Marketing, Communications, and Public Information Office

Sierra College students, faculty, and staff regularly use social media for communication, engagement, entertainment, and collaboration. The following guidelines should serve to inform students, faculty, staff, and administrators at Sierra College who create and administer social media sites on behalf of the college, how to use those sites in effective, relevant, accessible and mutually respectful ways. Sites including, but not limited to, Instagram, Facebook, X, Tik-Tok or YouTube.

Social media activity reflects the District and should therefore be written and structured in an appropriate, ethical, professional, and lawful manner. If activity on a social networking site is offensive or violates District policy, it may result in disciplinary or legal action. Using the District’s official media sites and approved accounts indicates that you have read and agree to abide by these best practices.

The following addresses best practices for the creation, and management of accounts, posting of content, interacting with content, and moderating of comments and interactions.

There are several different types of social media accounts for Sierra College, including:

• Sierra College Channels – Primary college accounts directed by and content-owned by Sierra College Marketing
• Department Channels – Accounts directed and content-owned by Sierra College personnel (faculty or staff) in an official capacity such as representing a department or office at the college
• Athletics Channels – Accounts for individual Sierra College Athletics team or athletic department
• Affiliated Channels – Accounts directed and content-owned by Sierra students or others with content focused on a Sierra-affiliated club or organization such as clubs or groups

Ownership

Accounts meeting the below requirements can be listed on the Sierra College website as official accounts.

• Affiliated with a Sierra College email address
• Have a description that identifies it as a Sierra College or Sierra College-affiliated account
• Have account access available to the Sierra College Marketing Department
• Annually update information for the above with Marketing

Purpose and Audience

Managers of Sierra College social media accounts should have a purpose, intended audience, and content plan for each account.

Posting Content on Sierra College Accounts

Only employees authorized by the Superintendent/President or designee may utilize social media on behalf of the District. Authorized users shall use only District-approved equipment during the normal course of duties to post and monitor District-related social media (AP/BP 3725) unless they are specifically authorized to do so otherwise by their supervisors.

Social Media Content Creation Best Practices

Content should reflect voice and channel audience
Posted content should be mixed with at least 50/50 value to Sierra (i.e. demand generated) and value to followers (something of value for them to use, identify with, learn from or like)

• Include original visuals/images whenever possible
• Include a call to action (CTA) when possible
• Make the CTA trackable, relevant, and helpful
• Use #SierraCollege and #Wolverines hashtags as much as possible and when relevant. This makes our content more findable.

Content Accessibility

Content should use best practices for accessibility for that platform. Some of the best practices include:

• Using alt text for descriptions of all images
• Captions for videos
• Being aware of the impact of word choice on screen readers, for example breaking up words or using “CamelCase” in hashtags so words are read individually by screen readers.

Prohibited Content

Prohibited content includes, but is not limited to:

• Content that is abusive, discriminatory, inflammatory, or sexually explicit.
• Content that shares personal contact information without consent (doxing).
• Any information that violates individual rights, including confidentiality and privacy rights and those provided under state and federal law and District policies and procedures.
  Information that may compromise or damage the mission, function, reputation or professionalism of the District or its employees.
• Any information that could compromise the safety and security of District operations, employees, students, or the public.
• Any content posted for personal use.
• Content that has not been properly authorized by this policy or a supervisor.

Sierra College’s social media pages give you the opportunity to connect and interact with us and other people. It is important to us to sustain a productive and safe environment for communication and Sierra College reserves the discretion to delete or disallow comments containing:

• Threatening, harassing, vulgar or abusive language;
• Personal information shared without consent;
• Personal or obscene attacks of any kind;
• Offensive terms targeting individuals or groups;
• Threats or defamatory statements;
• Spam and/or corrupt links with potential viruses;
• Suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity;
• Repetitive posts by a single user or repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users;
• Unsolicited proposals or other business ideas or inquiries; or
• Promotion or endorsement of commercial services, products, or entities. (Note that non-commercial links that are relevant to the topic or another comment are acceptable.)
• Additionally, to protect your privacy and possibly that of other students, please do not include information that identifies you (an email address or phone number) in the text of your comment.

How to Manage

• Answer questions
• Tag the main Sierra College accounts and other relevant Sierra accounts so content can be shared or followed up on
• Hide off-topic comments
• Accounts should have current contact information available or regularly shared
  Post likes and encouragement for students and schools
• Refer to accurate information sources
• Specific engagement related to campaigns
• Defend and commend positive behavior
• Identify conversations that could best be addressed off the platform or referred to others for response.

What Not to Do

• Engage in public back and forth on content
• Argue on college policy with users