social media

3 ways higher ed can avoid social media devastation


How to proactively prevent social media mishaps

A tenured sociology professor at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., landed in hot water because of his activity on Facebook. A college news site found the professor’s posts—one of which included an offensive hashtag and reference to last summer’s congressional shooting in Virginia—and published them online. Instantaneously, the story sparked national attention. Trinity had to close its doors at one point as the professor and campus received death threats.

In the age of social media, incidents like this occur frequently. The solution: Colleges and universities need to proactively prevent these types of social media issues from wreaking havoc on their reputations and day-to-day activities.

Most higher-education institutions have social media policies, but applying and communicating these policies often falls into a gray area. When colleges and universities leave social media dos and don’ts open for interpretation, they leave their institutions vulnerable to unwanted controversy.

(Next page: How to avoid social media mistakes)

Be specific about social
Colleges and universities need to be as specific and transparent as possible about what they view as proper and improper usage of social media. For example, most institutions have a rule against professors sharing student information, but it’s ambiguous. Say, for example, a student posts a photo of themselves and classmates working on an assignment, tags the professor that assigned the project, and then the professor retweets the student’s photo. Would the professor be in violation of her university’s social media policy? The professor technically shared student information, but what type of information is considered okay and not okay to share? What if the student makes the information public and engages the professor?

Getting detailed and offering real-life scenarios will help professors understand what’s acceptable and what’s off limits. It’s equally important to be clear about the consequences if policy violation occurs.

This is vital for all higher education, but because private institutions have more latitude than public institutions, their administrators must be very clear about social media.

Education and ongoing training is essential
Additionally, higher-education leaders should develop training programs that teach new and long-standing professors social media best practices to avoid policy issues down the road.

Helping professors learn to navigate common challenges like “friending” students and engaging and disengaging with students online is key to preventing social-media firestorms. Furthermore, colleges and universities should help their professors recognize that private doesn’t always mean hidden in the social media world. It’s still a system of record, so coaching professors on using their best judgment when posting, re-sharing, and retweeting things—even when their profile is set to private—could prevent embarrassing situations for them and the institutions they represent.

Emphasize that what happens offline can haunt professors online.
Reports indicate nearly all (86 percent) undergraduates own a smartphone, which means they could very well record what a professor says in class and blast it out via their social media channels. We need to help professors be cognizant of this new reality.

As social media channels and usage among students and staff is evolving rapidly, savvy campuses provide ongoing social-media training through professional development.

The bottom line
Social media policies and how they are enforced will differ from campus to campus, but transparency and training should be the norm across the board. The exploration of social media is going to grow as professors look for different ways to better engage with students. That’s why responsible and educated use of social media among professors should be celebrated and highlighted as examples to others.

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