Social Media Toolkit Guidelines

A Health Sciences employee who wishes to become involved in social media on behalf of his or her unit, should take the following steps:

• Determine your goals for participating in social media. They should be tied to the larger strategic goals and priorities of your unit and aligned with Health Sciences goals and priorities. At a minimum, you should be able to articulate:
  • Which broader goals and priorities you aim to support (e.g. how this effort ties into your college’s strategic plan)
  • The desired function or purpose of your unit’s social media efforts (e.g. public education, brand awareness/reputation building, marketing services/patient recruitment, community building, etc.)
  • Target audience (with whom are you trying to communicate?)
  • Messages and content (what are you trying to convey and how will you produce regular content that is appropriate to your audience, goals and platform?)
• Research and observe your unit’s established social media efforts, including broader channels at the center, college or institutional level. Carefully consider how your articulated goals could be served via these established channels. It may be helpful to contact your unit’s social media lead at this point.
• Request a social media consultation, during which you will meet with the Health Sciences social media coordinator and your unit’s social media lead (usually a member of your unit’s communications or marketing team) to discuss:
  • Goals, target audience, content plans and production/management capacity.
  • Which platform is the most appropriate for your goals and capacities.
  • How to most effectively achieve your goals while supporting larger unit and institution goals, if possible by utilizing established channels.
  • How you will measure success.
  • Next steps, which may include: referral to managers of established communications channels, additional research, further articulation of goals, discussion with other members of your unit, development of sample content and a content schedule, etc.
• Once a plan has been agreed upon and cleared by your supervisor and other relevant officials in your unit, work with your unit’s social media lead (and the Health Sciences social media lead as needed) to implement the plan.
• If a new social media account or presence is warranted:
  • Obtain your unit head’s approval before creating the account.
  • Work with your unit’s social media lead to articulate the strategy, content plan and measures of success.
  • Assign a primary account manager and at least one secondary manager.
  • Register the account, including the names and contact information for the account managers, in the Health Sciences database
  • Post a link to the User Participation Guidelines for Social Platforms on your new account's profile or page. Depending on the nature of your account, you may also wish to include one of the short text disclaimers provided.

An account manager is any person who has direct access to log-in, post content, moderate comments, change settings or otherwise alter a Health Sciences social media account on behalf of a Health Sciences unit (e.g. a page administrator for a Facebook page, a YouTube channel manager, etc.)

Every account on a third-party social media platform (e.g. X, YouTube, Facebook) must have:

• At least one primary account manager who is responsible for developing the account’s strategy and for the overall quality and responsiveness of the account and its content. This includes responding to user-generated content and escalating any issues to appropriate authorities. This person should be actively involved in the account’s management by directly posting the regular content and/or by monitoring the account on a daily basis. This person must be a regular U of A employee.
• At least one secondary manager who is in close contact with the primary, has access to the account should an emergency arise, and who will cover for the primary manager if they are unavailable. This person may also be a regular contributor to the account, but at a minimum should be well versed in using the platform on which they are a designated manager and familiar with the strategy and escalation protocols for the account. In most cases, this person will also be a U of A employee, but exceptions may be made in specific instances for highly qualified individuals working closely with the primary account manager.

Account managers are responsible for:

• Ensuring that all accounts comply with these guidelines and any additional guidelines set forth by your unit.
• Updating the registration information for each account should the managers or their contact information change.
• Promptly revoking access for managers who are no longer associated with the unit or are no longer actively working on social media.
• Ensuring that accounts are actively managed – posts are made on a regular basis at an appropriate frequency for the platform, comments and mentions are monitored on an ongoing basis, and questions are addressed in a timely manner (usually within 24 hours).
• Ensuring that content is accurate, professional and supports the unit’s overall goals.
• Ensuring that all University of Arizona, U of A Health Sciences and unit logos and icons are used in compliance with U of A brand guidelines and trademark and licensing guidelines.
• Respecting copyright and image release protocols and maintaining records of model/subject releases and media permissions per your unit’s protocols.
• Knowing, abiding by and enforcing other rules and regulations that pertain to your unit and your work as an employee, especially:
  • Privacy laws, such as HIPAA and FERPA
  • U of A’s rules for Political Activity by Employees
  • U of A’s Acceptable Use of Computers and Networks Policy
  • NCAA regulations
  • Your own college and unit’s rules and protocols regarding social media (if any).
• Obeying the terms of use for each social media platform, including staying up to date when the terms change.
• Making the social media presence and making content accessible to those with disabilities whenever possible.
• Monitoring the accounts’ progress against the articulated goals.
• Reporting metrics to your unit’s social media lead and the Health Sciences social media coordinator regularly as requested.
• Periodically re-assessing goals and updating the strategy as needed.
• Closing the account, or combining it with another account, if your unit is no longer able to actively maintain it or determines that it is not serving the unit’s goals.
• Seeking training and help as needed to implement best practices.
• Ensuring that anyone to whom you delegate social media responsibilities is aware of and abides by these guidelines.

The social media lead for each major unit is an employee designated to help centralize and guide social media efforts so that they align with the unit’s overall communications strategy and priorities. Often, this person is also the primary account manager for unit’s central social media presences.

Social media leads are responsible for:

• Helping disseminate and raise awareness of these guidelines and Health Sciences social media resources within your unit.
• Guiding the social media strategy for your unit as a whole.
• Working with the Health Sciences social media lead to review requests for new social media efforts within your unit and determining strategic ways to meet the needs of programs and departments within your unit.
• Assisting the Health Sciences social media lead in identifying account managers and updating, combining or closing accounts when appropriate.

