Social Media Guidelines

Definition

For the purposes of this guideline, social media means anything that is used for online publication and/or commentary, including but not limited to blogs, wiki's, and social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. This guideline is in addition to and complements any existing or future policies regarding the use of technology, computers, e-mail and the internet.

Official Presence

Greenville Tech’s primary official social media presences are currently:

• Facebook: www.facebook.com/GreenvilleTech
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/GTechonTube
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/greenville_technical_college (@Greenville_Technical_College)
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/school/greenville-technical-college/
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/GreenvilleTech

General Guidelines / Best Practices

• Representing the college
  When using an officially recognized social media channel, assume at all times that you are representing Greenville Technical College.
• Be transparent
  Social Media is about creating community and trust. One of the great benefits of social media is that the individuals maintaining social media sites personalize large and complex institutions such as Greenville Tech.
  • If you post on behalf of the college on another social media site outside the official Greenville Tech sites, identify who you are and your affiliation with Greenville Tech.
  • If you choose to post about Greenville Tech on your personal time, please identify yourself and your affiliation with Greenville Tech.
• Be respectful
  • Anything you post in your role as a Greenville Tech employee reflects on the institution. Be professional and respectful at all times on your social media site.
  • Exercise discretion, thoughtfulness and respect for your colleagues, associates and the college’s supporters/community (social media fans).
  • If you feel angry or passionate about a subject, it’s wise to delay posting until you are calm and clear-headed.
  • If users post criticisms, do not delete these posts if they are valid points to consider. Correct misinformation, but do not engage in arguments or extensive debates on your site.
• Be active and connected
  One of the great benefits of social media is the ability to share information almost instantly with a global audience. This timeliness is also one of the expectations of that audience.
  • Be prepared to move quickly in response to developments with relevant information on your site. A short amount of accurate information delivered at the time of need can sometimes be more valuable than a full report delivered well after the issue has passed.
  • If you do not have the time or resources to check in on these sites at least a few minutes each day, and to post fresh content several times a week, reconsider jumping in to social media. Your site is only as interesting as your last post – if that post is several months old, visitors will not come back.
• Moderate comments and discussions
  Social Media platforms are not like a website; they enable two-way communications with your audience. To ensure this interactivity, make sure you are not only providing a variety of fresh, relevant content, but also are actively listening to the conversation and contributing to the dialogue.
  • Be prepared to accept and respond to comments. Understand that not all comments will be positive, and respond to negative comments professionally and by providing any additional information that may help resolve the issue. Often exercising patience will allow other users to correct a posting that disparages the college, which becomes praise of the college rather than a defensive statement.
  • Post a disclaimer on your site stating you reserve the right to remove inappropriate comments. Remove those comments containing vulgar language, those that attack any one group or individual and those that are obviously spam. (See Public Disclaimer for Use on College Facebook Page for example.)
• Keep your personal views separate
  On personal sites, identify your views as your own. If you identify yourself as a Greenville Tech faculty or staff member online, it should be clear that the views expressed are not necessarily those of the institution.

• Offer valuable content
  Social media is not (only) about sharing your news and success, it’s about sharing information that is of interest to your readers and viewers and is appropriate to the purpose of the site.
  • Focus on posting information about specific topics that will be relevant to your audience.
  • Share the best information you find from trusted sources outside of Greenville Tech. This will increase the value of your site and will ensure you are a valued member of the community.
• Strive for accuracy
  • Make sure that you have all the facts before you post. It’s better to verify information with a source first than to have to post a correction or retraction later. Cite and link to your sources whenever possible.
  • If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly. This will earn you respect in the online community.
  • Don't post anything contradictory or in conflict with the Greenville Technical College website.
• Quality matters
  • The speed of being able to publish your thoughts is both a great feature and a great downfall of social media. The time to edit or reflect must be self-imposed. If in doubt over a post, or if something does not feel right, either let it sit and look at it again before publishing it, or ask someone else to look at it first.
  • Use a spell-checker and review content for grammatical and spelling errors. This is especially important if posting on behalf of Greenville Tech in any capacity.
• Correct misinformation
  If you see misrepresentations made about Greenville Technical College in the media or in others’ posts, you may point that out. Always do so with respect and with the facts. Make sure what you are saying is factually correct.
• Cross-promote
  Once you have established your social media presence, cross-promote in your various channels. If you have a brochure or a website, drive people to your social media channels, and vice versa.
• Link back to Greenville Tech
  • Whenever possible, link back to the Greenville Technical College website. Ideally, posts should be very brief, redirecting a visitor to content that resides within the Greenville Tech Web environment.
  • When linking to a news article about Greenville Tech, check first to see whether you can link to a release in Greenville Tech News instead of to a publication or other media outlet.

