University Marketing and Communications
Social Media Guidelines for University-Affiliated Accounts
Fresno State values social media as a key tool for connecting with our community and uplifting the university's brand. While it offers great benefits, it comes with unique and nuanced challenges. The following guidelines were prepared by University Marketing and Communications and were drafted to support employees managing official and affiliated Fresno State social media accounts.
University-affiliated accounts are defined as those created by Fresno State employees on behalf of the university, including organizations, colleges, departments, offices, programs and others for the purpose of promoting the university and university-related activities. Any employee who speaks on the university's behalf through a university-affiliated social media account must have this authority set forth in their official position description.
These guidelines will be updated/reviewed at least annually as social media trends and practices change. We advise that you review these social media standards thoroughly before registering a new account, and at least annually to make sure you are and remain in compliance with university standards.
If you have any questions, please contact Jessica Piffero, social media specialist in university Marketing and Communications, at jpiffero@mail.fresnostate.edu.
Statement of Values
The purpose of social media is to create conversation and community. Fresno State values and supports free speech and freedom of expression, which are fundamental to our rights and core to our nation’s democracy. Our campus is committed to its academic mission and public mandate to serve as a place where members of our community may freely express and explore ideas, concepts and opinions, regardless of viewpoint or perspective.
Nothing in these guidelines should be read to restrict the ability of students, faculty or staff to engage in legally protected activities and speech, and the guidelines are not intended to govern or restrict communications, free speech or academic freedom.
Definitions
For the purpose of this document, the following definitions are used:
- Social media account: Having an account registration with a social media platform, such as Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok or LinkedIn.
- Social media manager: Someone who is responsible for maintaining university-affiliated social media accounts,
including but not limited to those creating content, developing strategy or responding
to comments and messages. The authority to speak on the university's behalf through
a university-affiliated social media account must be included in their official position
description.
- Administrator: A social media manager who has full access to an account, particularly on Meta platforms
such as Facebook and Instagram.
- University-affiliated: Those that speak on behalf of the university and have oversight by university employees,
such as a university office, department, school, college, or division. Guidelines
for the social media platform/pages maintained by student clubs and organizations
are separately administered by the office of Student Involvement.
- Personal social media accounts: Accounts representing and maintained by individuals in their private capacities. These accounts share personal content and individual opinions not speaking on behalf of the university.
About Personal Social Media Use
Some employees maintain social media accounts for personal use as well as for official Fresno State business. Employees must use care to separate the private and university account(s); Employees also may not use university resources to distribute personal communications.
All students, faculty and staff are responsible for what they post on their own social media channels and sites, and on the sites of others. Personal social media accounts should never be used to speak on the university’s behalf, and an employee’s personal use of social media is not considered to be related to their employment responsibilities at Fresno State. The university bears no responsibility for any personal media activity or personal accounts. Furthermore, per APM 336 (University Statement on Faculty Rights and Responsibilities), section 7a: "As citizens, all faculty members are expected to publicly distinguish when they speak or act as private citizens from when they do so as an official representative of the university."
University-Affiliated Social Media Accounts
University Marketing and Communications maintains a list of individuals (employees and students) who are authorized to post content on university-affiliated social media accounts, including Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), LinkedIn, YouTube and other channels. New university-affiliated social media accounts may not be created, or existing accounts modified without the authorization of a social media manager.
Requests to be added to the list of authorized social media managers should be directed to jpiffero@mail.fresnostate.edu.
Only authorized social media managers are permitted to create new social media accounts. In order to request a new social media account be created, you must submit a request via the university’s social media registration form, which includes a requirement that you follow all university social media guidelines.
Before creating a page, check to see if there is already an existing profile to avoid creating duplicate pages. If you discover your department, office or area has a social media channel that is inactive or does not have the authority to represent Fresno State, please contact University Marketing and Communications for assistance: jpiffero@mail.fresnostate.edu.
Use different passwords for each of your accounts, and make sure each one is a strong combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers and symbols. Avoid entering your passwords on computers you don’t control or on unsecured WiFi connections. Make sure all mobile devices used are password protected.
Maintain a list of those individuals who have access to your accounts. Check this list regularly and keep it updated, particularly among student-employees who may vary from year to year. Change passwords if necessary. Make sure to have multiple administrators for each account to ensure continuity.
Visit the Fresno State Technology Services website for additional guidelines and best practices for keeping your accounts secure.
Running a Fresno State social media account brings legal and professional responsibilities. The social media manager(s) and their supervisor are responsible and accountable for adhering to these guidelines. You should also be mindful that Fresno State is a public agency and you are likely using public resources to support your social media account.
Your university-affiliated accounts not only represent your unit/department/college -- everything you post reflects, represents and belongs to Fresno State, which is a public university. Members of the general public, as well as students and other campus community members, may not discern a difference between a specific unit/department/college and the university at large. While managing Fresno State social media accounts, be mindful both of what you are including and of how the information will be received.
Fresno State social media must not be used for advocacy of political candidates or ballot measures, as well as for the promotion of commercial activities or commercial advocacy.
Commenters and moderation: As a general rule, we do not delete comments or posts, even if they are considered contentious and do not align with the institutional values of diversity and inclusion. A California State University (CSU) system-sponsored platform, such as social media channels introduced on behalf of a university department, office or program, is a government forum. As a government entity, the CSU may not restrict the content of most speech, including posting b y the pubic on the CSU’s social media accounts but at the discretion of the VP of University Marketing and Communications, comments on posts may be removed. The social media platforms themselves (such as Facebook or Instagram) are not goernmental entities; they acn and do have established community guidelines about apprpriate postings ot their sites.