In general, recruitment for clinical research studies through any channel, including social media, requires prior approval by the IRB. In order to ensure that you are abiding by the guidelines and do not put a study in jeopardy, please observe the following do’s and don’ts.

DO

• Acquire IRB approval to recruit potential participants via social media.
  • If you believe a study has approval to use social media for recruitment, please contact VPR-IRB@email.arizona.edu before posting.
• Follow National Institutes of Health guidelines for any clinical trials funded by the NIH or a division within the NIH.

DON’T

• Tag or mention individuals by their handles or profiles, or share posts made by others who have mentioned or tagged individuals.
• Message individuals, even privately.
• Friend/follow individuals for the purpose of alerting them to clinical trials.
• Undertake any other behavior that associates an individual (by name or social media identity) with a message about a clinical research study.
• Attempt to answer questions about the specifics of a study via social media. Refer the person to information on the study’s site.
• Tag or link to an individual study investigator/research staffer’s handle or social media profile in a post related to a clinical trial.
• Post if you are unsure whether your post is within the guidelines.

If you have a question, please contact the IRB at VPR-IRB@arizona.edu. For questions about U of A Human Subjects Protection Program policies, refer to the Investigator Manual or email VPR-IRB@email.arizona.edu. If the U of A HSPP is not the IRB of record, contact that IRB for more information.

If you are a health care provider or researcher, please remember that per University of Arizona Human Resources guidelines, it is not appropriate to have personal communications with your patients, research subjects or potential patients or research subjects via social media. 

If you are not a health care provider or researcher but you manage or post content to an account representing a Health Sciences unit (e.g. a U of A College of Medicine – Tucson Facebook page, a Sarver Heart Center X account, etc.), you still must abide by the rules governing recruitment for clinical trials and other research studies when posting to social media (or any other communication channel).

Respecting copyright is an important part of being a responsible social media account manager – and it's the law. Unfortunately, copyright law and the principle of "fair use" are not always black and white, and a number of stubborn myths keep people from really understanding copyright, especially as it applies online.

Common copyright myths:

• I found this image, video, or other piece of multimedia on a .org or .gov website, so it's free to use on my website or social media platform.
• If I give credit to the photographer, musician, or creator of a piece of multimedia, I am free to use his or her work.
• Because I work at an educational institution, I can use images, videos, music, or other creative works freely because the principle of "fair use" applies automatically.
• If I only use a small amount of a creative work (e.g. a few lines from a song), it will fall under fair use.
• Someone else posted this item to the web, so it is now free to use.
• If I am not using the creative work for commercial gain, then I am free to use it.
• No one will ever know the difference. I'm not hurting anyone. I won't get caught.

In reality, there are no blanket statements that apply to all uses of multimedia or creative works. Each question of copyright and fair use comes down to the details of the situation. But there are some best practices you can observe in order to respect copyright and find multimedia resources you can use.

The following are general tips and should not be treated as legal advice for your particular situation:

• Request permission from the owner to use multimedia items you find online. This is the safest (and often the easiest) way to stay on the right side of copyright law.
• Ask others involved in the topic you are posting about. If you're posting about a Health Sciences program or a topic of active research, there's a good chance that a staff or faculty member involved in the program will have related photos.
• Take photos or video yourself or commission BioCommunications. This is especially helpful for events and items you know are on the horizon, but you can also create your own storehouse of stock photographs that could be useful in various contexts. The U of A brand guidelines offer some tips on taking photographs. Be sure to use a model/subject release for pictures including recognizable people.
• Look for works that are licensed under the Creative Commons framework. Make sure you read and abide by the parameters of the license for each image you use. 
• Find works that are in the public domain or have been freely available under other systems of distribution, such as items provided by government agencies or institutions. Always read the fine print for usage restrictions.
• If you are unable to obtain permission from the owner of a piece of media, consider whether your situation falls under the principle of fair use. This will rarely be a cut-and-dry answer, but the U of A Office of General Counsel can provide fair use information to help you apply the principle to various situations. When in doubt, don't assume fair use applies.
• Purchase stock images or other media for important projects or hard-to-find items. 

The University of Arizona Health Sciences strives to support a vibrant, respectful conversation and asks that all users treat each other with respect and abide by the rules and responsibilities of each social media platform. We will not delete comments because of their point of view; however, U of A Health Sciences reserves the right to block abusive users and remove comments that:

• Are hateful, threatening, malicious or discriminatory.
• Are libelous.
• Harass, bully, or intimidate any user.
• Sell or advertise a product or service.
• Contain profanity, nudity, or graphic or gratuitous violence.
• Condone or encourage illegal activity.
• May be considered spam or are irrelevant to the primary contents of the page.
• Are repetitive (multiple identical or substantially similar posts by the same user).
• Cannot be translated into English using free online translation software.
• Could compromise the safety of a member of the public or the individual who created the comment, post or discussion.
• Reveal information in conflict with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or any other applicable laws or regulations.

Community-contributed content is the opinion of the specific author and does not represent the views of the University of Arizona or the U of A Health Sciences. Mentions, shares and other forms of social engagement by Health Sciences units do not indicate endorsement of third parties. The information provided by University of Arizona Health Sciences on social media is for educational purposes only. It should never be substituted for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Please also remember that social media sites are public forums, and information you share will be viewed by others and may be archived by various third parties. Consider this carefully before posting personal information. The U of A Health Sciences and the University of Arizona have no control over the policies and practices of third parties.

• Improving the Accessibility of Social Media in Government
• U of A Social Media Accessibility
• U of A Accessibly, Captioning Resources and Tutorial

• U of A Social Media Guidelines for Employees
• Social Media Guidelines for Individuals at College of Medicine - Tucson