• Everything is public
  • There’s no such thing as a private social media site. Search engines can turn up posts years after the publication date. Comments can be forwarded, copied or made public on other public sites. Archival systems save information even if you delete a post.
  • If you are unsure about posting something or responding to a comment, ask your supervisor for input or contact Marketing & Communications.
• Respect college time and property
  As stated in the Computer Use and Electronic Media policy, Greenville Tech computers and your work time are to be used for college-related business.
  • It’s appropriate to post at work if your comments are directly related to accomplishing work goals, such as seeking sources for information or working with others to resolve a problem. Limit the amount of time you spend attending to your department’s social media presence to what is needed to post content, evaluate traffic data, review related sites, and monitor comments.
  • You should maintain your personal sites on your own time using non-Greenville Tech computers.
• Maintain confidentiality
  Use good ethical judgment and follow college privacy and confidentiality policies and federal requirements, such as FERPA.
  • Do not post confidential or proprietary information about Greenville Tech, its students, its alumni or your fellow employees.
  • Do not request that others provide sensitive information via social media such as phone numbers, student ID numbers, Social Security numbers, payment information, etc., as those are not secure channels.
• Representation and endorsements
  • Do not use the Greenville Tech logo or any other college images or iconography on personal social media sites.
  • Do not use Greenville Tech’s name to promote a product, cause, or political party or candidate.
• Know the rules
  Always follow the terms of service and conditions of your chosen platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram or YouTube.
• Copyright and intellectual property
  Be mindful of the copyright and intellectual property rights of others and of the college. It is good general practice to link to others' work rather than reproduce it.

Greenville Technical College encourages employees to use social media but reminds users that at any time they can be perceived as representing the college. The following guidelines should be considered when using social media personal sites.

• Logo usage
  Greenville Technical College logos, marks or images cannot be used for personal social media. Please visit GTC Communication Guidelines for logo usage guidelines.

• Information delivery
  Your personal social media account should not be the primary location for distributing college news. Communication with students should be directed through established college technology (i.e.: Blackboard). If you have college information or news that you would like to announce to the public or media, please contact Marketing & Communications.

• Student interaction
  Your personal account is also not an appropriate place to interact with students, including adding them as friends or being added as their friend. This practice blurs boundaries and opens up many potential issues best avoided. Regular communication with students should be directed through Blackboard, GTC email or Civitas as appropriate. If social media interaction with students is required, the instructor should set up a separate page (not a profile) for that purpose (see Setting Up section).

• Monitoring
  Greenville Tech does not monitor personal websites but will address issues that violate established HR, Editorial, Graphic and Social Media guidelines.

• Respect college time and property
  As stated in the Computer Use and Electronic Media policy, Greenville Tech computers and your work time are to be used for college-related business. You should maintain your personal sites on your own time using non-Greenville Tech computers.

• Clarify your representation
  In personal posts or on personal profiles, you may identify yourself as a Greenville Tech employee. However, please be clear that you are sharing your views as a member of the higher education community, not as a formal representative of Greenville Tech. This is particularly important if you are a department head or administrator.
  • For example, in your profile information you might include “The views expressed on this [blog, Web site] are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Greenville Technical College.”

• Be respectful
  Even with the disclaimer that your views are your own, perceived connections with the college will still be present, so exercise discretion, thoughtfulness and respect and be mindful of the college’s Standards of Behavior.

• Be aware of liability
  You are legally liable for what you post on your own site and on the sites of others. Individual bloggers have been held liable for commentary deemed to be proprietary, copyrighted, defamatory, libelous or obscene (as defined by the courts). Employers are increasingly conducting Web searches on job candidates before extending offers. Be sure that what you post today will not come back to haunt you.

