Social Media - Colorado State University

CSU’s Social Media Policy Formally Adopted

Kimberly — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:10:56 +0300

It’s official. The CSU Social Media Policy has been approved by Cabinet, signed by President Tony Frank, and officially adopted by the University.

Thank you to members of the campus community who contributed to crafting and developing the policy into what it is today. It certainly took a village!

Update on negotiations with Facebook

Some of you may recall news awhile back now about the Colorado Attorney General’s office issuing guidance to state agencies on the use of social media services with “clickwrap” license agreements. You may have also seen a Coloradoan article on the subject. We have a good update to share.

After many months, the Colorado Attorney General’s office has successfully negotiated terms and conditions of use with Facebook that greatly reduce risk to Colorado State University and its employees who maintain Facebook pages on behalf of the University. The new terms recognize the statutory and constitutional limitations placed on the University and state agencies, giving us the ability to use Facebook as a tool to communicate with our constituents without violating state contracting laws and rules.

Because of this, Facebook accounts can be created in accordance with the CSU Social Media Policy, and the negotiated terms of use will take precedence over the terms of use that appear on the Facebook site. Account administrators will be able to click “I Agree” to the FB terms of use without risking personal liability for signing an unauthorized contract on behalf of CSU.

To read about the CSU Social Media Policy and how it reduces personal risk/liability for CSU employees who create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, and YouTube on behalf of the University, visit our policy page.

Adding CSU link

In order to take advantage of the newly available terms and conditions, Facebook account administrators must include the required disclaimer, plus the following statement, on their University Facebook page: “For more information about Colorado State University, visit www.colostate.edu.” We will include this information as part of the disclaimer language we provide when approving all officially recognized social media accounts.

This development supports, but does not change, the CSU Social Media Policy process. Please refer to our social media website for information on using Facebook and other social media at CSU.

Got questions?

If you have any questions regarding the policy, the development with AG’s office, or anything else in the social media realm, do not hesitate to contact me at Kimberly.Sorensen@colostate.edu or Natalie McCatty at Natalie.McCatty@colostate.edu.

Have a great semester!

Social Media is Chopping Down the Grapevine

danny — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 23:54:57 +0300

Gone are the days of receiving news through six degrees of separation. Now, instead of hearing about a story from a friend who heard it from CNN who heard it from the Associated Press, you’re getting news from the source via Twitter and Facebook.

In the past few weeks, two news stories have shown how social media is cutting out the media middle man by giving news sources the opportunity to speak directly with the public. A few keystrokes on Twitter now make press conferences obsolete.

Elizabeth Edwards “Facebooked” her cancer treatment update

Elizabeth Edwards, ex-wife of former presidential hopeful John Edwards, announced she would stop her breast and liver cancer treatment after doctors informed her that further treatment would be “unproductive.” Edwards did not make a formal announcement or release a statement but instead posted the announcement on her Facebook account.

News media began covering the story after word of the Facebook announcement spread. The news and social media coverage of her cancer battle rallied support for Edwards, but sadly she passed away Dec. 7, 2010. She was 61.

The decision to share such information on Facebook may have been because of the informal nature of the site, or maybe it was simply the fastest way to reach all her friends and family before they heard the news from the media.

Josh McDaniels canned in a tweet

The Denver Broncos Twitter account opted to forgo a press conference announcement and reveal the newest former coach with a tweet that said, “Broncos Owner Pat Bowlen has relieved Josh McDaniels of his head coaching duties. Details to follow on DenverBroncos.com.”

With such a large-scale announcement, it is interesting that the Broncos decided to tell the team’s fans before ever alerting the media. The tweet reached sports network ESPN fairly quickly, but by then it was old news to the fans who use Twitter.

Beat the media to the punch

Social media allows people and organizations to send information to a large amount of people in a direct and sincere way. Directness and sincerity are often what the media strip from what you are trying to say, so cut out the middle man and preserve your message.

Don’t Write Anything Online You Don’t Want Your Mom (or Tony Frank) to Read

Danny — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 22:54:00 +0300

By now we have all heard the horror stories of people being fired from their jobs or never being hired because of some inappropriate behavior on Facebook. The social media titan has addressed most of its privacy issues by allowing users to take control of their profile’s security, but as more social media sites begin to emerge, your e-reputation becomes increasingly less secure.

Manage your e-reputation

YouTube comments, Tweets, message board posts and everything else you post online could potentially be traced back to you in the future. Consider everything you post online as published material, forever immortalized online.

Protect yourself

Respectful online behavior may seem intuitive for some, but for others there is a large gray area on the spectrum between completely offensive content and overly watered-down, politically correct language.

It’s fine to disagree with people. It’s fine to express emotions – but always be respectful. Think twice before tweeting, “My boss sux… Staying late @ the office.” Your e-reputation is fragile, and the damage caused by an inappropriate comment will last much longer than the 10 seconds it took to write it. Even with Twitter’s 140 character limit, people have gotten into some hot water with their tweets.

I came across this blog post and thought it was helpful in terms of what it takes to protect your e-reputation: Tips for managing your personal on-line reputation.

Protect CSU

In addition to protecting yourself, protect the reputation and security of Colorado State University. Do not post anything that could endanger the reputation or personal security of any faculty member, student or member of the CSU community.

