Social media guidelines

To qualify to be recognized as an official APSU social channel and included in the social media directory, you must agree to:

• Adhere to all APSU policies (these may change).
• Adhere to the policies of each social media platform you use.
• Practice proper content management.
  • When posting, be mindful of the copyright and intellectual property rights of others and of the university.

• Never promote any cause or platform that has no APSU affiliation. (i.e. outside companies, products, endorsement of political candidates, etc.)
• Properly use University logos and branding.
• Protect confidential and proprietary information. Do not post confidential or proprietary information about APSU, students, employees, or alumni. Employees must still follow the applicable federal requirements, such as FERPA and HIPPA, as well as NCAA regulations. Adhere to all applicable university privacy and confidentiality policies.
• Keep your information up to date, and post regularly.
• Promote engagement and monitor conversation, manage when needed.
  • Because of the transparency needed to build credibility in social media, APSU suggests that posts that are critical, but not offensive, should generally not be censored. However, comments that are libelous or offensive by the standards of our community, such as posts that are racist of obscene, or that consist of “spam” advertisements or otherwise violate university regulations should be removed.

• Protect the institutional voice.
  1. Remain professional in tone and in good taste.
  2. No individual APSU department, employee or student organization should depict its social media site as representing the university as a whole.
  3. Names, profile images and posts should all be clearly linked to the particular department, program or student organization rather than to APSU as a whole.

• Monitor the discourse of your social media pages.
  • Content Owners are responsible for monitoring and maintaining web content as follows:

i.     Content is current and accurate.

ii.     Content owners engage in communications that are acceptable in the APSU workplace and respect copyrights and disclosures. Proprietary financial, intellectual property, student information or similar sensitive or private content may not be revealed.

iii.     Content owners are responsible for gaining the expressed consent of all involved parties for the right to distribution or publication of recordings, photos, images, video, text, slideshow presentations, artwork, and advertisements.

iv.     Content owners are responsible for constantly monitoring postings and comments to social media sites, and for deleting postings that do not adhere to APSU policies.

To apply for official recognition:

• Complete the Social Directory Application Form.
  • At least one admin must be faculty/staff for student groups.
  • Applicants agree to follow these guidelines and to a review of their site(s) and any recommendations given to meet current standards.