Social Media Guidelines

Farmingdale State College Social Media Guidelines

This document outlines Farmingdale State College’s (FSC) guidelines for employees and student employees communicating on social media and ways to optimize social media efforts for and on behalf of FSC. The document is intended to assist those who engage in social media communication for their respective functional areas and departments. When representing FSC on social media, employees and student employees must comply with and follow the procedures in the campus Social Media Policy. These guidelines apply to employees and student employees managing and posting content for official FSC social media accounts as, in doing so, they are representing Farmingdale State College. Professional use of official FSC social media accounts should remain entirely separate from any personal use. Faculty and staff should not represent FSC on their personal accounts.

Blogs, social networks, wikis and websites such as Facebook, Flickr, Instagram and YouTube are examples of social media and provide exciting channels for us to share knowledge and connect with others. Social media offers the opportunity to engage in conversations with current and prospective students, employees, and alumni about Farmingdale State College.

Engagement

The purpose of social media is to market the College, promote College-wide events and news, and engage with prospective and current students, faculty, staff, and alumni. Engagement with followers is key to creating good social media relationships. Accounts with little or no activity can reflect poorly on College.

Compliance

All users of official FSC social media platforms must comply with applicable policies, laws, and regulations. Users should:

• Understand and follow policies of the social media platform(s) being used.
• Protect confidential information and follow College, SUNY, state, and federal policies and laws regarding confidential data, such as HIPPA and FERPA.
• Follow copyright and fair use regulations and ensure you have the right to use the content before it is posted.
• Obtain permission for photo and video use prior to posting. Use the Photo/Video Authorization and Release Form when necessary.
• Abide by the Student Code of Conduct, Title IX, and other campus policies when posting on FSC social media sites.

Expectations

Members of the FSC faculty and staff are expected to use social media in a professional and civil manner to positively impact the FSC community.

• Be honest, transparent, and provide accurate information.
• Be respectful, tolerant of others’ opinions, avoid antagonizing anyone, and be professional if provoked.
• Try to address seemingly negative content positively; discussing and deconstructing negative content may be powerful in changing attitudes.
• Remove user-generated content that violates policies and laws. Although censoring dialogue is not common, content violating policies and laws should be removed and referred to the relevant Dean’s Office or to Human Resources, if necessary.
• Do not post personal information about yourself or others.
• Use privacy settings to control who can view profiles/posts
• Do not use FSC’s name or image to promote or endorse products, causes or political parties or candidates.
• Professional use of FSC social media must be separate from personal use.
• Link to websites or forms to avoid giving out personal emails or other information vulnerable to phishing and other internet scams

Good Practices

To create good social media relationships account administrators should:

• Consider your audience and choose an appropriate and relevant social media site used by them. Not every platform is a good fit for every department.
• Post content when your audience will most likely be on the site.
• At a minimum post content to the account weekly; create a social media content calendar to stay organized and active.
• Respond to comments and posts timely to promote interaction.
• Answer questions and comments truthfully. This may require researching the correct answer or redirecting the user to another department or resource.
• Be authentic and creative.
• Determine ways to gain more followers.
• Tag other people and departments in posts when possible to increase interaction and create a great working relationship with others. Be sure to add a unique comment when sharing another accounts post.
• Use hashtags (#) to boost posts. The first letter after the hashtag should be capitalized for easy readability.
• Create contests and understand each site’s contest rules. Contest rules for common social media sites are linked below.
  • Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/policies_center/pages_groups_events
  • Instagram - https://help.instagram.com/179379842258600

• Announce contests using ad integration if necessary and cross promote using email or FSCToday, or the FSC website when applicable.
• Analyze data and determine who is reacting to posts (age groups, demographics, etc.), what is the best time of day to post, which content is getting the most interaction, and the outcomes of contests. Some social media platforms have this tool built into the site. Contact fscsocialmedia@farmingdale.edu for more information.

Marketing and Communications

When respresenting FSC it is necessary to present messaging consistent with the College’s mission and brand. Involvement by Marketing and Communication in social media can help enhance FSC’s brand, strengthen connection among the College and the public, and increase awareness of what people are saying about FSC.

• The College should be referred to as Farmingdale State College or FSC.
• When rolling out a campus-wide campaign for a specific event or announcement, contact fscsocialmedia@farmingdale.edu for assistance.
• When placing a link into a post, the link may pre-populate a graphic. Make sure to replace this graphic with your own when possible.
• When in doubt, or when questions arise, please contact fscsocialmedia@farmingdale.edu
• Below are some commonly used campus-wide hashtags (#):

#BeARam	#FSC	#FarmingdaleStateCollege
#FSCRamFam	#FutureRam	#ChooseFSC
#ApplyFSC	#SUNY	#AlwaysARam
#FSCAlumni	#RamNation	#FSCRamFam
#RamsDen