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Social Media Policy

Purpose:

Social media sites such as YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter/X and social blogs have become important and influential communication channels in society.  To assist in posting content and managing these sites, the College has developed specific procedures for official use of social media created to represent College groups, departments, programs and entities.

Authority:

Reviewed and approved by Abbie Parkhurst, Associate Vice President for Marketing & Communications

Procedures:

Use of College Trademarks on Social Media

  • Use of the College logo, seal and/or any College symbol or document is not allowed without the prior written approval of the Associate Vice President for marketing and communications.

College Officially Recognized Social Media Accounts

  • Only social media accounts approved by the office of marketing and communications will be recognized by the College as official. This office should be used as a resource for the College community for any social media needs and can assist in creating pages that are set up properly according to the social media site’s policy.

Establishing a Social Media Presence on Behalf of Bridgewater College

  • If you would like to launch a presence on a social media platform, please notify the office of marketing and communications by contacting Nick Mohler, Integrated Marketing Director, at nmohler@bridgewater.edu. This ensures that we are able to coordinate all social media efforts.

Account Administrators

  • All social media accounts officially recognized by Bridgewater College must have a BC faculty or staff member as an administrator at all times.
  • Should a Bridgewater employee administrator of an account leave the College for any reason or no longer wish to be an account administrator, it is that individual’s responsibility to designate another employee to be an account administrator prior to removing himself or herself from that role. The office of marketing and communications should be notified when a new administrator takes over.
  • The College’s integrated marketing director must also be listed as an account administrator on all College Facebook pages. For all College Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube accounts, send the integrated marketing director the account username and password.
  • Bridgewater employees identified as administrators of accounts are held responsible for managing and monitoring content of their officially recognized accounts. Administrators are responsible to remove content that may violate College policies.

Content on Official Accounts

  • Use good judgment about content and respect privacy laws. Do not include confidential information about the College, its staff or its students. Represent the College by using a professional tone at all times.
  • Prior to posting anything on a social media site, ask yourself if the post is accurate, fair and something that you would be proud to see on the front page of the local newspaper and/or on the headline news. Privacy does not exist in the world of social media. If you are unsure about posting something or responding to a comment, ask your supervisor, advisor, division head, vice president or the associate vice president for marketing and communications for input.
  • Review content for grammatical and spelling errors.
  • Representation of your personal opinions as being endorsed by the College or any of its organizations is prohibited. You may not use the Bridgewater name to promote any opinion, product, cause or political candidate.
  • By posting content to any social media site, you agree that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to that content, that your use of the content is protected fair use, or that you have permission to post the content; that you will not knowingly provide misleading or false information; and that you hold the College harmless for any claims resulting from the content.
  • Bridgewater College has the right to remove any content for any reason, including but not limited to, content that it deems offensive, defamatory, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexual, threatening, a violation of intellectual property rights or privacy laws, or otherwise injurious or illegal.  If you see a post that you consider objectionable, please email the integrated marketing director at nmohler@bridgewater.edu.
  • When using or posting online material that includes direct or paraphrased quotes, thoughts, ideas, photos or videos, always include citations. Provide a link to the original material if applicable.
  • Do not use information or conduct activities that may violate local, state or federal laws and regulations.

ADA Accessible Content

  • All content posted to College-related social media accounts must meet ADA accessibility guidelines at all times. It is the goal of the College to be compliant with WCAG 2.0, Level AA standards in relation to all electronic communications.
  • All social media account administrators must schedule a training with a representative from the office of marketing and communications and/or the information technology center. At that training, administrators will learn how to create photo and video posts that are accessible to users with disabilities.
  • Any social media posts that are not accessible will be removed.
  • Should an account repeatedly violate accessibility guidelines, the social media account will be terminated.

Questions about this policy should be directed to the integrated marketing director at nmohler@bridgewater.edu or the associate vice president for marketing and communications at aparkhur@bridgewater.edu.