CUNY SPS Social Media Policy
The Office of Marketing and Communications manages the official social media accounts for:
CUNY SPS recognizes the importance of social media in communication, outreach, and engagement with its students, faculty, alumni, stakeholders and the public.
As a general rule, anyone opening an official CUNY college social media account on behalf of a registered student group, division, program or leader needs approval from the Central Office or their campus communications office and needs to adhere to the guidelines below on the use of CUNY/college branding and best practices.
CUNY SPS Social Media Guidelines and Best Practices FAQ
How do I submit a CUNY SPS social media request?
If you have social media content to be shared on CUNY SPS social media accounts, fill out the "Marketing Request Form" in the "CUNY SPS Support Portal" and select Marketing Project” under “Tracker”.
What kind of content works best and what are some best practices?
- Post news and achievements about students, alumni, faculty, staff.
- Share CUNY SPS events and important deadlines.
- Photos, event flyers, and videos work best for social media content.
- All social media posts that are not videos should have an image to increase social media engagement.
- An image or a video is a requirement for Instagram since this is a photo and short-form video sharing social media platform.
- Image galleries (more than 2 images) can increase engagement.
- Capture photos and videos to share on social media after an event. If you are posting a photo or video, getting consent from people who are featured is recommended.
Are there any CUNY SPS brand assets that we can use?
Yes, there is a CUNY SPS Marketing Assets / Resources Sharepoint site that has brand assets including CUNY SPS logos and photos (requires CUNYfirst login credentials).
How do we increase engagement?
- 💡🎓 Emojis are a useful and fun way to draw attention to important content in your post.
- @ Tag other social media accounts that are relevant to your post. A simple tag can help increase engagement, especially if the account reshares or likes your post.
- In addition to tagging on Instagram, you can add use Instagram collabs (or collaborative posts) for additional reach so that the Instagram post will show up on collaborator pages as well if the collaborator approves it.
- 🩷 Like, reshare, reply, and monitor mentions from your followers as well.
- 📸 We do our best to make our content accessible by including alt text on photos.
Creating Social Media Accounts
The CUNY Office of Communications and Marketing must approve the creation of all social media accounts for Central Office divisions, members of leadership and anyone starting an official CUNY account. The CUNY SPS Office of Marketing and Communications is not responsible for setting up social media accounts and is not involved in the CUNY Central approval process. Please fill out the Social Media Account Request Form. In addition, please send an email to digital@cuny.edu notify the CUNY Social Media Team that a Social Media Account Request Form has been submitted. Please allow 10 business days for review. Should there be any additional information needed, the Social Media Team will communicate directly by email. Departments and offices can adjust accordingly and resubmit their form.
Before you complete the Social Media Account Request Form, consider the following:
- Who is your audience? Is social media the best and most practical way to keep your audience updated with news and events?
- Define the purpose of having a social media account. Opening an account with no thoughtful growth plan and strategy and lack of consistent content and attention is not recommended.
- Do you have a staffer(s) with social media experience to manage and moderate the account consistently?
Once the Social Media Account Request Form is approved, the Social Media Team at the CUNY Office of Communications and Marketing will hold an introductory meeting with the social media administrators.
Managing Social Media Accounts
Each social media account must have at least two administrators at all times: one primary administrator and one backup. A student may be enlisted to help manage an account but should not establish or have the highest level (admin) rights to the account. The CUNY SPS Office of Marketing and Communications is not responsible for managing the social media accounts that you set up.
All accounts should have a shared cuny.edu email address, username and password so the account(s) is not tied to a personal email address or to a specific individual.
Establishing a legacy system will avoid confusion over old or lost logins and passwords when individuals inherit the account(s). Social media admins of divisions and programs should keep a list of the passwords for their accounts. Please refer to the Succession Planning section for more guidance. Contact the CUNY SPS Help Desk if you need a shared email created.
Each social media account must have a bio description that clearly states the office or department. Accounts should link to a relevant cuny.edu web address. Users will treat your account and interpret your messaging as a representative of the University.
Monitor engagement on posts and report community violations accordingly using the platform’s reporting portals.
Social Media Accounts for Senior Leadership
Within the CUNY community, social media accounts are typically created to represent programs or offices. Occasionally, there might be a reason to create an official social media account for senior leadership, like a president or a dean. Such accounts do not transfer to the employee’s personal use should they leave the University. Ownership of the account will remain with CUNY in perpetuity.
Emergencies
In the event of an emergency, account administrators are asked to share only official information provided by the main CUNY social media accounts and shared in official college messages. This ensures accuracy, a consistent message, and that the latest information is being shared. You will receive guidance directly from the Office of Communications and Marketing in these situations.
Succession Planning
Social media platforms should be monitored and should never go without an active administrator/manager. If the administrator of a social media account is leaving CUNY or no longer wishes to be an account administrator, a new administrator should be identified immediately. Ownership should be transferred to the new administrator and any access the former employee had should be removed. It is recommended a new password be created for security.
In cases where the social media account will no longer be in use or is not transferred, administrators should deactivate the account. It is not advised to delete an account because you may want to remain in ownership of the handle. Instead, remove all art and make a final post that directs your followers to other social media platforms where you are active and/or a relevant web link and pin the post to the top. In the bio section, a note should be left that indicates that the account is no longer active.
When representing CUNY SPS and CUNY on social media
- Posts should always remain respectful, professional and inclusive. Abusive or offensive posts that undermine the University’s reputation and mission will not be tolerated and could violate CUNY’s student code of conduct and employee policies.
- Do not use a CUNY SPS social media account to post for personal purposes. Social media accounts are for the dissemination of official University content only.
- Be conscious of the laws and regulations governing the privacy of student education records, including FERPA, protected health information, including HIPAA, and any personally identifiable information. Do not post confidential or private information about students, faculty, alumni or staff. Please refer to CUNY's guidance regarding doxxing.
- Do not engage in debates, arguments or respond to negative comments and direct messages unless you can provide information that may help resolve the issue, offer clarification or an acknowledgment is needed on behalf of CUNY SPS and/or a college. Before responding to a post or comment, consult with colleagues and think through your response strategy rather than posting immediately.
- CUNY SPS will delete or hide comments that are abusive, contain profanity, are threatening in tone, devolve into personal attacks, and or spam. You should report profiles, comments and users to the social media platform for violating their terms and community guidelines. Please follow the instructions laid out by the following platforms:
Social Media Comment Guidelines
CUNY encourages followers to engage with the University’s social media accounts and to post, comment, and interact with others. We expect that comments will be on-topic and respectful of the rights and opinions of others.
CUNY reserves the right, but is not obligated, to remove comments that:
- are off-topic
- are profane, violent, obscene, or abusive
- encourage or support discrimination and hate
- are duplicate or spam
- advocate illegal activity
- are misleading or contain falsehoods and/or inaccurate information
- are threatening in tone or devolve into personal attacks
Users who repeatedly violate the comment guidelines may be reported, blocked, and/or banned. Posted comments do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the University. In certain situations, the poster, as well as the content, may be reported to Public Safety or to the authorities, depending on the nature of the content or as required by law.
For more information
For more guidance, please refer to CUNY’s Social Media Guidelines.