Social Media for City Communications Policy

1. The Communications and Marketing Director will act as a City administrator. He / She must keep a record of all social media posts, their content, time of publication, and associated URL links.
2. Only the Communications and Marketing Department, or members authorized by the office, may post content on behalf of the City of Syracuse and its departments.
3. All City entities, including departments and component units, must display a “Terms of Participation” (or Impressum) statement that highlights:
   - What is acceptable for users to post.
   - Techniques for moderation and comment review.
   - Consequences for violating the terms.
   - Contact information for questions on policy.
4. City employees who are authorized to post must:
   - Follow all policies/procedures (Federal, State, Agency, copyright, etc.)
   - Cannot discuss or post confidential information.
   - Be transparent; disclose identity and affiliation with the State.
   - Obtain permission before posting videos, photos, or quotes of others.
   - Not invoke agency title on personal postings and explicitly clarify that their views are their own. Learn more at 
   NYS Social Media Policy
5. Refer to state and local policies when using social media. New York State social media use policy can be found at https://www.ny.gov/social-media-policy 
6. Take appropriate IT precautions to ensure security and defense from malicious activity. The State of New York Enterprise IT Policies may be found online: http://www.its.ny.gov/tables/technologypolicyindex.htm
7. Implement a process for enabling the use of social media tools that include risk assessment, protection of State government reputation, and IT security. There must be approval for the process from the agency commissioner and notification to the overseeing officer. 
8. The City of Syracuse strongly recommends using content scheduling applications to monitor and approve social media posts. Frequent logging in via the native social media applications increases the likelihood of passwords being compromised and messages not being managed.
9. Ensure appropriate policies are in place to the extent of all posts so that all publicly vital content is accessible for Freedom of Information requests. Archiving policies or systems must be clear and easy to communicate with those authorized to share content on behalf of agencies. See other recommended guidelines from New York State.
10. Authorized workforce members must be trained to ensure that procedure, safety, and security are upheld. Departments with social media channels should have all persons approved to post content complete Social Media training by the Communications and Marketing department. Understand the City of Syracuse Date Privacy Policy.
11. Implement technical controls that include:
    - Social Media accounts created on behalf of the City must be approved by the City administrator. 
    - Accounts should add the City administrator on all departmental accounts.
    - Accounts should have a strong password.
    - Social Media liaisons will log any changes made to content as they would a public record.
    - Maintain a non-privileged account to login in event of malware attack.
    - Provide content screening to moderate all posts and force logins through a gateway.
    - Perform backups on a regular basis.