Guidelines

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) provides comprehensive civil rights protections to individuals with disabilities in the areas of employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, transportation, and telecommunications.

All accounts affiliated with the university should strive to be ADA compliant with their social media content. This means utilizing social platform settings to add ALT text to images, closed captioning to videos, and considering individuals with visual or hearing impairments when creating content. For further help navigating the world of ADA compliance, visit Accessible Social, a website that breaks down how to utilize alt text on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and more.

Creating original content is better for your audience and will save you the hassle of gathering legal permissions. But if you share content from other accounts or individuals, be sure to first get permission then provide appropriate credit to the original creator. 

More information regarding copyright can be found at Copyright Resources.

Whether there's a hurricane warning or a threat of violence on campus, quickly providing accurate information is crucial. In the event of high-level announcements, accounts claiming affiliation with the university should refrain from posting any content and refer their audience to the official BYU–Hawaii social pages by resharing content from the BYU–Hawaii social accounts or university bulletin.

Considerations: 

• Be aware and sensitive to emergencies around you.  
• When serious situations exist, sometimes it's best to go silent and allow room for other meaningful conversations to happen. Don't position the university as tone-deaf or oblivious to the more significant world problems at hand.  
• Halt scheduled content until the emergency has concluded.  
• Reshare official university updates. If you are unsure of what is appropriate to share, reach out to the university's social media team for guidance and help. 

University-affiliated accounts should not delete or hide comments. Some may see this as infringing upon their rights and freedom of speech. However, in extreme cases, you may delete comments that contain: 

• Profanity.
• Vindictive language.
• Slander.
• Suspicious links.

You might consider reporting comments that include personal calls for violence or include hate speech. If you come across such statements, report them to Title IX or Campus Safety & Security. 

When anyone, including but not limited to alumni, faculty, students, or staff, voice their negative feedback online, it's essential to address their concerns. If they appear very upset, suggest they connect offline and away from public view. If you can, contact them directly, and make sure to leave a public response, so others don't assume the issue was ignored.

If you receive negative feedback from online trolls, the best thing you can do is ignore them. They're just looking to incite an argument.  

• Example mention: "Last semester, my academic advisor dropped the ball and signed me up for pointless classes. Now I have to redo an entire semester, thanks @byuhawaii!" 
• Example response: "Aloha {first name}, if you DM us your academic program, we can work with you to find the right people who would appreciate your feedback." 

For minor complaints or grievances, try to solve the problem publicly. Be apologetic, even if you did nothing wrong, and offer to help. Work out a solution, but do not over-promise or commit to something that you can't deliver.  

Remember, negative feedback happens; it's a chance to demonstrate the value of our networks, improve, and deliver even better customer service.  

Announcements such as campus closures, policy updates, campus-wide changes, etc., will come directly from the university's official social media accounts.  If you wish to share this information with your audience please re-share content from the official university's account, do not re-create your own. The goal in doing this is to avoid the spread of misinformation.

Please keep in mind that you represent the university and ultimately Jesus Christ. Depending on your affiliation with the university, your personal accounts may be subject to university's social media policies and other policies, including but not limited to: 

• Honor Code 
• Human Resources policies 
• Title IX

Managing a social media account that claims direct affiliation to BYUH is a responsibility that should be taken seriously. The designated and approved account manager should ensure the university's best interests are considered in portraying the institution's services fairly and accurately.

Do not post confidential information about the university, staff, or students. Be familiar with and comply with the university's policy regarding FERPA.