05.04.05 Social Media
CITY OF BOYNTON BEACH, FLORIDA ADMINISTRATIVE POLICY MANUAL CHAPTER: 05 Public Affairs Policy No: 05.04.05 SECTION: 04 Administrative Directive Page: 1 of 4 SUBJECT: 05 Social Media
The goals of City of Boynton Beach sponsored Social Networking Sites are: • To increase public awareness of the City’s programs, policies and services. • To promote the value and importance
of the City’s programs, policies and services among government officials, civic leaders and the general public. • To maintain open, professional and responsive communications with members
of the public and the news media. Purpose The purpose of this policy is to ensure the proper use of the City’s Social Networking Sites technologies. Publicly posted information will
be professional and reflect positively on the City of Boynton Beach, its employees, volunteers, programs, policies and services. Employees will check facts, cite sources, present balanced
views, acknowledge and correct errors and check spelling and grammar before publishing any posts. Further, employees are personally responsible for the content they publish on blogs,
wikis or any other form of user-generated media. Ownership All social media communications messages composed, sent or received on the City’s IT equipment are the property of the City
of Boynton Beach. The City of Boynton Beach reserves the right not to publish any posting, or to later remove it. Management of Social Web Applications The City of Boynton Beach’s Public
Affairs office is responsible for overall social media administration, including, but not limited to, blogs, wikis, video sharing and business pages and social networking sites. Public
Affairs will: • Maintain the site, including the look and feel and pages for the comment policy, descriptions, etc. • Review each post. This will primarily be for policy and legal issues;
other editing will be light, essentially only to correct spelling or grammatical errors. • Coordinate review with the City Attorney’s office for legal issues. • Upload posts (repeat
bloggers/posters may be authorized to post themselves). • Moderate comments (see Moderating Public Comments). All department and city service-related social media sites, with the exception
of Police and Fire, must be approved before an account may be set-up. 1
Each site should have wording that indicates who the owner of the site is and an email link back to the individual who maintains it. The name of the City should be on the site. External
Links To meet its purpose, the City’s Social Networking Sites may contain links to other social networking sites or websites that are not owned, regularly reviewed or controlled by the
City. The City’s Social Networking Sites do not provide links to external sites that are strictly political or religious in nature. The provision of direct links should not be construed
as an endorsement or sponsorship of these external sites, their content or their hosts. The City specifically disavows legal responsibility for what a user may find on another site,
whether or not operated by the City. The views and opinions of the authors of documents published on or linked to the City’s Social Networking Sites do not necessarily state or reflect
the opinion, policy or position of the City. The City of Boynton Beach is not responsible for the content, quality, accuracy or completeness of any offsite materials referenced by or
linked through the City’s Social Networking Sites. By using the City’s Social Networking Sites, the user acknowledges and accepts the risk of injury or damage from viewing, hearing,
downloading or storing such materials rests entirely with the user and that the City is not responsible for any materials stored on other social networking sites or websites, nor is
it liable for any inaccurate, defamatory, offensive or illegal materials found on other social networking sites or websites. The City does not endorse any content, viewpoint, products
or services linked from its Social Networking Sites and shall not be held liable for any losses caused by reliance on the accuracy, reliability or timeliness of such information. The
City does not warrant the accuracy or reliability of or endorse any products or service providers listed or linked to its site. External Links Links to other social networking sites
or websites are approved if they meet the following criteria: • They are state, regional, local or federal government agencies, special purpose districts, hospitals, scientific or cultural
organizations serving the Boynton Beach community and public educational institutions. • They are human service organizations that receive direct support from the City of Boynton Beach.
• They are community festivals and events that are open to the general public and that are sponsored or cosponsored by the City. • Providers of search engines from the City of Boynton
Beach websites. • No links are allowed to sites containing inappropriate material or to information irrelevant to the City’s mission or services. • The City’s Review Team, consisting
of the Public Affairs director, IT director, Assistant to the City Manager, and Recreation & Parks Marketing Manager, must approve all external links. • The City’s Review Team is authorized
to order removal of material that is noncompliant with these guidelines from the City’s Social Network Sites. 2
Links shall not be made to sites that are associated with, sponsored by or serve a candidate for elected office or any political part or organization supporting or seeking to defeat
any candidate for elective office or ballot proposal. Privacy & Security The City has the right to monitor employees’ social media use on City equipment and will exercise its right as
necessary. Users do not and should have no expectation of privacy. Social media is not a secure means of communication When using Social Networking Sites technologies, City employees
will: • Identify themselves by name and as an employee of the City of Boynton Beach. • Use appropriate language and refrain from ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity or engage in
any conduct that would not be acceptable in the City’s workplace. • Demonstrate proper consideration for others’ privacy and for topics that may be considered objectionable or inflammatory,
such as politics and religion. • Be aware that what is written will not only reflect on the writer, writer, but also on the elected officials of the City of Boynton Beach and other City
employees. • Not provide confidential information about cases or clients, including names, or use such material as part of any content added to a site. • Not comment on business partners
or their competitors’ practices or services or use such as part of content added to a site. • Not provide others with confidential or proprietary information that would compromise negotiations
or including such as part of content added to a site without permission to publish or report on conversations that are meant to be private or internal to the City of Boynton Beach. •
Be aware that all content added to a site may be subject to Florida’s Public Records & Open Meetings Laws and discovery in legal cases. • Insure that any content published to any website
outside of the City of Boynton Beach that is related to an employee’s work or subjects associated with the City of Boynton Beach will include the following disclaimer: “The postings
on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the City of Boynton Beach’s positions, strategies or opinions.” Hosting Currently, the City of Boynton Beach and City of Boynton
Beach News Releases blogs are hosted at Wordpress.com. The City of Boynton Beach also uses YouTube and Vimeo for video sharing, Flickr for photographs and Twitter for status updates.
As the need and technologies evolve, other hosting sites may be used. Moderating Public Comments Where moderation of comments is an available option, comments from the public will be
moderated by the City of Boynton Beach Public Affairs office before posting in compliance with the City’s Comment Policy posted on its blog (http://boyntoncityblog/wordpress.com). 3
4 In general, comments that are abusive, obscene, defamatory, in violation of copyright, trademark right, or other intellectual property right of any third party, or otherwise inappropriate
or incorrect will not be posted. Where moderation prior to posting is not an option, sites will be regularly monitored by the Public Affairs office. Other Considerations Postings must
not violate any federal, state or municipal laws. For example, they may not: • Reveal information about ongoing investigations • Discuss deliberative materials • Violate the regulatory
process • Circumvent Public Records & Open Meetings Laws • Violate privacy or copyright • Violate other legal issues that may not apply Postings must not contradict or encourage misuse
of City of Boynton Beach directions, guidance or other official information. Created: March 2, 2010 Kurt Bressner Kurt Bressner City Manager