Office of Origin: Marketing and Communications
Responsibility: Executive Director, Marketing and Communications
Original Date Adopted: 09-17-24
Dates Reviewed: 09-17-24
Last Date Board Approved: 09-17-24

This policy applies to all auxiliary (not maintained by the Marketing and Communications Department) official LMC social media accounts for a division/program/club/etc. The purpose of creating and managing Lake Michigan College official social media accounts, pages, groups or other social media apparatuses (collectively referenced as “accounts”) is to facilitate communication between the College and its various audiences.  
 
All official LMC social media accounts must be approved by LMC’s Executive Director, Marketing and Communications prior to their creation. A representative from the Marketing and Communications Department must have administrative access to any official College social media accounts.   
 
Approved social media accounts must have clear goals, a clear target audience or audiences, and a clear strategy for consistently managing the account, including a dedicated account administrator who is employed by LMC.  
   
When considering starting College-affiliated account(s), it is important to consider the following:

1. Time Commitment: Managing a social media account demands a significant investment of time. It's essential to convey this reality. This social estimator can help you demonstrate the approximate content creation time required per channel.
2. Potential Reach/Exposure: Growing a new account entails both time and effort, with initial reach often limited. It's important to manage expectations regarding the time it takes to cultivate an audience and the resulting exposure.

All LMC social media accounts must abide by the College’s Social Media Policy as directed by the College’s Marketing and Communications Department.  
 
Official College social media accounts must be managed at least in a supervisory capacity by LMC employees; no student or student employee may be the sole primary administrator of any official College social media account. Students or student employees may manage official College accounts under the direct, regular supervision of their LMC employee supervisor.  
 
A social media manager may not publish, and may remove, engagement that is off-topic; spam; illegal or that includes harassment or personal attacks toward individuals or groups, slurs or abusive or profane/vulgar language; threats; sensitive information (e.g., information that threatens public safety) or confidential information (e.g., intellectual property, private information protected by law, etc.); or commercial promotions not officially approved by LMC.
 
LMC’s Marketing and Communications Department oversees the overall administration of all official College social media accounts and reserves the right to edit or delete content, administrative rights and accounts that do not adhere to the College’s policies or guidelines.
 
Employees and students using official College social media apparatus are speaking on behalf of the College and must abide by each platform’s relative Terms of Service; applicable local, state and federal laws governing digital communications, social media usage and copyright law; and any applicable College policies regarding employee communications (if employees) and relevant codes of conduct.  
 
References:      College-Affiliated Social Media Auxiliary Accounts Procedure