online). If you are contacted by a media member about a university-related posting, please contact the public information officer and/or director of public relations within University Communications. 

Non-University Fundraising Efforts. Unless previously approved by University Counsel, CU Denver-affiliated social media accounts are not permitted to promote non-university fundraisers (examples include GoFundMe campaigns or Kickstarter campaigns), as this implies official university endorsement and may have legal ramifications. The exception is any general awareness campaign, such as breast cancer awareness, with an existing and approved university tie-in. Faculty and staff are permitted to share fundraisers on their own personal-professional accounts, so long as it is clear they are speaking for themselves and not on behalf of the university. 

Terms of Services. Obey the Terms of Service of any Social Media platform employed. 

• Facebook Terms of Service
• X Terms of Service  
• LinkedIn Terms of Service  
• YouTube Terms of Service

Hiding, Removing, and Reporting Comments and Posts

While the community is encouraged to share and interact, content and comments will be reviewed and removed (hidden or deleted based on platform capability) if it contains threats, obscenity, duplicate posts, illegal suggestions, advertisements/SPAM/solicitation, or do not relate to CU Denver The university will take action to remove and report comments that fall into any of the following categories:

1. Violent Speech: Comments or posts that contain threats, incitement, glorification, or expressions of desire for violence or harm.
2. Violent and Hateful Entities: Users who are affiliated with or endorse the activities of violent or hateful groups. 
3. Child Sexual Exploitation: We maintain a strict zero-tolerance policy for any content related to child sexual exploitation.  
4. Abuse/Harassment: Comments or posts that contain abusive content, engage in targeted harassment of individuals, or encourage others to do so as defined by law.
5. Hateful Conduct: Users who engage in attacks on others based on factors such as race, ethnicity, national origin, caste, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, religious affiliation, age, disability, or serious illness in violation of campus anti-discrimination/harassment policies.
6. Suicide: Comments or posts that promote or encourage suicide or self-harm will not be tolerated. 
7. Sensitive Media: Content that is excessively gory or shares violent or adult/pornographic material within videos or images. Additionally, media depicting sexual violence and/or assault, which violate campus anti-discrimination policies will be removed.

Blocking

The university will act against accounts that post content in any of the following categories, which could result in the account being blocked: 

1. Perpetrators of Violent Attacks: Accounts managed by individuals involved in acts of terrorism, violent extremism, or mass violence. Additionally, we may remove posts sharing manifestos or other content created by these individuals.
2. Sensitive Media: If an account continues to post excessively gory, violent, or adult material within videos or images daily for more than a week.
3. Violation of University Discrimination/Harassment/Sexual Misconduct Policies: Accounts that post material that violates university policies on discrimination/harassment/sexual misconduct will be blocked.

Responding

In response to content falling into the following categories, we will provide an authorized statement: 

1. Misleading and Deceptive Content: When a user shares information that is factually incorrect and harmful to the reputation of CU Denver, including its community members, we may issue a statement to rectify the misinformation. This statement will be provided by University Communications and developed with help from legal, social, and media relations colleagues.

Posting On Personal Social Media Accounts

CU Denver employees are encouraged to share relevant university news and events that are a matter of public record with their family and friends. 

Best practice dictates linking directly to the university’s news website or social media posts as the most effective way to share news on social media accounts. This avoids potential issues with copyright infringement or the sharing of inaccurate information.

The CU Denver’s Student Code of Conduct and university policy apply. 

Additional tips:

• Do not use the university logo on your personal social media accounts.
• Do not use the university logo or name to promote or endorse any product, cause, political party, or candidate. 
• Make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of CU Denver. A disclaimer such as, “Views expressed here are my own and do not represent, nor speak on behalf of, the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Colorado System.” may be appropriate where applicable. 
• Realize that you are responsible for your behavior both online and offline. Behaviors that are inappropriate in a non-virtual setting are also inappropriate on social media (sexual harassment of a colleague, violating privacy law, etc.). 
• The university has the right to amend these policies and guidelines at any time. All activity must comply with all federal and state laws such as FERPA, HIPAA, and Title IX as listed above. 

These policies and guidelines should not be interpreted as superseding any of the university's policies and guidelines.