If you believe that a posting may violate a social media platform’s community guidelines, please ontact University Marketing and Communications..
Some posts/comments may not be protected free speech, or may not be permissible under CSU/University policies and procedure, such as:
- Discrimination and Harassment as defined by CSU policy
- Libelous comments
- Commercial speech, advertising and spam
- Privacy violations, including FERPA and HIPAA
In addition, be selective when responding. Do not feel compelled to respond to each and every comment. Do not engage in debate, or simply tell someone they are wrong. When responding, be professional and courteous, as you are representing Fresno State via university channels. Always view the profile before engaging or responding. If you feel there is a post or comment that is sensitive and needs a response, forward it to your supervisor and contact University Marketing and Communications, Jessica Piffero at jpiffero@mail.fresnostate.edu.
Title IX/DHR: If you witness comment(s) or receive messages that relate to allegations of sex or gender based discrimination, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct, dating violence, domestic violence and/or stalking, you are required to promptly inform the Title IX Coordinator. Please contact the Office of Compliance and Civil Rights or review the Concern and Action Guide for more information.
When posting to a Fresno State-affiliated account, you are considered a representative of the university. Authority to post to these channels is granted by your supervisor. You and your supervisor will be held responsible for its content.
As a representative of Fresno State, you should not post on university-affiliated accounts material that is obscene, defamatory or libelous, including hate speech, profanity, defamatory speech, personal attacks, drug or alcohol use, nudity or sexual content, personal information/images of individuals without their permission, views on campus policies or politics, business promotions, commercial content, copyrighted material, or personal and confidential information. If you have concerns about whether or not to post certain information, please contact University Marketing and Communications.
Sensitive information should never be shared via social networks, even via a “direct message” that might appear to be private. Do not post confidential or proprietary information about Fresno State, Fresno State employees, students, affiliates or alumni. Be aware that any such posting may violate a person’s rights to privacy under applicable federal and state laws and regulations. Be attentive to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the Family Educational Rights Privacy Act (FERPA) and university policies. Do not share student ID numbers, social security numbers, private emails, banking information or other personal identifying information in the social media space. Respect embargos (the date before which information cannot be shared via a public channel or forum), which may be set by a researcher’s funding agency or other organization. Also, it is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with applicable campus policies. For example, does your video show someone smoking on campus? Did you fly a drone over campus without permission from Fresno State and the FAA? Content should not reflect a violation of campus policies.
Any video you post must include captioning for any audible communication. It is important to ensure that those with impaired hearing can receive the entire message and have the same experience as someone with full hearing.
Video captions instructions:
Include descriptive alt-text wherever possible when posting photos or graphics, and be aware of color contrast on any social media graphic.
Alt-text instructions:
For more information, contact the Office of Digital Accessibility.
Need background music for a video? Sharing a meme? Grabbing a photo from the internet? Intellectual property laws apply in social media just as they would elsewhere. Be sure you have permission to post someone else’s work, or protected logos/marks and give credit where credit is due. This includes memes, background music for videos, photos from news sites, and everything else that you didn't personally create from scratch.
YouTube’s audio library offers free background music, sometimes with attribution required. For more eclectic selections, check out the Free Music Archive. For Instagram and Facebook, background music is available in the Facebook Creator Studio.
Instagram and TikTok accounts should be registered as business accounts. Use only audio/sounds that are available for commercial use. Be aware that accounts that are determined to have violated music copyright may have their videos muted or removed or their accounts shut down entirely by the platform.
Consistency counts. Protect our university’s image by becoming familiar with our Brand Standards and applying them to your university-affiliated social media content.
The use of university logos and visual identity on social media channels must comply with wordmark and graphics standards.
Your account’s profile photo should be your group’s Fresno State logo (two-color) on a WHITE background; the Fresno State logo with the red background is reserved for institutional accounts only. Do not use the Fresno State academic seal, gold medallion, old sunburst logo or any self-created logo.
To request an authorized logo, please submit the Brand Strategy and Marketing project request form.
University-affiliated accounts must use the correct name of the university (Fresno State or California State University, Fresno). Do not use CSU, CSUF, FSU or CSUFresno on any part of your profile. Due to character restrictions, the use of “FS” may be permitted in some account names.
It is the social media manager’s responsibility to post on the university-affiliated accounts consistently and regularly, as well as respond to comments and messages as appropriate promptly. If it is determined that there is not enough content to adequately maintain the account or if the social media manager does not have the work capacity to commit to the account, work with your supervisor and University Marketing and Communications to determine the next steps.
Crises can be either physical or reputational in nature. In the event of a campus crisis - be it a power outage, malicious rumor or natural disaster - DO NOT use Fresno State social media accounts for crisis communications; refer inquires to the university’s main social media accounts or fresnostate.edu/alert. When a crisis emerges in your area, do the following:
- If there is an immediate, life-threatening situation, call 9-1-1 or University Police Dispatch at 559.278.8400.
- Contact University Marketing and Communications as soon as possible.
- Do not publish any statements on social media without prior approval from University Marketing and Communications.
If someone sends you a direct message referencing or detailing a sensitive issue or alerting you to a pending or ongoing crisis, please refer to the guidelines above and also use the Concern and Action Guide as a resource when needed.