These guidelines supplement Administrative Regulation 11.2.5ADR, Social Media Communications, and provide operational standards for the creation of, use of and management of all official Eastern Kentucky University branded social media accounts, communities, campaigns and strategies. Regular review of this webpage is expected and failure to do so is not justification for noncompliance. These guidelines apply to those employed by Eastern Kentucky University who are managing university-affiliated social media accounts to ensure the university’s brand and communication style are consistently represented across all social media platforms. Streamlined and uniform communications of the university’s established brand, mission and core values are quintessential to the university’s success.
This policy applies to all social media platforms currently approved by the university for brand communications and any emerging platforms. These guidelines are not intended to govern the personal social media accounts of faculty, staff or students.
These guidelines do not supersede University Policies or Regulations. In the event of a conflict, the applicable University Policy or Regulation takes precedent.
Scope
These guidelines apply to all members of the Eastern Kentucky University community who manage a branded social media account on behalf of Eastern Kentucky University. This includes schools, colleges, institutes, centers, departments, units, organizations and groups. Compliance with this standard is necessary for collaboration, justification and recognition by the central university social media communications team.
Disclaimer
Eastern Kentucky University’s Office of Marketing & Communications reserves the right to monitor EKU-affiliated accounts; request the removal of unapproved, off-brand content; and request deletion of accounts.
Account Manager Expectations, Rules and Guidelines
The Manager of Social Media Strategy and Digital Engagement within the Eastern Kentucky University Office of Marketing and Communications (MarCom) authorizes all branded representation of the university on social media platforms. All individuals managing accounts on behalf of the university must adhere to the following rules and guidelines:
Account Creation
All proposals to create an official Eastern Kentucky University social media account must be presented to the Office of Marketing and Communications (MarCom) for justification, assessment and official authorization. This is the only process for receiving approval to use EKU branding on an account.
Account Management
Social media account management is a time-consuming responsibility that should not be taken lightly. It frequently requires monitoring and engagement outside of normal business hours. EKU-affiliated social media accounts must have page administrators who are full-time university employees. Student workers may have access for day to day tasks, but may not serve as the ultimate decision makers. Student workers must report to full-time employee page administrators. Each official university account should have no less than two university staff members with access to the account. Review all sections of this page for more information on monitoring and overall expectations.
All graphics and designs posted to social media must be made or approved by MarCom. Not confident in your design skills? That’s what we’re here for! To ensure brand compliance and unity, all design requests should be made through MarCom’s design request form at go.eku.edu/marketing. Priority will always be given to larger departmental or college accounts with over a thousand followers and consistent, elevated engagement.
If you’d prefer to design your own graphics, you must work with MarCom to be added to EKU’s Canva Enterprise account. This account will give you access to all of EKU’s brand-approved colors, fonts and design elements. If you’ve designed a social graphic yourself, it MUST have been made through EKU’s Canva Enterprise account, not a personal or private Canva account. MarCom review and approval is still required before posting. To have a design reviewed, select “Review of Ready-to-Use Design/Graphic” in the above request form.
To protect our institutional trademarks and ensure brand compliance, generative AI content is NOT permitted on EKU-affiliated social media pages.
Remember you represent the university. The posts and comments shared and the actions taken on these branded social media accounts impact the reputation of the university. Ensure all content for social media channels is on-brand, respectful, accurate, error-free, engaging, aligns with EKU’s objectives/campaigns and meets the university’s established policies. It is crucial to carefully consider and review everything that is posted.
All content must follow the university’s social media best practices. University accessibility requirements must be met and all accounts must follow the University Social Media Best Practices.
Account activity. All social media platforms need to be updated a minimum of once a week. The amount of posts will vary based on the platform. Accounts inactive for a whole semester are considered dormant and subject to review for deletion.
Proactively alert MarCom of any potential issues. Communicate with MarCom regarding any emerging issues, concerns or upcoming potential hot topics.
Privacy and Security
Logins and passwords should be well documented. Account logins and passwords should be maintained in a document that is accessible by each social media account administrator for your account. EKU’s account password requirements can be found here: https://www.eku.edu/in/guides/how-to-reset-your-password/
Adhere to confidentiality and privacy policies. EKU-affiliated social media accounts must remain FERPA compliant. FERPA regulations can be found here: https://studentprivacy.ed.gov/ferpa. Ensure your account does not reveal confidential or proprietary information about the university or its students, employees or alumni. It is mandatory to adhere to all institutional, state and federal privacy policies.
Community Guidelines
Social media usage by Eastern Kentucky University is intended to provide a forum for institutional updates, enhance communications, engagement and transparency between students, alumni, parents, staff, faculty and community members. Communication and engagement on social media platforms is integral to keeping the university’s digital presence relevant and up to date.
While strategic communication is critical to successful social media, comments that are inappropriate and not compliant with the university’s Social Media Communications policy are disallowed. As such, the following comments may be hidden or deleted by EKU-affiliated accounts:
Comments directly advocating violence or illegal activity.
Comments containing direct criminal threats as defined by local, state, or federal law.
Comments containing obscenity, which is defined as sexually explicit and/or pornographic content that is patently offensive, appeals to the prurient interest, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
Comments that directly promote or advocate for illegal discrimination based on race, age, religion, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, or any other legally protected class if such comments violate local, state, or federal law.
Comments containing links to malware and/or malicious content that affects the normal functioning of a computer system, server, app, or browser.
Comments containing actual defamation against a person, either as determined by a court or comments that are patently defamatory by easily discovered facts. When a public figure is the target, the poster must act with actual malice for the comment to be defamatory.
Comments that contain images or other content that violate the intellectual property or copyright rights of someone else, if the owner of that property notifies us that the property was included in a comment on our social media account(s).
Comments that contain a hyperlink to any website other than those we control. This will be done without regard to the viewpoint of the comment containing such a link or the content of the site to which the link redirects.
Solicitations or advertisements including promotion or endorsement of any financial, commercial, or non-governmental agency.
