Social Media Policy

Purpose:

This policy supports the responsible creation, management, and oversight of social media accounts affiliated with Willamette University. It also addresses key considerations such as cybersecurity and institutional accountability. It applies to all members of the Willamette University community who create, manage, or contribute to social media content on behalf of the University. All University-affiliated social media accounts must comply with the standards outlined in this policy. This policy does not govern personal social media accounts; however, students, faculty, and staff should be aware that other university conduct policies may apply to personal social media use in certain circumstances.

Definitions Related to this Policy:

• Social Media means websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking, including but not limited to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Bluesky, YouTube, TikTok, X, Vimeo, WhatsApp, and Snapchat.
• University-Affiliated Account means any account that claims affiliation with Willamette University and/or uses Willamette University, Bearcats, PNCA, or derivations of these in its account name or description, including all accounts representing the University’s colleges, departments, divisions and offices or other Willamette-affiliated accounts that are owned or moderated by University employees and students. This does not include employees and students’ personal accounts.

Types of University-Affiliated Accounts

• Big W Accounts: Social media accounts representing the entire University administered by Marketing and/or Communications.
• Flagship Accounts: Any page or groups representing the Big W, the colleges (Willamette College, Law, MBA, PNCA, HFSGS, SCIS, or other future colleges), Office of Admissions, Willamette Bearcats, the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement, Housing, Office of Intercultural Engagement & Inclusion, Student Engagement, Office of International Education, Theatre and Music, Academic Departments, Center for Contemporary Art & Culture, and the Mark O. Hatfield Library.
• Group: A social media account with moderated membership including Facebook groups, LinkedIn Groups, (includes both private and public groups) and Discord. These include groups for specific affiliations, such as students, employees, prospective students, alumni, members of a class or major, and parents.
• Page: A public social media account viewable to any user.
• Student-Managed Account: Any page or group representing a student organization and run by students for students.

Types of Users:

• Administrator: The main owners of a social media account, who are responsible for content creation, publishing, moderation, password management, and assigning and removing account administrators and moderators. Some media require one Administrator be designated the “Owner” of the account.
• Content Producer: Any person who officially creates regular content for a social media account, including but not limited to University employees, students, photographers, videographers, recording artists or other designated persons such as alumni, parents or outside vendors such as PR firms, ad agencies, influencers or freelancers. A Content Producer may or may not be an administrator or moderator.
• Member: A user who participates in a social media group.
• Moderator: A non-administrator with login access to a social media account, who creates, edits and posts content, moderates comments and membership, or manages passwords. For this policy, moderators include editors, managers and other similar non-administrator roles on social media. 
• User: A participant on a social media page.

Policy: 

