Official Social Media Account Expectations

All social media accounts that speak on behalf of the University at Buffalo, represent a university unit or department or are administered or managed by university personnel to conduct official business are considered official UB accounts.

This includes, but is not limited to, social media accounts promoting administrative and academic units, research centers and institutes or athletics teams.

Please note that this does not apply to student-run clubs/organizations or personal social media accounts set up by students, faculty or staff for individual use.

All official UB social media accounts must:

• Have, or submit to University Communications (UC), a completed social media account strategy.
• Reference UB’s Comments Guidelines either on the account or unit website, as appropriate.
• Be in compliance with UB’s Social Media Profile Guidelines.

All primary admininstrators of official UB social media accounts should coordinate with their Unit Social Media Lead, as defined and agreed upon by each unit, on overall strategy, issues management and participation/collaboration in university initiatives.

For a breakdown of social media roles and responsibilities, view UB’s social media governance model [must login to view].

Additionally, all primary account admins must:

• Provide their Unit Social Media Lead with the name and contact information of the dedicated account owner and at least one back-up admin
  • Students cannot serve as an account owner or back-up admin
• Provide their Unit Social Media Lead with all login credentials.
  
• Delete or decommission accounts that are inactive or no longer needed/utilized.

For additional guidance on selecting account admins and storing credentials, view UB's social media security best practices.

All official UB social media accounts are expected to abide by the following guidelines:

Adhere to all federal and state laws and regulations as well as university policies and guidelines.

This includes, but is not limited to:

• Privacy and confidentiality (HIPAA, FERPA) regulations
• All copyright and intellectual property laws and regulations
• Each social media platforms’ terms of service and community guidelines
• UB’s social media guidelines

Content must be aligned with UB’s mission and move the university forward. 

Any content that is published by an official UB account will be viewed by our audiences as an official stance or statement from the university.

Therefore, content must be about, and promote, the university and/or the unit with which the account is associated, as outlined in your unit and account social strategy.

Furthermore, official accounts are not the venue for reflecting personal points of view. Accounts that speak on behalf of the university must not be used to express the positions of individual faculty/staff associated with the unit or department it represents unless it is relevant to the account’s social strategy and meets the criteria above (e.g., faculty expert perspectives related to their respective research, statements from deans/senior leadership).

Keep in mind:

• Content promoting paid (or unpaid) partners must adhere to the following guidelines:
  • Endorsements: Endorsements—either implied or explicit—are prohibited. The university, and its constituent units, may not endorse products, services, nor individuals.
  • Sponsored Content: Sponsored endorsements are defined as any social media content posted on behalf of a third-party company or organization as part of a paid promotion.
    • The university does not allow sponsored content unless:
      • It is part of an overall unit plan for sponsored content approved by your Senior Communicator, and meets the requirements in the University at Buffalo Sponsorship and Advertising Policy.
      • There is a written, formal sponsorship agreement that has been recorded by University Advancement via their Corporate Sponsorship Request form.
    • If the sponsored content meets the criteria listed above, all posts must be denoted with the following hashtag: #sponsored
• Official accounts should ONLY promote UB-sponsored fundraisers that are created through and coordinated with University Advancement. To create, or find out the status of, a UB-sponsored fundraiser, contact University Advancement at annualgiving@devmail.buffalo.edu. 
• Content must follow accessibility best practices.

Remain active and commit to a posting frequency.

• Posting frequency must be detailed in each account strategy
• Account must be active in order to remain an official account. Accounts that do NOT post for at least six months are considered inactive and may be decommissioned by the Unit Social Media Lead, unless otherwise specified in the account strategy.

Regularly monitor the account and address issues or inquiries.

• Accounts must have a monitoring cadence that has been approved by the Unit Social Media Lead.
• We recommend monitoring your accounts daily (seven days a week). For details, see UB Social's Monitoring and Responding Best Practices.
• If an issue occurs on your pages, contact University Communications.
• Follow UC's lead during a crisis.

Accounts that adhere to the guidelines above are considered official UB accounts and are eligible to:

• Use UB trademarks and name
  • This includes use of UB’s Little Victor stickers
• Receive unified social media reports
• Have content shared or amplified by UB’s institutional accounts
• Participate in collaborative content opportunities
• Appear in UB’s social media directory
• Participate in UB's social media Full Circle, which offers:
  • Best practices
  • Issues support and guidance
  • Tips and training

Accounts that do not abide by these guidelines:

• Will not receive the benefits detailed above
• May be decommissioned and/or deleted by the Unit Social Media Lead
• May be reported for trademark/copyright violations