It’s not a CSU requirement, but if faculty and staff want to play it safe, they may consider placing a disclaimer on their personal social media accounts that says something along the lines, “While I am an employee at Colorado State University, comments made on this account are my own and not that of the University.”

The Power of Twitter

danny — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 23:22:32 +0300

After four years of exponential growth and media coverage, some still have their doubts about the purpose of Twitter. Why is it different from Facebook status updates? Who cares what I had for breakfast? Why would I want to know Oprah’s favorite pizza toppings?

Most of these questions will forever remain unanswered, but there is one question about Twitter that I do have the answer to: How is it useful?

Crisis Communication

Twitter finds its calling in emergency situations.

When crises occur, people on the front lines transform into reporters with the use of Twitter.

During the Sept. 28, 2010 shooting at the campus of University of Texas at Austin, students and administration used Twitter to alert other students and even law enforcement about the location of the gunman. Topics such as “Lockdown” and “Gunman” were trending topics on the mircoblogging site that helped outsiders – including mainstream media such as CNN – get details about the event.

Future of the Tweet

Twitter’s usefulness in emergencies gives us a preview of how the site will advance. Twitter is valuable in its collectivism, not its individualism. The instantaneous and widespread flow of information between all its users is how Twitter will solidify itself as a fixture of communication.

Until more people realize this, we are stuck with daily wisdom from Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga and Shaq.

About Me:

My name is Danny Christopher. I’m a senior technical journalism major with a concentration in public relations.

I am the social media intern for CSU, which is an exciting field to be in because of the largely unknown social media landscape. I have just one problem with working on social media: If most college students retreat to Facebook when they need a break from whatever they’re working on, how do I take a break if what I’m working on is Facebook?

What’s in a Password?

Kimberly — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 19:20:42 +0300

Not GoRams. Or Go_Rams. Or gorams. Or GoRams!

Picking a strong password is critical and cannot be emphasized enough. We all have passwords we use regularly online whether they are for e-mail accounts, banking purposes or for our Facebook and other social media accounts. Beyond the importance of having your personal information and accounts protected, it is equally important to have strong passwords for your CSU social media accounts.

Hacked Account

Earlier this year an official CSU athletic Twitter account was hacked into and understandably caused quite a stir. The Twitter account is now back in the possession of the CSU department that primarily manages the account but it was an unfortunate (but good) lesson in password choice.

I highly recommend avoiding obvious phrases such as “gorams” or “csurams” as your account passwords. These phrases make it easy for someone to guess your password and take control of your account.

I am not an expert on password choice or online security but it seems the basic guidelines of password choice are to make the password 8-12 characters in length, use a variety of characters (%&!#@), and use a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters.

Password Resources

For expert advice, I encourage you to check out the following articles and heed password advice.

Steve Tranby’s How to Securely Manage Your Online Identity
Lifehacker’s How to Update Your Insecure Passwords and Make Them Easy to Use
Lifehacker’s Choose (and Remember) Great Passwords

Go Rams!… but not in your password.

Update on CSU’s Social Media Policy

Kimberly — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:22:00 +0300

It has been a journey but CSU’s Social Media Policy is on its way to be formally adopted by Cabinet. We aim to have the policy adopted and fully functional by the end of the fall semester.

As a refresher, the impetus of establishing a social media policy at CSU was to provide guidelines as to how to properly portray, promote and protect the institution in the social media realm. The foundational tenets of the policy are:

Officially-recognized CSU social media accounts and web pages be reviewed and approved through an application process.
Each social media account will have responsible administrators identified.
Each officially-approved account must include a disclaimer statement, in the prescribed form, regarding content and opinions contained on the site.
Inappropriate, offensive, injurious and illegal content, or such conduct that is reflected on the site, may be removed by account administrators.
Best practices for social media accounts should be considered.

It has been exciting to see how groups and departments across campus have embraced social media making it a valuable communications tool. In yesterday’s Rocky Mountain Collegian, the paper posted a poll taken from its website in which 73 percent of the respondents said the Facebook was their favorite social media outlet. Twitter was up second with 14 percent of the vote.

Since CSU students are regularly using Facebook and other social media sites, so should CSU. Creating an engaging and dynamic social media presence provides the opportunity to connect with a variety of audiences and build community.

Check out this blog regularly for updates on what is happening with social media at CSU and trends from the industry as a whole. We’ll have posts from social media movers and shakers here at CSU with their tips and tricks in creating successful communities. Stay tuned!

The Fad That Is Not A Fad

Kimberly — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:21:00 +0300

It is everywhere. Social media has become a communications mainstay. The fascinating thing is that social media use is not growing steadily; it is growing by leaps and bounds and in the process is making a significant impact on the world.

To illustrate this impact, I am going to share with you a YouTube video that a colleague sent to me a few weeks ago. Authors of a social media book and blog created the video and while I can’t confirm all of the facts and data used in their video, the message it sends is still quite striking.

Social Media Revolution

Social media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. As this short video succinctly points out, social media is here to stay and businesses, organizations, universities, governmental institutions and others need to rethink how to communicate with a social media hungry generation.

Colorado State University recognizes the influence and responsibility that coincide with social media. Through this blog, my hope is to talk shop, if you will, about the social media industry with anyone who would like to join the conversation. I am by no means an expert in social media and I like to think of myself rather as a student of social media.

Check back here to receive updates about Colorado State’s social media efforts along with talking about constant changes within social media itself.