Title

Social Media Policy

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Steward

Steward:

Vice President of Institutional Effectiveness and Technology Solutions

Category:

Technology

Effective date:

June 19, 2018

Last content update:

October 2, 2025

Purpose

To ensure that institutional, state and federal privacy and intellectual rights policies are observed across the College’s social media platforms and to maintain a positive institutional brand image.

Definitions

Social media is defined as media disseminated through electronic and web-based social interaction and created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Examples include, but are not limited to, LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, YouTube, Blue Sky, Pinterest and Instagram. Employees and students of the College are reminded that social media platforms can have a significant impact on the reputation of the institution and the accuracy of information available to the public. Accordingly, employees and students should give full consideration to anything published on such sites.

Policy

This policy pertains only to those social media platforms for which a College-related account has been created. This includes accounts created for the College’s campuses, programs, clubs, organizations and individuals in their official College capacity.

Employees of the College are bound by the Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). As such, they must obtain students’ written permission before publishing any content about them. Similarly, the privacy of employees and members of the larger College community must be respected. Confidential or proprietary information about the College and its students, employees or alumni should not be posted without written consent.

All content published by the College must be accurate and consistent. Any information distributed via social media must match the official information distributed via College print materials and the College website.

The names “Minnesota State Community and Technical College,” “M State,” and “M State Spartans” are the trademarked intellectual properties of the College and the Minnesota State system. Therefore, third-party groups or organizations are not permitted to use these names for their own websites or social media accounts. Only authorized employees of the College, auxiliary enterprises, and designated student representatives of College clubs and athletic organizations may operate or maintain such pages and accounts.

Copyright and intellectual property rights of all online content owners, including the College, must be adhered to in any social media connected to the College. Employees and students are not permitted to use text or media (video, images, etc.) without the permission of the owner. In addition, sources must be cited (see Minnesota State College and Universities system Board Policy 3.26 Intellectual Property and Minnesota State system Board Policy 3.27 Copyrights).

All social media efforts are subject to Minnesota State system Board Policy 1.C.0.1 Employee Code of Conduct, Subpart A. Conflict of Interest and Minnesota State system Board Policy 5.22 Acceptable Use of Computers and Information Technology Resources. Employees and students are liable for anything they publish online in affiliation with the College. Employees may be held accountable for content published in affiliation with the College that contains defamatory, pornographic, proprietary, harassing or libelous material or statements, or that creates a hostile work environment. Similarly, students may face disciplinary action for violations of student conduct as outlined in Chapter 3 of Minnesota State system Board Policies.

The College will consider the removal of content from one or more of its social media platforms upon request by individuals when there is a privacy concern or when the content is found to be inaccurate. The College cannot guarantee that the content will not be cached and preserved online by a third party (such as Google).

College employees cannot misrepresent themselves when posting or interacting on social media (e.g., job title, educational background or duties assigned).

All employees and students using College resources to engage with social media platforms are subject to the College’s acceptable computer use policy.

Social Media Terms of Use

I. Acceptance of the terms of use

These terms of use apply to all comments, questions and messages posted on an official social media account maintained by the College, including but not limited to accounts on X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. The College reserves the right to revise, change, modify or remove portions or all of these terms of use, with or without prior notice. Any such changes shall be posted to this policy with the date of the most current version. Use of the College’s official social media platforms (e.g., posting comments, liking posts, liking pages, etc.) will constitute acceptance of these terms of use.

II. Purpose of official social media platforms

The purpose of the College’s official social media platforms is to share information of public interest relating to the work of the College, including but not limited to newsworthy events, academic programs, student stories and employment opportunities.

III. Limited public forum

The College’s official social media platforms are limited public forums. Comments, questions and messages posted on these platforms in response to an official post by the College must be on-topic and relevant; those that are not may be deleted by the College. Further, duplicate comments, questions or messages from the same user are not permitted and may be deleted. The College does not permit third-party posts on its official social media platforms; content must be generated internally.

IV. Guidelines for comments, questions and messages

The College seeks to maintain a respectful discourse on its official social media platforms. Users are encouraged to engage with the platforms in an appropriate way, such as by sharing or commenting on helpful information. No comments, questions or messages on the College’s official social media platforms shall:

Contain rude, profane, obscene, sexually explicit, defamatory or harassing language.
Contain threats to any person or organization, or encourage or promote illegal activity.
Communicate private personal information of any individual, including their home address, phone number, personal email address or other personal identification information.
Contain language or content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates harassment or discrimination.
Advertise, solicit or otherwise promote a business or product, or propose a commercial transaction.

V. Third-party terms and control

The College neither owns nor controls the third-party platforms that host its social media accounts; those platform providers have separate policies and standards in addition to these terms of use. The College reports comments, questions and messages that may be in violation of a platform provider’s terms of use and is not responsible for any resulting action taken by a platform provider.

VI. Disclaimer

The College monitors its official social media platforms during normal business hours, Monday through Friday. The College is not responsible for user-generated content on its official social media platforms, and opinions expressed in user-generated content do not reflect those of the College. The inclusion of external content or comments on the College’s official social media platforms, or following, retweeting or reposting by the College, does not imply endorsement of or agreement by the College, nor reflect the College’s opinions or policies. Individuals are responsible for all comments, questions or messages they provide. The College is not liable for advertisements, videos, promoted content or comments accessible from external websites.

VII. License to reuse comments

By commenting on an official College social media platform, you are granting the College and its affiliates, officers, employees, consultants and representatives a worldwide, irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, adapt, copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, translate and reformat your comment in any existing or future media. You additionally agree that the College may publish or otherwise disclose your name or username in connection with your comment.

VIII. Data requests

Data requests must be submitted in accordance with the Minnesota State system’s Data Access Procedures and cannot be submitted via the College’s social media platforms.

Responsibility

College Social Media Specialist

Monitoring the College’s social media accounts and removing comments that violate social media terms of use.
Ensuring confidential or proprietary information about students, employees and alumni is not posted to social media without their consent.

College Employees

Obtaining students’ permission before publishing content on social media.
Adhering to social media terms of use.
Citing sources of text or media (video, images, etc.) when applicable.

Designated Student Representatives of College Clubs and Athletic Organizations

Obtaining students’ permission before publishing content on social media.
Adhering to social media terms of use.
Citing sources of text or media (video, images, etc.) when applicable per Minnesota State system policy.