Social Media Guide

1. Contact the Arts & Sciences Communications team prior to launching any social media initiatives. Representation of Arts & Sciences departments, programs, labs, or other units on online social media platforms must be approved by and coordinated in conjunction with A&S Communications.
2. Authorization must be obtained first from Arts & Sciences Communications, before using the University’s names and logos, including the names of departments, programs, centers and other units. All policies, procedures, and guidelines regarding University trademarks, names, and symbols apply to social networking sites. Existing social media activities must be reviewed and approved or amended as necessary.
3. Participation in or on social media platforms can be created by, assigned to and maintained by representatives of departments, divisions, programs or their delegates under the guidance of Arts & Sciences Communications.
4. All social media participation must assign a primary site administrator responsible for content and adhere to applicable policies and procedures. The primary administrator should be an employee of the University. If not an employee of the University, the primary site administrator must be directly supervised by an employee of Washington University who assumes responsibility for the primary site administrator’s work. The site administrator’s name and title, as well as all parties with administrative access to the site, shall be forwarded to the Arts & Sciences Communications team, posted on the site, and kept current by the department, division or program responsible for the social media forum. Arts & Sciences Communications can approve requests for assistance or shared site administration by other parties (See Shared Administrative Access to Social Media Platforms).
5. The primary site administrator will ensure that:
   • Content is appropriate, accurate and timely.
   • Content complies with all privacy, corporate compliance, copyright, disclosure, conflict of interest, and other relevant laws and University policies.
   • Site or page complies with the naming conventions for social media initiatives at Washington University. (See table below)
   • Appropriate consent is obtained and documented for content including words, graphics, photos, video, audio, images, PowerPoint presentations, artwork, and any other included elements.
   • Content does not constitute advertising. The University does not endorse commercial enterprises, including in its digital communication unless approved by the Office of Public Affairs. Promotion of an event sponsored by the University is acceptable.
   • Content is monitored daily, or more frequently if necessary, and postings and comments adhere to policies.
   • All errors are immediately corrected and corrections notes with the original post.
   • Offered links are reviewed and deemed appropriate.
   • WashU Arts & Sciences, a Facebook account managed by the ArtSci Communications team, should be invited to be a member of your group. Once accepted, the primary site administrator should make WashU Arts & Sciences an administrator of the group. The WashU Arts & Sciences profile will not make any changes/decisions about your group; their involvement is only to provide support in crisis situations.
6. Comments on official WashU Arts & Sciences forums that contain any of the following are subject to editing, rejection or deletion:
   • Profanity, racist, sexist, discriminatory or other derogatory content
   • Plagiarism or infringement upon or violation of the rights of third parties, such as copyright, trademark, trade secret, confidentiality, intellectual property or patent
   • False claims, including those not in compliance with AMA guidelines
   • Spam, spyware, virus or other component or computer code or script that is or could be harmful

Personal self-hosted social media sites unrelated to WashU business or activities must clearly and prominently state that they do no represent the opinions or views of the University and that they convey the personal views of the creator.

The University does not monitor these personal pages and is not responsible for their content. Such personal content, if using the wustl.edu domain, must comply with local, state and federal law — and must not involve copyright infringement, constitute libel or harassment, contain illegal materials, or consume inappropriate amounts of bandwidth.

The University’s Computer Use Policy provides further guidelines for appropriate use by students, faculty and staff of computer facilities and services.

Activities that do not identify a faculty or staff member with WashU, do not use a WashU email address, do not discuss WashU or its members and solely concern personal matters would normally fall outside these guidelines.