Employee and Student Groups Posting on University Sponsored Sites

Schools, departments, offices, athletic teams, and employee and student groups often benefit from social media engagement. The University permits groups to create social media channels using University resources. Before setting up a new official social media channel, permission must be obtained from the University Marketing and Communications (UMC) and/or the Vice President for Enrollment Management and Marketing. UMC will assist with setting up official North Park University social media accounts, designing them properly, and managing their settings.

Before beginning the process of setting up a channel, give careful thought and consideration to how your Department or Group plans to successfully engage your desired constituency through social media. You should consider the following steps:

1. Identify your target audience: Who are you trying to reach?
2. Determine your objectives and strategy: What are you hoping to gain through your social media channel? How are you hoping your audience will engage with you? What calls to action will you use? How often will you post? Who in your Department or Group will be responsible for managing the channel, and do they realistically have enough time to do it well?
3. Select your tactics: What social media channel(s) is/are most appropriate to meet your audience and gain their engagement? (It may not always be Facebook.)
4. Create your content: This is a time-intensive endeavor. Who will be your writer? photographer? videographer? What content is most effective for your audience? How will you determine what outside resources to share (links, retweets, community-submitted, etc.)? Remember, those managing the site will be responsible for the content and for compliance with the Social Media Policy.
5. Measure response: Take advantage of the measurement tools that are part of social media platforms, as well as additional online tools that are available to measure online engagement. The time it takes to create and manage a social media presence well is only worth it if you know it will be effective in meeting your objectives.
6. Develop a succession plan: How will you set up and manage your social media presence to last beyond current individual members of your Department or Group. If using Facebook, who will your page administrators be? Social media strategy and engagement should not be dependent upon one individual when it represents a brand or institution.

All Departments and Groups who use University-sponsored social media, and the individuals involved in posting on behalf of the Department or Group, are expected to:

• Reflect the ethical, moral, and professional standards of the University in their postings.
• Adhere to the guidelines for personal use of social media outlined earlier in this Policy.
• Be mindful of North Park’s professional and academic reputation.
• Strive for accuracy and verify facts before posting.
• Invite your followers to comment and engage by asking good questions.
• Allow disagreement but expect civility and common decency.
• Be prepared to monitor the site to ensure that the conversations are productive.
• Take individualized disagreements off-line. A face-to-face, phone, or email conversation can be a more effective way to resolve a disagreement or respond to something you feel is inaccurate or unfair.
• Link back to content from www.northpark.edu as you are able. This will drive important traffic to our website.

Violations of these expectations may result in suspension or termination of your social media channel.

Violations of the mandatory guidelines for the personal use of social media outlined earlier in this policy may lead to discipline up to and including dismissal.

There is no expectation of privacy when using University-sponsored social media sites and the University reserves the right to review all postings on such sites. University-sponsored sites may not be password protected without the express permission of University Marketing and Communications (UMC) and UMC must be given permission to access all password-protected, University-sponsored sites and social media accounts.