Social Media Guidelines

CUNY recognizes the importance of social media in communication, outreach, and engagement with its students, faculty, alumni, stakeholders and the public.
 
These guidelines are for anyone in Hostos Community College starting an official Hostos account, including but not limited to divisions, programs and members of leadership.
 
As a general rule, anyone opening an official Hostos Community College-related social media account on behalf of a registered student group, division, program or leader needs to notify the Communications office and needs to adhere to the guidelines below on the use of CUNY/college branding and best practices.
 
The social media guidelines provided here should be useful and relevant to the entire Hostos community.
 
Creating Social Media Accounts
Before you create a new Social Media Account, consider the following:
  • Who is your audience? Is social media the best and most practical way to keep your audience updated with news and events?
  • Define the purpose of having a social media account. Opening an account with no thoughtful growth plan and strategy and lack of consistent content and attention is not recommended.
  • Do you have a staffer(s) with social media experience to manage and moderate the account consistently?
 
Use of Hostos Name, Logo and Likeness
Each social media account must strictly adhere to the  College Brand Guidelines. Social media design toolkits must be approved by the Hostos Office of Communications.
The Hostos name, logo and seal are trademarked and protected by copyright law and any use of the name, logo or likeness for fraudulent, parody or unauthorized account(s) violates CUNY policies.

SOCIAL MEDIA BEST PRACTICES
  • Posts should always remain respectful, professional and inclusive. Abusive or offensive posts that undermine the College’s reputation and mission will not be tolerated and could violate student code of conduct and employee policies.
  • Do not use a Hostos social media account to post for personal purposes. Social media accounts are for the dissemination of official College content only.
  • Be conscious of the laws and regulations governing the privacy of student education records, including FERPA, protected health information, including HIPAA, and any personally identifiable information. Do not post confidential or private information about students, faculty, alumni or staff. Please refer to CUNY's guidance regarding doxxing.
  • Do not engage in debates, arguments or respond to negative comments and direct messages unless you can provide information that may help resolve the issue, offer clarification or an acknowledgment is needed on behalf of CUNY and/or the College. Before responding to a post or comment, consult with colleagues and think through your response strategy rather than posting immediately.
  • Delete or hide comments that are abusive, contain profanity, are threatening in tone, devolve into personal attacks, and or spam. You should report profiles, comments and users to the social media platform for violating their terms and community guidelines.  Please follow the instructions laid out by the following platforms:
  • For more guidance, please refer to CUNY’s policy regarding social media comments.
  • Please make every effort to credit the photographer or source of your photo when and where you can. 
  • If you plan to take photos for an event, a consent and release form is strongly recommended. You can find a digital copy here for reference.
  • Make every effort to make your content accessible by providing closed captioning to your videos and alt-text on your photos. The CUNY Accessibility page has further details.

If you need training or refresher courses on best practices, please reach out to the Social Media Team at the CUNY Office of Communications and Marketing. They will periodically review affiliated account activity.
 
Using Social Media for Personal Use
In today’s social media climate and regardless of public vs. private social media accounts, everything you post is public to a degree and posts can never be truly scrubbed from the internet. Staff, faculty and students who wish to use social media in a personal capacity and choose to identify themselves as a Hostos staff member, faculty or student in their bio and posts, should have a disclaimer that indicates that their expressed views and opinions are solely theirs, and do not reflect the views and opinions of the University. Social media accounts that use Hostos’ name, likeness or logo to disseminate offensive, abusive and inappropriate content could violate student code of conduct and employee policies and procedures.
 
Hostos will not be liable for and will not indemnify an employee for any liability that results from postings from personal social media accounts. Social media communications constituting threats of harassment or violence may violate the law, student code of conduct and employee policies. Social media communications containing false statements that could harm a person’s reputation are possibly defamatory and may result in civil liability.
 
Managing Social Media Accounts
Each social media account must have at least two administrators at all times: one primary administrator and one backup. A student may be enlisted to help manage an account but should not establish or have the highest level (admin) rights to the account.
 
All accounts should have a shared cuny.edu email address, username and password so the account(s) is not tied to a personal email address or to a specific individual.
Establishing a legacy system will avoid confusion over old or lost logins and passwords when individuals inherit the account(s). Social media admins of divisions and programs should keep a list of the passwords for their accounts. Please refer to the Succession Planning section for more guidance. Contact IT if you need a shared email created.
 
Each social media account must have a bio description that clearly states the office or department. Accounts should link to a relevant cuny.edu web address. Users will treat your account and interpret your messaging as a representative of the University.
Monitor engagement on posts and report community violations accordingly using the platform’s reporting portals.
 
Existing social media account administrators should meet periodically with the Communications office staff to receive guidance and feedback and discuss issues and questions about the operation of their social media accounts.
 
Social Media Accounts for Senior Leadership
Within the Hostos community, social media accounts are typically created to represent programs or offices. Occasionally, there might be a reason to create an official social media account for senior leadership, like a president or a dean. Such accounts do not transfer to the employee’s personal use should they leave the University. Ownership of the account will remain with Hostos in perpetuity.
 
Emergencies
In the event of an emergency, account administrators are asked to share only official information provided by the main Hostos social media accounts and shared in official College messages. This ensures accuracy, a consistent message, and that the latest information is being shared. You will receive guidance directly from the Office of Communications in these situations.
 
Succession Planning
Social media platforms should be monitored and should never go without an active administrator/manager. If the administrator of a social media account is leaving Hostos or no longer wishes to be an account administrator, a new administrator should be identified immediately. Responsibility should be transferred to the new administrator and any access the former employee had should be removed. It is recommended a new password be created for security.
 
Account administrators/managers are to determine their own succession plans that best fit the needs of their divisions or offices. It is not the responsibility of the Administrators of the College’s main social media accounts to produce nor safeguard such procedures.
 
In cases where the social media account will no longer be in use or is not transferred, administrators should deactivate the account. It is not advised to delete an account because you may want to remain in ownership of the handle. Instead, remove all art and make a final post that directs your followers to other social media platforms where you are active and/or a relevant web link and pin the post to the top. In the bio section, a note should be left that indicates that the account is no longer active.
 
Social Media Comment Guidelines
Hostos encourages followers to engage with the College’s social media accounts and to post, comment, and interact with others. We expect that comments will be on-topic and respectful of the rights and opinions of others.
 
Hostos reserves the right, but is not obligated, to remove comments that:
  • Are off-topic.
  • Are profane, violent, obscene, or abusive.
  • Encourage or support discrimination and hate.
  • Are duplicates or spam.
  • Advocate illegal activity.
  • Are misleading or contain falsehoods and/or inaccurate information.
  • Are threatening in tone or devolve into personal attacks.
 
Users who repeatedly violate the comment guidelines may be reported, blocked, and/or banned. Posted comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the College. In certain situations, the poster, as well as the content, may be reported to Public Safety or to the authorities, depending on the nature of the content or as required by law.
 
If you encounter the following in public comments or direct messages, immediately screenshot and report them to the appropriate office or department: