Social Media Policy
The official UH System Social Media Policy can be found as SAM 01.H.01 on the UH System Policies website. Please refer to the SAM for all official communication. Additional guidelines and best practices can be found here.
Social Media 101
New at UH or just need a quick refresher? Download the Social Media 101 presentation to get the highlights of the UH System Social Media Policy and best practices.
1. Purpose
The University of Houston System and its component institutions (“University”) encourages the use of social media to connect with others, including students, employees, alumni, fans, and the University. Social media sites are excellent venues to communicate and encourage engaging discussions about University current events, issues, accolades, organizations and people. This policy defines the rules and procedures for the use of Official University Social Media Sites (as defined in Section 3.3) to ensure that university-sponsored social media is both legal and in compliance with University policies.
2. Policy
2.1. All Official University Social Media Sites must adhere to state and federal laws and regulations, and University policies. Only public information may be posted on Official University Social Media Sites. Official University Social Media Sites must not contain sensitive personal information as defined in Texas Business and Commerce Code, Chapter 521, or other confidential information as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ( FERPA), Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act ( HIPAA), and National Collegiate Athletic Association ( NCAA) Regulations, as applicable. Any sensitive personal information or other confidential information posted on an Official University Social Media Site must be removed by the site administrator as soon as practically possible upon discovery.
2.2. The University is committed to fostering an educational environment that allows for freedoms of speech and expression in accordance with the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. However, the University will not tolerate any activity or posting on an Official University Social Media Site that loses First Amendment protection such as any unlawful, defamatory, or obscene (as defined by Texas and federal law) activity or posting. The University reserves the right to remove any such posting without notice. The University also reserves the right to refer social media activity to the applicable social media platform and/or appropriate authorities for appropriate action.
2.3. All Official University Social Media Sites must respect intellectual property rights, federal Copyright law and University policies.
2.4. Employee Use – When using social media as a part of their official duties, and/or when presenting oneself in social media settings as a university representative, employees must comply with applicable University policies governing employee behavior and acceptable use of electronic and information resources.
2.5. Primary administrative rights for Official University Social Media Sites will be assigned only to University employees. Official University Social Media Sites will have a minimum of two administrators to ensure that the site is consistently managed. Should one administrator be unavailable, the second assigned administrator will manage the site. At least one of the two administrators should be a permanent University employee.
2.6. All content on Official University Social Media Sites must comply with 1 TAC 206 and 1 TAC 213 to ensure that the information is accessible and usable by people with the widest range of capabilities possible. Accessibility requirements apply to the content on the social media tool, not the features of the tool. Therefore, if the Official University Social Media Site does not use an inaccessible feature, it is not in violation of accessibility requirements. It is the responsibility of the Official University Social Media Site administrator to ensure social media content is fully accessible.
2.7. All University Social media sites must comply with any approved applicable University branding standards.
2.8. Records Retention – Content posted by the University or the public on an Official University Social Media Site is a state record and is subject to the State of Texas Records Retention requirements unless it is content duplicated from another source or transitory information of temporary usefulness. University site administrators are responsible for ensuring compliance with all applicable record retention requirements for content posted on their sites.
3. Definitions
3.1. Social Media: Forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos) . Examples include, but are not limited to: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, YouTube and other similar platforms or applications.
3.2. Copyright: A form of intellectual property law protecting original works of authorship including literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works. A copyright does not protect facts, ideas, systems or methods of operation – only the way these objects may be expressed.
3.3. Official University Social Media Site: A social media site which represents a University college, department, or official program. Any other social media site, such as a student organization site, or an employee’s personal social media site, is NOT subject to this policy.
4. Procedures
4.1. Branding for University Social Media
For any Official University Social Media Site, the social media icon and/or profile image must comply with any applicable University branding standards. The social media icon and/or profile image can be a photograph related to the administrator’s entity, an approved logo for that entity, or another appropriately branded image. All images should be 72 dpi resolution for web.
4.2. Content for University Social Media (does not include photo policies)
4.3. Photos for University Social Media
June 12, 2015; Last Revised January 7, 2020
Additional Information
If you're a University of Houston employee or student, learn more about the guidelines and policies that affect you on social media.