Rule 3341-10-08 | University-administered social media management policy.
(A) Policy statement and purpose
The purpose of this policy is to establish a university-wide standard for the use, creation, and management of university-administered social media accounts.
Social media is a popular and powerful mechanism for timely global communications highlighting news and events occurring at Bowling Green state university. BGSU supports the use of university-administered social media accounts by its faculty, staff and students to communicate factual information regarding the university. All individuals posting to a university-administered social media account must adhere to this policy. Regular review of this policy is expected; failure to do so is not justification for noncompliance.
(B) Policy scope
This policy applies to all university entities that use university-administered social media accounts.
This policy does not apply to recognized student organizations or student groups. It also does not apply to individual students when they are communicating in their individual capacity, but it does apply to student employees when they are communicating as employees.
This policy does not apply to invitation-only synchronous meeting platforms such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
(C) Definitions
(1) Social media: Internet-based technologies that are typically very accessible and scalable allowing users to post content on topics in various forms. Some forms of social media include wikis, blogs, podcasts and forums. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, and Wikipedia.
(2) University-administered social media accounts: Social media accounts having a direct affiliation with Bowling Green state university. These include accounts operated by academic departments, schools, colleges, and centers; intercollegiate athletics; university divisions and offices such as diversity and belonging and student engagement; and executive leadership.
(D) Policy
(1) Account managers and their responsibilities
Each university-administered social media account shall have a full-time BGSU employee as an account manager. The account manager is responsible for ensuring compliance with this policy and all other relevant university policies.
In addition, each account manager shall have the following responsibilities.
(a) Maintain active communication with the office of marketing and brand strategy. Managers are expected to promptly notify and proactively communicate with their supervisors and the office of marketing and brand strategy regarding emerging issues and concerns, predicted crisis communications, emergency response needs, and upcoming potential controversial topics. A manager must not respond to a university-related crisis without contacting the office of marketing and brand strategy first.
(b) Serve as first point of contact for any social media-related questions and for collaboration with other university units.
(c) Properly supervise any student employees working on the account. The manager is responsible for all content posted to the account.
(d) Catalog account login information to ensure access for future administrators.
(e) Retain inventory and contact information for all those with access to the account. Having at least two administrators on each account is recommended.
(f) Retain an inventory of any emails or phone numbers associated with the account.
(g) Ensure all BGSU communications best-practice resources and guidelines are communicated to and followed by those who have access to the account.
(h) Actively monitor all activity on the account to engage with the audience and act as a resource for followers.
(i) Ensure the timely delivery of customer service and the offering of additional communication resources, such as email and phone numbers, to further assist the audience and reduce the risk of misinterpretation. An employees personal social media account must not be used to respond to university-related inquiries or issues.
(j) Ensure consistent posting on the account (typically at least once a week) of engaging content that reflects the universitys current strategic plan.
(2) New accounts
Each new university-administered social media account must be reviewed and approved prior to implementation by the office of marketing and brand strategy using procedures to be developed by that office.
(3) Social media guidelines
All those who create or post content on a university-administered social media account are expected to follow the BGSU social media guidelines.
(4) Social media accessibility best practices
All those who create or post content on a university-administered social media account are expected to follow the BGSU social media accessibility best practices.
(5) Limited use data and restricted data
Limited use data shall not be posted to social media. "Limited use data" is defined to include information not subject to disclosure under Ohio public records law. Examples include unpublished intellectual property records, donor profile records, trade secret records, and security and infrastructure records.
Restricted data shall not be posted to social media. "Restricted data" is defined to include data prohibited from release by federal or state laws. Examples include student education records, library records and patron information, social security numbers and tax identification numbers, financial account data, drivers license numbers, and medical records.
(6) Prohibitions
BGSU has determined that the following content is not appropriate for any university-administered social media account and is subject to removal.
(a) Content that is obscene, indecent, or profane, as those terms are defined by the federal communications commission;
(b) Content that is off topic, out of context, or not relevant to the subject;
(c) Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates unlawful discrimination;
(d) Sexually harassing content or any content that constitutes harassment under division (A)(4) of section 3345.0211 of the Revised Code;
(e) Content that suggests or encourages illegal activity, or is violent, threatening, or defamatory;
(f) Spam or links to non-BGSU websites (unless a link is posted by the university for a university business purpose);
(g) Multiple posts by a single user of content that is substantially the same, or disruptively repetitive comments that are copied and pasted by multiple users;
(h) Content that solicits, advertises, endorses, or promotes any non-BGSU business or service;
(i) Content that includes copyrighted materials unless the user can demonstrate permission by the copyright holder;
(j) Content that discloses any security record or infrastructure record as defined in section 149.33 of the Revised Code;
(k) Content that discloses personally identifiable information such as street or email addresses or phone numbers, unless that information is needed for official BGSU business purposes.
(7) Enforcement
Any failure to follow this policy will be referred to the appropriate supervisory authority for review and action.
(E) Applicable laws
All users of university-administered social media accounts must be aware of and comply with all applicable federal, state, and local laws, contracts, regulations, and licenses. These include but are not limited to: the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA); the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA); and copyright law.
(F) Equity impact statement
The policy has been assessed for adverse differential impact on members of one or more protected groups.
(G) Related policies
The following policies relate to university-administered social media accounts:
(1) 3341-6-7 BGSU information technology
(2) 3341-7-2 Copyright
(3) 3341-7-3 Patent policy
(4) 3341-7-7 Protection of human subjects
(5) 3341-10-1 The BGSU logo
(6) 3341-10-2 BGSU signature
(7) 3341-10-3 Logotype and graphics
(8) 3341-10-4 The official identity colors
(9) 3341-10-7 BGSU social media engagement policy
Last updated July 12, 2023 at 3:46 PM
Supplemental Information
Amplifies: 3341