Social Media

Social Media Guidelines

Social media is user-generated web content that is highly available and collaborative. Social media allows conversations in a world-sized room. Anyone can join. Everyone can join.

Social media is distinct from industry media because it is user-generated. Therefore the public tends to trust and value social media differently than industry media.

Section 1 - Policies For All Social Media Sites

Concordia University Irvine prohibits the creation of unofficial social media pages that:

Appear to represent the university.
Use the Concordia University Irvine name and/logo or official university images on an unofficial, unapproved page.
- “CUI", “CU Irvine". “ConcordiaIrvine", “Concordia Irvine”, “Concordia University Irvine", “Concordia University, Irvine”, “Concordia University in Irvine”, “Concordia University California”
Impersonate the university in any way.

Comments Guidelines

Concordia University Irvine encourages thoughtful discussion, debate, and interaction among social media users. User comments are not screened prior to being published within the public forum. Because of this, Concordia University Irvine would like to remind its users of a few simple guidelines: Be respectful when publishing content. This includes recognizing that students, faculty, staff, and the general public come from different backgrounds, beliefs, and viewpoints.

Voicing opinions, complaints, or disagreements with another is accepted, but we ask that you do so in a constructive manner. Obscenities, personal attacks, threatening, harassing, or abusive content, and defamatory comments about any person, group, organization or belief will be deleted.

CUI will not allow for the commercial solicitation or promotion of products and will delete them from the account as necessary.

Any comments posted to a CUI social media account do not necessarily reflect the opinions or viewpoints of the University.

All comments and postings are subject to the social media platform’s Terms of Use.

Social Media Community Manager Policy

Officially recognized Concordia University Irvine (CUI) social media accounts must be reviewed, approved, and created by the Marketing & Communications Department. These are the only accounts permitted to use an approved CUI logo and to be a representative of CUI.
Each officially recognized social media account will have an assigned responsible administrator. Each administrator must read and sign this CUI Social Media Community Manager Policy and read the CUI Social Media Playbook. CUI social media account administrators are referred to as “Social Media Community Managers” (SMCM). They are responsible for managing, protecting, and promoting each account they administer in a manner consistent with the CUI Social Media Community Manager Policy and Playbook, and that conforms to and does not conflict with CUI’s mission, vision, and values.
SMCM shall create a LastPass® account to store all CUI social media passwords. Proper password security methods shall be used, including length, complexity, and keeping passwords confidential. Social media account passwords may not be shared with anyone else without approval from the Social Media Manager. SMCM is responsible in the event that a social media account they administer is compromised and they must immediately notify the Social Media Manager.
Social media account passwords, profile pictures, and email addresses may not be altered by SMCM without approval from the Social Media Manager.
Should SMCM privileges need to be transferred to another individual, SMCM shall notify the Social Media Manager two weeks prior. Social media accounts that are inactive for over six months may be deactivated.
Inappropriate, offensive, injurious, illegal content, and photographs/videos of minors may not be posted to any social media account. Content protected by FERPA or HIPPA may not be posted to any social media account. Content violating these standards must be immediately removed by a SMCM, and may be removed by the Social Media Manager or other authorized CUI designee.
CUI logos, trademarks, symbols, and phrases will not be used outside of the social media account without written permission from the Marketing & Communications Department. Copyright law, trademark law, and other fair use of materials laws must be complied with at all times.
SMCM may not run advertising campaigns, host live streams/events, host contests, create GIFs, stickers or filters on/for social media without approval from the Marketing & Communications Department.
Should the SMCM receive a negative comment or post on an account he/she is responsible for, SMCM shall refrain from engaging and send a screenshot to the Social Media Manager for next steps.
In the event of a CUI campus crisis or public relations event, SMCM shall first notify the Social Media Manager of any comments or inquiries received to the account they administer before taking any action. If no response from Social Media Manager is received within two hours, refer all posts and comments to the main Concordia University Irvine social media sites (Facebook and Twitter) and/or to the CUI website unless other instructions are given. At such times, SMCM shall follow the instructions given by appropriate CUI officials including Marketing & Communications Department personnel, Public Information Officer, or designated Incident Command (Campus Safety).
Failure to adhere to all the aforementioned standards and requirements may result in loss of privileges, loss of administrative access, removal from the position of SMCM and potential disciplinary actions to the SMCM and/or club. For CUI employees (including student employees), disciplinary actions may also include termination of employment with CUI.

Section 2 - Concordia University Irvine Social Media

Responsibility

Think twice, publish once. Social media sites are not “private” no matter how much they claim to be. Search engines can find posts years after a publication date, comments can be copied and forwarded and archival systems save information even if the post has been removed or deleted. To learn more about this topic, read articles by Mashable and CNN.

You are responsible for your posts. You are responsible for anything and everything that you post on your own site and others. Courts have held individual bloggers responsible for comments deemed copyrighted, defamatory, proprietary, libelous, or obscene.

Check all the facts. Before you make a post or comment check that you have all the facts. If needed, share your source. If you make an error, correct it as soon as possible and make it public.

Best Practices

Be authentic. Social media is all about people connecting with people. Remember to humanize your social media interactions. On social networks it is okay to use an exclamation point and phrases such as "check it out" rather than "read more."

Be accurate. Make sure you have all of the facts before you post. Cite and link to sources whenever possible to help build a community. It also doesn’t hurt to spell-check your content before posting. If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly. This will earn you respect in the online community.

Be respectful. Respect for the dignity of others and to the civil and thoughtful discussion of opposing ideas is critical. Feel free to respectfully disagree with a position but please do not propagate online confrontation as it reflects poorly on both the individual and CUI.

Be positive. A good rule of thumb: if you would not say it in person, don’t say it online.

Encourage open conversation. Listen to people and respond to as many comments as possible with constructive feedback. Allow negative comments, delete the spam, and seek to respond rather than censor.

Allow comments. Even the negative ones. A good philosophy for comments is to encourage thoughtful discussion, debate and differing viewpoints, with the understanding that all comments made must be civil, respectful, and appropriate for your audience. If comments are lewd, libelous, incite violence or are otherwise hurtful or hateful speech directed at either individuals or groups, CUI employees who serve as account administrators reserve the right to delete such comments. Look to the CUI Social Media Response Procedure for guidance.