Tunxis Community College Social Media Policy

Since there is continued interest in college groups and organizations establishing Facebook pages, we are reissuing updated Tunxis guidelines for the college community.  Club advisers, please be sure appropriate members of your clubs are aware of these guidelines. Thank you for your cooperation.

Branding Social Media Websites

To avoid degradation, distortion, or improper use of the Tunxis logo, and to maintain a suite of social presences that are presentably cross-branded across the college without any confusion on what’s official and what’s not, the following social media brand guidelines have been established for college-wide use, and thus include student organizations. Following these guidelines will help ensure you’re representing the college on third-party social media platforms appropriately.

-Graphical Representation

Consider your avatars, profile, and background images to be extensions of your web presence.

When adding graphics in the form of avatar profile images or background images to these social media sites:

  • DO use an iconic and identifiable photograph as your graphical representation. Consider using a portrait, a photo of several students (if a club) or a photo of your location.
  • Please DON’T use a Tunxis logo, or official college photos that Tunxis is currently using as part of its branding on its website or Facebook.  

If you need help or suggestions with appropriate graphics, please contact Melissa in Marketing & Public Relations at 3-1407 or [email protected].

Name of organization or program page: Be as specific and descriptive as possible within the character limit. Do not use “Tunxis Community College” alone.

-College Presences and Ownership

The Tunxis Facebook page is https://www.facebook.com/tunxis.  It is managed by Melissa Lamar in Marketing & Public Relations.

Creating new presences

It is important to the greatest extent possible, that Tunxis has a unified presence on Facebook and other social networks so as not to dilute the presence of the college. Our main Facebook page is sufficient for news, announcements and discussion about the College in general and Facebook users will expect to see one official page for the College.

New Facebook pages or groups should only be considered upon determining whether there is a specific and well-defined audience, and there is a specific well-defined aim. Consider carefully whether you have the time and the material to ensure that any proposed new page or group is kept current and that your audience doesn’t get bored and lose interest.

For club pages, we highly recommend that you have a back-up admin added to the account with password who is either a faculty club adviser or the director of student activities. This ensures that when a student graduates who was an admin, there is continuity with the page and new student leaders can be added in.

Group/TCC Organization Page Content

Please think about how your posts reflect upon the College and that M&PR already has a strategy in place for communicating specific topics.

Content that you post should be professional in tone and grammatically correct, but should avoid overly formal language. Talk to your followers as you would talk to them face-to-face in a professional setting.

Groups 

Tunxis can create or link up groups under the Tunxis Facebook page. Please contact Marketing & Public Relations for details.

Posting—Tunxis Social Media Posts and Personal Social Media Accounts

Posting Comments to Tunxis Social Media 

If you follow Tunxis and want to leave a helpful comment for someone with a question, please identify yourself by position at Tunxis when possible and make sure that you are posting accurate information (double check dates, for ex.).

Personal Social Media Accounts 

We request that you refrain from using your personal social media account to post your own general college announcements as it can sometimes result in misinformation. This would not apply to program coordinators or professors who may have program or course-specific information to share with their student followers.

The appropriate way to share Tunxis announcements in most cases is by either sharing/retweeting Tunxis social media posts with your followers/friends. If necessary, you can make the request to M&PR for a post that you can then share.

Potential Privacy Issues

  1. Privacy: Facebook maintains ownership of all content uploaded to the service. Bear in mind that once content is posted to Facebook, it is not at all easy to delete or recall it. You can also control the way that different people see your profile by adjusting your privacy settings – more information about how to do this is available here.

Students, Faculty, Staff and Administrators

Inappropriate use of social networking sites by users with regard to the college, its students and its staff may lead to disciplinary action. Policies regarding the acceptable use of computing resources must also be adhered to.

Existing policies governing student and employee behavior as outlined in the current Student Code of Conduct, Student Handbook, College Catalog and employee code of conduct are considered to be guidelines for governing content posted on social media sites and for the college’s social media presence.

Before responding to difficult posts, staff are encouraged to solicit input from Marketing & Public Relations at [email protected]. Any content that appears threatening in any way should be reported immediately to the Dean of Students or campus security. Administrators and staff are encouraged to continue difficult conversations outside of the public forum.

An email or signed photo/video release is required for students appearing in social media posts.

Existing policies governing student and employee behavior as outlined in the Student Code of Conduct and employee code of conduct apply to the college’s social media presence.