• Protect your identity
  • While you want to be honest about yourself, don’t provide personal information that scam artists or identity thieves could use against you. Don’t list your home address or telephone number or your work telephone or e-mail address. It is a good idea to create a separate e-mail address that is used only with the social media site.
  • Be sure to change and update your passwords frequently or at least every 2-3 months to protect your account from being hijacked or attacked. If you think your account has been compromised and you are a GTC social media manager, please contact Marketing & Communications immediately and report the issue on the platform to try to regain access to your account.
  • Adjust your privacy settings so that you control who sees your posts and limit that audience to those you know and trust.

If you are interested in creating a new social media account that will be associated with Greenville Technical College, please contact Marketing & Communications to discuss strategy, set-up, profile naming conventions, graphics needs, etc. Employing this assistance will ensure that all representations of the college maintain appropriate consistency.

Social media identities may not use Greenville Technical College's name without prior approval from the Marketing & Communications Department.

Before You Start

• Analyze your need
  Before creating a separate social media presence for your area or department, consider whether social media is the best option for delivering your message to your audience. Other established communication methods for Greenville Tech may serve your purpose as well or better. Contact Marketing & Communications for assistance, which may include a review of the POST questions below.
• POST questions
  People: Who are you trying to reach?
  Objective: What's the main thing you want from them?
  Strategy: What kind of social interaction will lead to what you want?
  Technology: What tool will best support that interaction?
• Participation requirement
  The decision to use a social networking site as a communications tool requires active ongoing participation and monitoring to ensure that all content posted to the site adheres to the relevant laws and college policies while also working toward the creation of a positive Greenville Tech community online. By creating a dedicated social media presence, you should be prepared for a Greenville Tech employee to maintain it and keep it updated.

Greenville Technical College reserves the right to review pages and request removal of pages that are not properly maintained.

Requirements / Steps for Set Up

These are the steps Marketing & Communications will take you through in the process of setting up your social media site. By reviewing these in advance, the process may proceed more efficiently.

1. Secure the approval of your department head or supervisor to create a social media page or profile for your area.
2. Identify a coordinator (a Greenville Tech employee) who will be the primary person responsible for updating and monitoring your site. Ensure they have the time to check in on the site at least once a day. Successful social media sites are updated frequently, enable easy engagement with viewers and adjust in response to timely events and problems. Assign and train a backup for this person.

Students and student workers may participate in the monitoring if approved by the supervisor, but there should be a primary coordinator who is an employee.

3. Understand the social media options. All social media platforms have their own standards, styles and expectations. Create a personal account and spend some time learning how the site works, how their communities work, what content is of most interest, which other organizations are talking about your topic, etc.
4. Define your goals and determine what you want to accomplish. Understanding this will help you create relevant content and choose the appropriate tool or tools to reach your target audience. Do not try to join every platform all at once – choose a tool that best meets your goals and focus on building a strong presence.
5. Create it. Marketing & Communications will work with you to create a profile using a name and visual elements that clearly and concisely identify your program and its Greenville Technical College affiliation. You cannot identify yourself simply as ―Greenville Tech, as that implies you are speaking for the entire institution.
   • Some of the social media platforms will allow you to change your name after the accounts are created, some will not. Please review your spelling before clicking OK.
   • The Marketing & Communications Department has created a collection of icons that can be used and adapted for social media and will work with you to customize those icons and profile images

6. Experiment and spend time populating your new social media presence, sharing it with a small group who can provide comments. Have the site up and running well before you plan to launch it so you can become comfortable with maintaining it.
7. Launch by inviting others to see your site. Use email lists, easy-to-find links and notices on your website, and other established communication channels to notify your potential audiences that you have a social media presence.
8. Track and Adjust. Once your site is up and running, you will find some content is popular, while some is ignored. All social media tools come with easy-to-use tracking tools, so you can see which posts are viewed and shared most, which generate comments, etc. Be prepared to re-align your strategy in response to who is viewing your site and how they are doing so.

Greenville Technical College encourages our fans, followers, and friends to share their thoughts with one another by commenting on a story, feature, or post that speaks to you. We encourage lively, thoughtful and civil conversation with the following guidelines:

• Comments must be constructive, relevant to a topic discussed and to the point.
• Posts that are abusive, contain profanity, are threatening in tone or devolve into personal attacks will be deleted.
• Please do not post links unless you identify, by name, who you are and explain where your link goes, especially if you are a for profit organization. This is to distinguish spam from legitimate opportunities for the Greenville Tech community.
• Messages selling or promoting commercial products or ventures will not be permitted.
• Greenville Tech reserves the right to review all comments and remove comments that violate any of the conditions noted above.