UNC Social Media Policy

The Social Media Policy and best practices are important for everyone to have a thorough understanding and apply to UNC social media platforms. This will provide guidance to produce consistent communications campus-wide. As an owner or user of an official University of Northern Colorado-affiliated social media account, you are speaking on behalf of the university. We ask that you post responsibly and adhere to the following guidelines to ensure the best experience for our audience.

Girls holding a phone up taking a photo.

Purpose of this Policy

The Social Media Policy is important for everyone to have an understanding of UNC social media platforms and best practices. This will provide guidance to produce consistent communication campus-wide. As an owner or user of an official University of Northern Colorado-affiliated social media account, you are speaking on behalf of the university. We ask that you post responsibly and adhere to the following guidelines to ensure the best experience for our audience.

Application of this Policy

This policy applies to all social media accounts created by UNC faculty, staff, student employees or students with university authorization.

UNC SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATION

Legal

Confidential or proprietary information about UNC, UNC employees, students, alumni or others with UNC affiliation, or any other persons that would violate that person’s rights to privacy under applicable federal and state laws and regulations including but not limited to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) and university policies may not be posted on a UNC Social Media account.

Terms of Service

The UNC Social Media account holder must abide by all Terms of Service for each of the platforms for the applicable account. Below are some of the most common platforms with links to their Terms.

Policy Requirements

Every UNC social media account, existing or created after the completion of the UNC Social Media Application, is subject to the requirements of this policy and all accounts must follow the process set forth for a review for official recognition by the University. Regardless if UNC social media accounts have completed the application process or if they have existed prior to the policy’s creation, this policy still applies in its entirety.

Inappropriate or unauthorized content that does not comply with this policy or the platform’s terms may be removed by UNC employees identified as account administrators or at the direction of the UNC Marketing and Communications team.

Inappropriate content includes advertising, endorsement of products, discussion of legal or confidential matters affecting the university, political endorsements, personal attacks, spam, foul language, inappropriate images, offensive behavior, etc.

Best Practices

The Social Media Policy and best practices are important for everyone to have a thorough understanding and apply to UNC social media platforms. This will provide guidance to produce consistent communications campus-wide. As an owner or user of an official University of Northern Colorado-affiliated social media account, you are speaking on behalf of the university. We ask that you post responsibly and adhere to the following guidelines to ensure the best experience for our audience.

Frequency:
Multiple times a week, no more than twice a day
Audiences:
Parents/Support People, Alumni, some students

Accuracy is key

Review content for grammatical and spelling errors. Do your research before posting any information. When you are posting on a main page (i.e college-level or university-level pages) do not use UNC jargon that may not be familiar to everyone. Avoid the use of acronyms unless you have already stated their meaning.

Avoid the use of acronyms unless you have already stated their meaning.

Stories

Instagram and Facebook stories are very similar while TikTok stories are typically the same as TikToks but only live for 24 hours. Instagram and Facebook stories can range from sharing a post of someone else or your own recent post, a short video, infographics, UNC updates, etc.

Instagram/Facebook: post to story multiple times a day in some capacity.
TikTok: post to story at your own discretion. Most of the time, it makes more sense to post information on TikTok for users to find again later if necessary.

Crisis and Emergency Communication

In a crisis or emergency situation, including any weather-related events, all communication will come from the central Marketing and Communications team. Authorized account users are encouraged to share the response on other official accounts, though it is important to refrain from posting information ahead of the main UNC accounts or information found elsewhere.

Depending on the nature of the situation, any previously scheduled posts on other official accounts should be reviewed and reconsidered before posting.

Comment Moderation

UNC’s social media platforms are intended for our readers to participate in thoughtful and intelligent discussion, and we welcome lively debate and a variety of opinions. All users have the right to remove unwanted content posted by others on their page, and we reserve the right to moderate comments and remove any that are considered to be:

Personally attacking another commenter or persistently misrepresenting our content (while we welcome criticism and feedback, personal attacks on our authors or continual and repeated criticism of our content will be removed)
Shouting (written in ALL CAPS)
Advertising or span (including anything that appears to be posted by a bot)
Use of expletives, or images or videos containing nudity, sexual acts or excessive violence
Defamatory, obscene, offensive, pornographic, vulgar, profane, indecent or unlawful
Racially or religiously vilifying any person, or inciting hatred or violence, or likely to insult, offend or humiliate others based on race, religion, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation or any physical or mental disability
False, misleading or deceptive
Completely off topic or repetitive content
Linking to unrelated personal blogs or websites (links to other news stories or websites relevant to the discussion will be allowed)

Users who repeatedly breach this policy will be blocked!

As a rule, we do not respond to current events, tragedies and deaths unless a message is published by campus leadership, or we produce a story about a faculty/student/alumni expert’s take on the topic. Community boosts on Instagram are a good way to elevate our community’s sentiments without making direct statements.

Naming Conventions

Account Long Name

The account long name needs to begin with “University of Northern Colorado.” If you have a long department or organization name (i.e. Gender and Sexuality Resource Center, Disability Resource Center), use UNC at the beginning of your long name.
Account Short Name (the @, the user handle)

Use “@UNCO_[your department]” whether that be an acronym or the full name if it’s short enough. (i.e. @unco_campusrec, @unco_gsrc, @unco_mgc)

Contact social.media@mikeshiner.com with any questions.
Hashtags

#UNCBears: A general hashtag for everyone

#GoBears or #VamosOsos: our UNC pride hashtags

#UNCBearsAlumni: used by alumni around the world

#BearsGoBig: used to celebrate the successes of students, faculty, staff and alumni

#GetUpGreeley: used by the UNC Athletics Department

If you are creating a new hashtag, research if there is already activity associated with the potential hashtag. If there is not, it’s safe to continue. If there is, it’s okay to continue if the content is UNC-related.
Keep in Mind!

If you are tagged in a post from an official UNC account, be sure to share, comment or engage in some manner with the post. Be social!

Random Audits

Compliance with the UNC Social Media Policy is required. For any questions, contact Marketing and Communications at UNC.

Random audits will be performed to ensure the integrity of UNC Social Media accounts’ representation of the UNC brand. Any accounts that have been inactive for three months, or contain inappropriate, unauthorized, confidential, and/or proprietary information may be removed