Registered Student Organization Handbook

Social Media Guidelines

As a public institution, Grand Valley State University’s purpose is to educate and inform. This coincides with the spirit of social media, to share the wealth of knowledge for the common good.

For this reason, Grand Valley maintains official pages on various social media platforms. You can find links to those pages at: www.gvsu.edu/socialmedia. They have been set up and are maintained for the purpose of disseminating information and connecting people to the university and its services.

Although you are encouraged to use social media in your work, please respect university time and resources as you provide or read content. Our first priority is to execute the business of the university so find the right balance to do this. If you are an avid user, please consider two accounts – one you maintain for the university and one for your personal use outside of work.

Following are some guidelines for using social media at Grand Valley.

General recommendations
Be Respectful

  • Be a leader, exercise good judgment, take the high ground
  • Converse like a real person and remember the people who are reading your posts are real people
  • Audiences who may be reading your posts could include current and prospective students, faculty, staff, donors, alumni, legislators, parents, school counselors, the media, or future employers

Be Transparent

    • Clearly state your name, title, department, university – don’t be a mole
    • Admit mistakes and fix them
    • Respect copyrights and fair use
      • Make sure you attribute when you borrow content
      • Note that Grand Valley logos and names are trademarked so use appropriately
        • Grand Valley State University®
        • GVSU®
        • Grand Valley State Lakers™
        • Grand Valley State™
        • Notes: The use of the word “Lakers” alone is unacceptable. The following verbiage is permitted: “Grand Valley State Lakers®”, “Grand Valley Lakers®”, “GVSU Lakers®” or “Grand Valley State University Lakers®”

Add value

  • Share your knowledge
  • Be accurate
  • Stay on topic
  • Don’t spam

Reconsider before you post

  • Posts can never be eradicated because of archival systems, forwards, retweets, etc., so think before you post, especially when discussing something potentially sensitive
  • Maintain confidentiality

Be responsive to feedback

  • Continue the conversation flow
  • Build community

Link to GVSU Web pages

To give more information that will remain updated, be sure to link to GVSU Web pages. This also increases the search engine optimization of those pages.
Follow Information Technology policies and procedures

Posting on behalf of Grand Valley

Avatars 

The use of Grand Valley logos as avatars on social media sites is reserved for use on official university sites and should not be used by individuals. Photography that represents the university in a positive light is acceptable and recommended if individuals wish to be represented on such sites with a Grand Valley image.

Political statements

Refrain from making them when representing Grand Valley (See 2.2.3 in GVSU’s Administrative Manual)

Define your role

Check with your supervisor to be clear about when and how you should post or respond to posts as a GVSU employee

Personal site guidelines

Be transparent

Feel free to identify yourself as a Grand Valley faculty or staff member but be clear that your views shared on your personal site are yours and are not necessarily shared by the university

Liability

You are legally liable for what you post, no matter if it is your own site or that of others. Possible liabilities include: copyright infringement, breach of confidentiality, defamation, libel, and obscenity

Grand Valley logos

Do not use any GVSU logos or images on your personal sites for any reason and especially not to promote any products, causes, or political parties or candidates

Protect yourself

Be careful not to reveal information that could put you at risk for identity theft

Please call Institutional Marketing if you have questions (331-2525).

(Borrowed from http://www.gvsu.edu/socialmediaguidelines.htm )

Page last modified November 17, 2009