Policies

For officially recognized social media accounts

The College has established an application process for groups to be officially recognized social media accounts.

All officially recognized social media accounts will be publicly listed by the College on the Social Media webpage.

The Social Media Team is housed in the Office of University Marketing and reviews and approves all social media applications. The team is also a resource for the College community for any social media needs.

The following guidelines apply to officially recognized social media accounts. To become officially recognized, you must submit an application. Click here for online application form and details.

College of Charleston Conduct Policies

Social media users acting on behalf of the College must adhere to all relevant policies and procedures, including:

Account Administrators

  • All social media accounts officially recognized by the College will have at least two College employees as administrators at all times to ensure the protection of this policy.
    • Should a College employee administrator of an account leave the College for any reason or no longer wishes to be an account administrator, it is that individual's responsibility to designate another employee to be an account administrator prior to removing himself or herself from that role.
    • If there are not two employees available to serve as account administrators, a member of the College’s Social Media Team will serve in that capacity.
    • If there are any problems identifying a new administrator, contact the College Social Media Team.
  • College of Charleston employees identified as administrators of accounts are held responsible for managing and monitoring content of their officially recognized accounts. Administrators are responsible to remove content that may violate the College Conduct Policies. Administrators at any time can contact the College’s Social Media Team for consultation.
  • When establishing a Facebook page, it is NOT permanently linked to your personal profile. You can be removed as an administrator if you leave the College or no longer want to be an administrator. You can also set up a “dummy profile” for your office to use to log in to the office Facebook page. It is simple to change the email address associated with a Twitter or Flickr account, so you can use either your College email address or an office address (like socialmedia@cofc.edu).
  • Student organizations will not be officially recognized by the College’s Social Media Team at this time.

Profile Image/Avatar

  • All officially recognized social media accounts are checked as part of the application process to ensure that the College’s branding standards set forth in the Brand Manual are upheld.
  • The Social Media Team highly recommends using a photo in addition to your office’s wordmark as the profile picture.

Content

  • Use good judgment about content and respect privacy laws. Do not include confidential information about the College, its staff, or its students.
  • You may post any content that is not threatening, obscene, a violation of intellectual property rights or privacy laws, or otherwise injurious or illegal.
  • Representation of your personal opinions as being endorsed by the College or any of its organizations is strictly prohibited. You may not use the College’s name to promote any opinion, product, cause, or political candidate. Be sure to include the statement: "this is my personal opinion and not necessarily that of the College" when necessary.
  • By posting content to any social media site, you agree that you own or otherwise control all of the rights to that content, that your use of the content is protected fair use, that you will not knowingly provide misleading or false information, and that you indemnify and hold the University harmless for any claims resulting from the content.
  • While the College does not regularly review content posted to social media sites, it shall have the right to remove any content for any reason, including but not limited to, content that it deems threatening, obscene, a violation of intellectual property rights or privacy laws, or otherwise injurious or illegal.
  • When using or posting online material that includes direct or paraphrased quotes, thoughts, ideas, photos, or videos, always include citations. Provide a link to the original material if applicable.
  • Refrain from using information and conducting activities that may violate local, state, or federal laws, and regulations.
Contact us for issues that need to be addressed by the College’s Social Media Team.