Social media is an important medium for communication with Guttman Community College’s various audiences, such as students, alumni, faculty and staff, stakeholders and the public.
The following guidelines are for employees and students at Guttman Community College — including but not limited to divisions, programs, members of College leadership and student club leaders — who currently manage a College-related social media account or are interested in starting one.
As a general rule, anyone opening an official Guttman-related social media account on behalf of a registered student group, division, program or leader must obtain approval from Guttman’s Office of Marketing and Communications and must adhere to Guttman’s social media guidelines on the use of Guttman branding and best practices.
You may also review the CUNY social media guidelines.
Contact Us
Marketing and Communications
Rooms 601 & 602
communications@guttman.cuny.edu
Creating Social Media Accounts
Guttman’s Office of Marketing and Communications must approve the creation of all College-related social media accounts and members of leadership. Please reach out to communications@guttman.cuny.edu and copy Karen Muehlbauer at karen.muehlbauer@guttman.cuny.edu. Please allow 10 business days for review. If any additional information is needed, the Marketing and Communications team will communicate directly by email. Departments and offices can adjust their request accordingly.
Before you request a new account, 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? Will you have enough content variety to keep your audience interested?
- 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
- Will the account have longevity? Accounts pertaining to a period of time, such as a specific semester or year, are not advised.
- Do you have a staffer(s) with social media experience to manage and moderate the account consistently?
If your new account is approved, the Office of Marketing and Communications will hold an introductory meeting with the social media administrators.
Use of Guttman Name, Logo and Likeness
Each social media account must strictly adhere to Guttman’s brand guidelines. Logos used must be created by the Office of Marketing and Communications, and account images must feature an approved logo from Guttman’s suite of logos.
Content development:
- Designs may be created by Guttman’s Marketing and Communications team via the Graphic Design Request form.
- If you design your own graphics, please share them with Guttman’s Marketing and Communications team via the Event and Initiative Promotion Request form. (Third-party vendors are strictly prohibited from producing logos and designs.)
Marketing and Communications will ask you to edit graphics that do not meet brand guidelines. The only exception is graphics for holidays and heritage months, which may use colors associated with the occasion.
The CUNY and Guttman names, logos and seals are trademarked and protected by copyright law, and any use of the names, logos or likeness for fraudulent, parody or unauthorized account(s) violates CUNY and Guttman policies.
Social Media Best Practices
When representing the College on social media:
- Posts should always remain respectful, professional and inclusive. Abusive or offensive posts that undermine the College’s reputation and mission will not be tolerated and could violate the Manual of Student Rights and Responsibilities and employee policies.
- Do not use a Guttman social media account to post for personal purposes. Social media accounts are for the dissemination of official College 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 doxing.
- Do not engage in debates and 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 and/or the College. Before responding to a post or comment, consult with colleagues and think through your response strategy rather than posting immediately.
- 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 guttman.cuny.edu violating their terms and community guidelines. Please follow the instructions laid out by the following platforms:
- For more guidance, please refer to the information below regarding social media comments.
- Utilize Guttman photography, and please make every effort to credit the photographer or source of your photo when and where you can. CUNY does not provide an enterprise account for paid stock photos, photo banks or graphic design tools like Canva.
- If photos are used that were taken by Guttman’s Marketing and Communications department, please credit the photographer and department. As an example: “Photo credit: Will Stock/Guttman Marketing & Communications”
- If you plan to take photos for an event, a consent and release form is strongly recommended.
- Make every effort to make your content accessible by providing closed captioning to your videos and alt–text on your photos. The CUNY Accessibility webpage has further details.
If you need information or guidance on best practices, please reach out to Guttman’s Office of Marketing and Communications. Please note that the office will periodically review affiliated account activity.
Using Social Media for Personal Use
In today’s social media climate and regardless of public versus private social media accounts, everything you post is public to a degree and posts can never be truly scrubbed from the internet. Staff, faculty and students who wish to use social media in a personal capacity and choose to identify themselves as a CUNY or Guttman staff member, faculty or student in their bio and posts, should have a disclaimer that indicates that their expressed views and opinions are solely theirs and do not reflect the views and opinions of the University. Social media accounts that use CUNY’s or Guttman’s name, likeness or logo to disseminate offensive, abusive and inappropriate content could violate student code of conduct and employee policies and procedures.
Guttman will not be liable for and will not indemnify an employee for any liability that results from postings from personal social media accounts. Social media communications constituting threats of harassment or violence may violate the law, Manual of Student Rights and Responsibilities and employee policies. Social media communications containing false statements that could harm a person’s reputation are possibly defamatory and may result in civil liability.
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.
All accounts should have a shared guttman.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 IT Helpdesk 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 include a link to a relevant guttman.cuny.edu web address. Users will treat your account and interpret your messaging as a representative of the College. Monitor engagement on posts and report community violations accordingly using the platform’s reporting portals.
Social Media Accounts for Senior Leadership
Occasionally, there might be a reason to create an official social media account for a College’s senior leadership, like a president or a dean. Such accounts do not transfer to the employee’s personal use should they leave the College. Ownership of the account will remain with Guttman in perpetuity.
Emergencies
In the event of an emergency, account administrators are asked to share only official information provided by the main Guttman social media accounts and shared in official College messages. This ensures accuracy, a consistent message and that the latest information is being shared.
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 Guttman or no longer wishes to be an account administrator, a new administrator should be identified immediately. It is crucial that this action occurs before an account administrator/manager leaves the College. 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.
Social Media Comment Guidelines
Guttman encourages followers to engage with the College’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.
Guttman 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 College. In certain situations, the poster, as well as the content, may be reported to Campus Safety or to the authorities, depending on the nature of the content or as required by law.
If you encounter the following in public comments or direct messages, immediately screenshot and report them to the appropriate office or department:
- Threats of violence: Report to Campus Safety
- Suicidal language: Report to the Division of Enrollment Management and Student Affairs
- Accusations of discrimination and retaliation: Report to CUNY’s Reporting Portal
- Accusations of sexual harassment or sexual assault: Report to Campus Title IX Coordinator