SACL Social Media Guidelines

Student Affairs and Campus Life (SACL) supports the use of social media by employees to connect with students, fellow faculty and staff, business colleagues and alums to further department and division goals.

SACL Social Media usage is governed by the same policies that govern all other electronic communications. UMass Amherst IT Policies are available here: https://www.it.umass.edu/policies.

Personal use of social media should be separate from professional use. Professional uses of social networks include using social networks for outreach purposes and to create groups to support campus recruiting efforts; monitoring public opinion about a campus organization, process or service; using networks like LinkedIn for professional networking and maintaining contacts with professional or standards organizations. 

SACL Social Media Guidelines 

  • Requests for employee/program/department use of social networks should be submitted to the department head or designee for review and approval. This step ensures that we have a coordinated and deliberate use of these services. Department social network pages must be appropriately branded, regularly monitored and kept current. 
  • Use of social networks such as Facebook, Twitter using University credentials for personal use is not allowed 
  • Department social media accounts should be created using a dedicated subsidiary OIT account 
  • Include a statement on the page that states you reserve the right to remove any inappropriate content 
  • Monitor comments daily 
  • Downloading and installing plug-ins for social network sites is not allowed unless supported by your IT support group 
  • Information published on your social media site should comply with the University’s confidentiality and disclosure of proprietary data policies. This also applies to comments posted on other blogs, forums, and social networking sites. 
  • Your online presence reflects the University. Your actions captured via images, posts, or comments are public and reflect your department and Student Life.
  • Be active. Be timely. Be thoughtful.