Social Media Policy and Guidelines

At Whittier College, we recognize that social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn have become important and influential communication channels for our community.

To assist in posting content and managing these sites, the College has developed policies and guidelines for official and personal use of social media. These policies and guidelines apply to College faculty and staff, and can be used in connection with social media accounts associated with departments, offices, centers, and athletic teams. A special set of policies and guidelines have been designed with student organizations in mind.

Due to the evolving nature of social media, these policies are subject to revision by the Office of Marketing & Communications. We also welcome feedback from the campus community. Please email us at socialmedia@whittier.edu.

For Departments, Offices, Centers, and Athletic Teams

Departments and offices should not launch new social media accounts, including YouTube accounts. If you feel your goal or situation might qualify for an exception, you must contact the Office of Marketing & Communications at communications@whittier.edu to discuss the matter further.

If you have been approved, these guidelines provide detailed information on account naming conventions, Whittier College logo usage, and the culture, logistics, and best practices of specific social media websites.

Setting Up Your Account

1. Before you start, you must contact the Office of Marketing & Communications for approval (please see above). Although social media is a fun space to work in, embarking on social communication on behalf of the College should be part of a comprehensive communication strategy. Before you create a social account for your department, office, center, or athletic team, you should consider these important questions.

2. Get to know our general guidelines for social media. 

3. Get to know our guidelines for specific social media platforms. These guidelines provide detailed information on account naming conventions, Whittier College logo usage, and the culture, logistics, and best practices of individual social media websites.

4. If there is compelling reasons why a new account must be created, account holders must follow the following rule:  

• Launch your account after receiving approval from the Office of Marketing & Communications.
   
• Provide your account information to the Office of Marketing & Communications. In order to comply with terms and conditions of social media sites, and enable the Office of Marketing & Communications to track authorized social media pages, a department office, center, or athletic team must provide the account name, contact information for its administrator(s), and any necessary login information. If you have created a Facebook page, add Johnny Poet as an administrator to the page. Providing this information or page access to the Office of Marketing & Communications ensures College access to the account in the event of staffing transitions.

  After the Office of Marketing & Communications has received this information, your account will be included on Whittier.edu, including a direct link to your social media account(s) alongside the general information about your entity.

• Remain on top of social media trends. At websites such as Mashable, read articles about what other colleges or similar groups are doing to be successful with social media. 
   
• Reach out to us! In addition to managing the College’s central social media accounts, the Office of Marketing & Communications serves as a social communication information and strategy resource. Please reach us at socialmedia@whittier.edu with questions or for assistance with strategy, set-up, etc.

For All Organizations

These content guidelines pertain to all Whittier College recognized clubs or organizations, as well as the primary Whittier College accounts.

Do Not Post Content That:

• shows (or may be perceived to show) someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated;
• might be considered racist, bigoted or demeaning to a particular group of individuals;
• depicts activity that is (or may be perceived to be) illegal (i.e. drug or alcohol use)
• could otherwise put the College in a bad light. 
• Provides access to, displays, communicates, or solicits messages/images that are sexual in nature, depict graphic violence, or which may offend or harass on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, that are protected by the College’s “Nondiscrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence and Sexual Misconduct” and “Sexual Assault, and Sexual Harassment Involving Students” policies found here. 
• share confidential information related to Whittier College, such as personnel actions, internal investigations, or student information.
• require personal information from users.
• infringes copyright or trademark.

For Student Organizations

These guidelines pertain to any Whittier College-recognized clubs or organizations:

• which have or wish to start a social media account
• which bear Whittier College or a common variation in their name (such as WC), and/or
• which have social media accounts linked to the Whittier College website, and/or
• wish to be featured on one of Whittier College’s primary social media content channels

Social media accounts include, but are not limited to, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, WordPress, Flickr, etc. Understand that by creating a club or organization account that's affiliated with the College (Whittier College, WC, Dub-C, etc. in the name), the account is subject to the College's social media policy.

Registration

• Any club or organization wishing to create such a page or that currently has one in existence must provide the Office of Student Engagement with the name and contact information for the individual(s) who will be authorized to create, operate, monitor and edit the social media account on an ongoing basis (i.e. the “account administrator”). 
• The account administrator must use club or organization poet email addresses when establishing an account.

Benefits of Registering Your Site

• On Whittier.edu, a direct link to your social media site(s) will be featured alongside the general information about your club or organization.

General Content Guidelines

• Comply with Whittier College's Guidelines for Specific Social Media Platforms, which includes detailed information on account naming conventions and appropriate use of the Whittier College logo. 
• Monitor and update accounts on an ongoing basis to efficiently and rapidly respond to any problems that may arise and to ensure an engaging, interesting environment for visitors.  A stale page will likely cause more damage to the image of an entity than having no page at all.
• Treat others with respect, even if disagreements occur. Please do not post material that could be considered an infringement on the rights of others.
• Remember that these are public forums and whatever information you share will be viewed by others. Consider this carefully before posting.

Do Not Post Content That

• shows (or may be perceived to show) someone getting hurt, attacked or humiliated;
• might be considered racist, bigoted or demeaning to a particular group of individuals;
• depicts activity that is (or may be perceived to be) illegal (i.e. drug or alcohol use)
• could otherwise put the College in a bad light. 
• Provides access to, displays, communicates, or solicits messages/images that are sexual in nature, depict graphic violence, or which may offend or harass on the basis of race, sex, religion, color, national or ethnic origin, age, disability, military service, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, that are protected by the College’s “Nondiscrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Violence and Sexual Misconduct” and “Sexual Assault, and Sexual Harassment Involving Students” policies found here. 
• share confidential information related to Whittier College, such as personnel actions, internal investigations, or student information.
• require personal information from users.

Accountability

Whittier College reserves the right to:

• request the deletion of posts that it deems slanderous, obscene, soliciting, threatening or in conflict with the College social media policies and guidelines
• ask clubs and organizations to remove Whittier College (or a common variation) from their name
• request the deletion of an account if it has not been active in the excess of one semester (four months)
• request the deletion of an account if social media guidelines are violated