Purpose

North Shore Community College (NSCC) uses social media to support the college's mission, goals and overall communication strategy, and to provide students, staff and followers college information and the opportunity to communicate interactively. These guidelines apply to social media accounts created by staff or students for official business purposes of the College, and establish acceptable practices and procedures on how official NSCC sites will be created, administered and utilized. These guidelines were developed to ensure that information published electronically follows the same high standards as other forms of published college information. For purposes of these guidelines, social media means any channel for online publication and commentary, including social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, etc. Through NSCC's Google Apps suite there is access to Google+ and Blogger. These outlets are primarily intended for use by faculty to enhance the learning experience of their students. NSCC domain applications Google+ and Blogger are recent additions to our available integrated Google Apps suite. These are tools that can provide a learning environment for interaction and collaboration among groups of students. Faculty members have options to use these integrated tools to create accounts for use in their classes. These tools, if used for education and curriculum purposes, are supported by Academic Technology. Because of the constantly evolving nature of social media platforms, these guidelines do not attempt to name every current and emerging channel but will apply as appropriate.

Policy Integration

Official NSCC social media sites must comply with United States copyright laws and all other applicable local, state and federal laws and applicable policies. NSCC's Social Media Guidelines add to and complement existing NSCC policies regarding the use of technology, computers, email and the Internet. Individual site policies, such as Facebook Terms and Conditions, must be followed accordingly. These guidelines do not apply to private, personal social media accounts. College employees acting in an individual capacity should exercise caution to communicate clearly that they are not acting in a representative capacity, or expressing the views of the College.

Social Media Oversight & Regulation

The Public Relations and New Media Department is the primary administrator for NSCC's main social media pages. The Public Relations & New Media Department welcomes the development of ancillary college-related sites and is happy to offer assistance. Those wishing to develop a social media site representing the college must contact and work in conjunction with the College's Public Relations & New Media Department. Any sites or pages existing without the knowledge of the Public Relations & New Media Department review may be amended or removed. The Public Relations & New Media Department will maintain default administrator rights for all NSCC related pages and will regularly review pages to ensure they are being produced in accordance with these guidelines and the best interests of the College. Facebook pages that are created correctly will be invited to join the NSCC "Family" of Facebook pages, as recognized on the college's main Facebook page under "Likes." In addition to the main college Facebook page, other official college Facebook pages existing at the time of adoption of these guidelines include: Veterans, Admissions, Financial Aid, Library, Academic Technology, Sustainability, Alumni, TRIO, Professional Education, Kids to College, Cosmetology, Women in Transition, Fire Science, Cafeteria, Presidential Scholars, Student Government Association and Queer Straight Alliance and Environmental Science Clubs. The administrator of each ancillary page is welcome to join the college's Social Media Group, which meets monthly to review progress, brainstorm and share best practices. In general, individual faculty or student pages are not included in these guidelines. The College does not take responsibility for pages developed by others that are not for official college use.

Official College Social Media Pages

When clearance is gained for the creation of a new social media site, site administrators must be selected to monitor and maintain the site. Site administrators, as approved by their department's leadership, are responsible for maintaining accurate and timely content, regularly monitoring comments, and for deleting postings that may violate this or other NSCC policies. Administrators cannot promote individual opinions or causes which are not directly related to College purposes. Links to commercial entities or nonprofit organizations must not imply endorsement by the College.

Content Development

Social media content on official College sites must relate directly to College business, programs, and/or services. The department that publishes information on an official NSCC social media page is fully responsible for accurate content and currency of information. All official NSCC'social media sites must display clear identification of NSCC on the top-level pages and display clearly labeled ownership information on each page in the form of a contact email address, which may be supplemented by a specific web URL, contact name and/or telephone number All official NSCC social media sites must present information using the highest editorial standards (spelling, punctuation, grammar, style, etc.). Administrators of pages containing out-of-date information will be requested to make necessary corrections. Pages containing sexist, racist, offensive, defamatory, abusive, harassing, or pornographic language will be shut down immediately. Do not electronically publish any personally identifiable information (PII). Uploaded photos and videos must relate directly to the College and/or student life and should not be used as a promotional tool for programs, products, or services outside the College. Any unoriginal information or photography posted must be cited/credit given (see Copyright Policy or Creative Commons, for guidance.) Faculty members have the option to create accounts within NSCC's Domain Applications (i.e. Google+ and Blogger) to promote interaction and collaboration within their classes. Student groups that wish to create college social media sites must contact NSCC's Office of Student Life and follow the procedures outlined above. When associated with the College, these pages should adhere to College policies. Developing "friendships" with the official College pages and other student group pages is encouraged!

Responsibilities

Should a NSCC site administrator leave the College for any reason, or no longer wish to be a site administrator, it is said department's responsibility to designate another employee to be the administrator and to remove the former employee's administrative permissions to the site. All changes should be communicated to the Public Relations & New Media Department. Whenever possible, a department should appoint two individuals to act concurrently as site administrators for a NSCC'social media site.

College Branding

North Shore Community College logos may be used on official college social media pages by NSCC departments or approved student groups, as long as the logos are used correctly. For correct logo usage, consult NSCC Marketing Communications. No official college logos or other official college materials may be used on unofficial sites without permission of NSCC's Marketing & Communications Director.

NSCC Domain Social Media Options

NSCC now supports the use of Google+ and Blogger as integrated tools to primarily support curriculum and academic learning. These tools are not intended to replace or supplement official NSCC Facebook and Twitter pages. In addition to the content recommendations above, some guidelines to bear in mind when using NSCC Domain Applications include:

  • Do not post confidential information about NSCC students. Use good ethical judgment and follow College policies and federal requirements, such as FERPA.
  • For NSCC's protection as well as your own, it is important that you show proper respect for copyrighted material owned by others. This includes copyright laws for text, ideas, research as well as images. Please reference any material and cite it appropriately.
  • It is the responsibility of each user to ensure appropriate sharing controls are used in order to protect intellectual property placed in Google+ and Blogger as well as to prevent accidental or undesirable file sharing.

Violations

Because the NSCC pages on social media sites are interactive tools, administrators should monitor user conduct pages closely and frequently. Any questionable conduct should be removed and reported to the Office of Public Relations and New Media. NSCC reserves the right to block or remove the content of any post that violates campus policies, including but not limited to harassing, threatening, or profane language aimed at creating a hostile or intimidating environment. Content may be removed at any time without prior notice for any reason deemed to be in the College's best interest. These guidelines will be periodically revised in response to pertinent legal and/or technological issues in consultation with the appropriate entities.

Questions

Any questions about these guidelines or creating a college social media site should be addressed to Linda Brantley at lbrantle@northshore.edu or Rebecca Oliver at roliver@northshore.edu.

All questions, comments or suggestions regarding academic or educational use of Google+ and Blogger should be directed to Andrea MIlligan at amilliga@northshore.edu.

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