1. Account security and page roles
   1. Each University-Affiliated Account must have two dedicated professional staff members assigned to manage the account, one of whom may be the Senior Director of Social Media. This does not include student employees. The assigned staff members must hold administrative privileges for all accounts and be responsible for managing permissions and ensuring account security. 
   2. Advertisers, service providers, and analysts contracted by the University may be given access to University-Affiliated Accounts with the least access necessary to perform their role. 
   3. Administrators of University-Affiliated and Student-Run Accounts must adhere to best practices for controlling account access and password management as defined in the University’s Information Security Policy.
   4. For platforms where one uses a personal account to administer a University Affiliated Account (such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube), individuals are strongly encouraged to adhere to the Information Security Policy’s password requirements on their personal accounts.
   5. The Senior Director of Social Media or designee must be added as an administrator whenever possible, with access credentials and passwords for all flagship and departmental university accounts shared to ensure continuity, promote best practices around cybersecurity, and maintain University oversight during employment transitions.
   6. All school and college Flagship Accounts must be managed through a centralized third-party social media management system to ensure continuity, maintain brand consistency, and provide clear, comprehensive reporting.
   7. Administrators of University-Affiliated Accounts are responsible for updating social-media@willamette.edu when a change in administration or moderation occurs.
   8. Student-managed social media accounts must notify the two dedicated professional staff members assigned to manage the account when there is a change in social media administration or moderation.
2. Oversight and Governance of Social Media Accounts - To ensure that the content and interactions on Willamette University's flagship social media accounts align with our institutional values, branding guidelines, and strategic communications goals, the Senior Director of Social Media holds the primary responsibility for providing direction, guidelines, and best practices for these channels.
3. Public versus private accounts, pages, and groups
   1. In general, University-Affiliated Accounts should be public and accessible to prospective students, parents, the Willamette community, and alumni.
   2. Exceptions include pages or groups intended for communication within a defined subset of the Willamette community, such as those enrolled in a particular course, incoming students, parents, alumni, etc.
4. Emergency and Crisis Communications - To avoid the spread of misinformation and ensure a unified voice, University-Affiliated Accounts must refrain from posting their own updates during actives emergencies. Instead, these accounts should share or amplify content from Big W Accounts to avoid confusion and maintain public trust. 
5. ADA compliance - The university is committed to providing an inclusive online environment that complies with current WCAG standards and Willamette’s Digital Accessibility guidelines. 
6. Content creation and moderation - Willamette University supports freedom of speech and dialogue. Willamette University does not endorse all comments that appear on University-Affiliated Accounts. The Senior Director of Social Media, in conjunction with administrators should moderate comments lightly to provide room for conversation.
   1. University-Affiliated Accounts will not post material and will remove comments that include:
      1. Spam, including deliberate repetition of comments.
      2. Threats of violence.
      3. Harassment, discrimination, derogatory comments, and bullying of any form including based on race, sex, age, disability, religion or lack thereof, national origin, marital status, veteran status, pregnancy, actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression, or any other basis protected by local, state, or federal law.
      4. Cyberstalking.
      5. Content that infringes on copyright, particularly content that was created outside of Willamette University.
      6. For-profit promotions, business ads, and commercial transactions.
      7. Information that is factually inaccurate and potentially libelous statements.
      8. Hazing.
      9. Alleged violations of confidentiality and privacy including FERPA-protected information.
      10. Fundraising or crowdsourcing activities that are not associated with the University or that violate the Student Fundraising Policy.
      11. Engagements with prospective students or their families that disparage incoming students, their families, or the University.
      12. Links leading to posts or webpages in the aforementioned categories.
      13. Anonymous comments and reviews, or those posted with fake names fall into the aforementioned categories.
      14. Material that violates the terms of service of the corresponding social medium.
      15. Comments that do not fall into any of these categories may be removed at the discretion of the Senior Director of Social Media, AVP for Institutional Marketing, or VP of University Communications.
   1. The University reserves the right to delete or edit inappropriate, offensive, or disparaging posts that do not align with the community’s values.
   2. The University reserves the right to archive posts, comments, and direct messages.
   3. The University does not post to anonymous social media platforms. 
   4. Students and employees are bound by all relevant University policies when participating in University-affiliated social media accounts.
   5. Content Producers on University-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to the University’s Political Policy and maintain a clear distinction between the political activities of individuals as private citizens and the activities of those individuals in their official relationship to the University.
   6. University-Affiliated Accounts must not share posts or information from anonymous accounts or sources.
   7. Administrators are encouraged to post user-generated content when appropriate and are responsible for obtaining permission from and acknowledging the author of the content.
      1. Content created by University employees for University-Affiliated Social media (excluding Student-Run Accounts) is owned by the University and does not require an author, photographer, or videographer credit.
7. University-affiliated accounts must comply with NCAA regulations regarding prospective and current student-athletes. 

• Contests, solicitations, fundraising, and crowdsourcing on social media
  1. All University-Affiliated Accounts must comply with Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255 “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
  2. All social media contests must have the goal or result of strengthening affiliation with the University and not an outside entity.
  3. If University employees participate, the contest must comply with the Gifts, Awards and Prizes from University Funds Policy.
  4. Only official University fundraising activities approved by the Office of Advancement and in compliance with the University’s Gift Acceptance Policy may be promoted on University-Affiliated Accounts.
  5. Student-affiliated accounts must adhere to the Student Fundraising policy.
• Related policies and guidelines - All Users, Moderators and Administrators participating on University-Affiliated Accounts must adhere to all University policies including but not limited to the Intellectual Property Rights Policy, Copyright Policy, FERPA, Campus SaVE Act, Sexual Misconduct Policy and Protocol, Employment Policies, Student Rights & Responsibilities, Standards of Conduct, Responsible Use of Information Technology Resources, Student Organization Handbook, Student Fundraising Policy, and Brand Guidelines. They must also adhere to terms and conditions as defined by the Social Media platform, civil law, and Federal Trade Commission 16 CFR Part 255.

Effective Date:  August 18, 2025

Responsible Person/Primary Contact: AVP for Institutional  Marketing and Senior Director of Social Media

Responsible University Office: Institutional Marketing