Social Media Presence in Diocesan, Parish and School

Transcription

1 Diocese of Greensburg Social Media Policy I. Introduction This is the official Social Media Policy ( Policy ) of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Greensburg ( Diocese ). This Policy applies to the entire Diocese and all of its ministries, including parishes, schools, Catholic Charities and retreat centers. The Diocese uses social media to aid its mission to work together to live out our baptismal call to proclaim in word and action the Gospel of Jesus Christ, handed down through Scripture, tradition and the magisterium of the Church. It is in the best interest of the Diocese to be aware of and participate in online communities to build strong relationships, to promote programs and events, to reach followers with news and alerts, and to provide quick links to online information at Diocesan, Parish and School websites. II. Purpose Our audience is online; therefore, the Diocese needs to meet its audience online to fulfill the call of the Universal Church regarding the New Evangelization. This Policy is the official Policy for Church Personnel (Reference III. Definitions) participating in Diocesan-wide social media, Parish-wide social media and School-wide social media. This policy identifies basic sound practices. Social media communications are used in numerous ways and widespread. The Diocese recognizes that social media used for spiritual and education purposes, and social media used for marketing, e-commerce, societal and other purposes, exists for Church Personnel to use as part of the overall Diocesan mission. III. Definitions Church Personnel: includes any person who performs tasks for the Church under the auspices of the Diocese of Greensburg of one of its parishes or schools. This includes Bishops, Priests, Deacons, Seminarians, Religious Personnel, Pastoral Ministers, Spiritual Counselors, Administrators, Lay Employees, and Contract Employees who are employed by the Diocese of Greensburg or any of its parishes or schools together with those Lay Volunteers who provide services to/for the Diocese of Greensburg or any parish or school within the Diocese. Diocesan Social Media Personnel: For the purpose of this document a Diocesan Pastoral Center employee who has been assigned a specific social media role and will provide oversight and monitoring for all Diocese social media sites, Parish social media sites, and School social media sites. As an employee of the diocese they are seen by other colleagues and the broader community as a representative of the Greensburg Diocese. Social Media: Includes websites and/or mobile social media applications that incorporate one or more of the following, whose boundaries are becoming increasingly blurred: Blog: Web logs or journals where authors and users can post textual, audio or video content, and where some permit others to post comments on their blogs. Some websites enable individuals to create free standing blogs, other special interest websites use blog tools and message forums to engage users. Micro Blogs: Websites and spaces that allow users to post short blog entries. Twitter is an example, as well as other sites that invite users to post short status and location updates such as Facebook and Foursquare. Media Sharing: Websites where users post and share videos, audio files and/or photographs as well as tag them to enable searchability. Examples include YouTube, Flickr, Picasa, Instagram and Google. 1 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

2 Social Networks: Websites where users can create customized profiles and form connections with other users based on shared characteristics and interests. Websites such as Facebook tend to foster personal social contact among friends, while websites such as LinkedIn are oriented toward professional networking. Wikis: Resources or documents edited collaboratively by a community of users with varying levels of editorial control by the website publisher. Wikipedia is an example. IV. Content Creation Getting Started You must contact the Help Desk to begin the process of establishing a social media presence. Prior to beginning a social media initiative the Diocese and its ministries, including parishes, schools, Catholic Charities and retreat centers must have an established website. The managing director, director, pastor, administrator, or principal, as applicable, must have designated a paid employee(s) of the Diocese, Parish or School to be a Social Media Content Administrator and Content Creator. Diocesan Social Media Personnel will secure the name and maintain administrative rights for all Diocese, Parish and School social media. Individuals must be trained prior to establishing a Diocese, Parish or School social media presence. All parties named above must attend training (For training requirements Reference XIII. Training & Support). Therefore, social media requires commitment in using the tools, as well as dedicated time and resources to using these tools as effectively and appropriately as possible. Church Personnel must monitor the Diocese, Parish or School social media content you post daily and update social media at least three times per week. The managing director, director, pastor, administrator, or principal, as applicable, is ultimately responsible for the site s content and oversight. Church Personnel with limited resources who are not able to provide direct oversight and content must provide periodic information as appropriate to the IT Help Desk for posting on Diocesan social media. Please refer to Appendix I, for questions or concerns in deciding to create and maintain a social media presence. All Diocese, Parish and School social media must include the following text: All posts and comments to this site must express Christian charity and respect for the truth. Comments must be on topic and be respectful of other commentators. Discussions must take place from a faith perspective. Repeat offenders of this policy will be blocked from the site. All users must follow name of tool being used (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) terms of use or risk being reported or blocked. Oversight and Monitoring Establishment of Diocese, Parish or School social media must first be approved by the appropriate managing director, director, pastor, and administrator including principal, responsible for all social media content established and maintained by the specific Diocese, Parish or School. Diocesan Social Media Personnel will assist in oversight and monitoring of Diocesan-wide, Parish-wide and School-wide social media presence. Understanding that an effective social media site may require that responses are made in a timely manner, there must be at least two professionals responsible for maintaining and monitoring Diocese, Parish or School social media. Any Church Personnel who uses social media that is the property of the Diocese relinquishes rights to administer that account upon leaving the employment of the Diocese, Parish or School. 2 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

3 The Diocese and its affiliates reserve the right to review a Church Personnel s Diocese, Parish or School, as well as personal social media site if there are reasonable grounds for believing that Diocesan policy is being violated (Reference VIII. Personal Social Media and X. Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized and Illegal Use). V. Parishes All Parishes must comply with this Policy and when ready create a social media presence. As stated in Section IV Content Creation, parishes and other associated parish ministries and organizations must have their social media site created and monitored by the Diocese and pastor or administrator. This includes, among others, any site that uses any part of the Diocese and/or parish names, logos, and acronyms. This also includes any group or ministry affiliated or sponsored by the parish. Church Personnel must properly monitor the Parish social media they establish, and appropriately discipline violators, as provided in the Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized, and Illegal use section of this Policy, which may include among others, removal of their social media presence (Reference Section X. Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized and Illegal Use). VI. Schools All Catholic Schools must comply with this Policy and when ready create a social media presence. Church Personnel must adhere to the specific rules and guidelines addressed in the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). As stated in Section IV Content Creation, parent groups and other associated school support groups/organizations must have social media created and monitored by the Diocese and school administration. This includes, among others, any site that uses any part of the Diocese and/or school names, colors, logos, acronyms, and mascots. Church Personnel must properly monitor the School social media they establish, and appropriately discipline violators, as provided in Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized, and Illegal use section of this Policy, which may include among others, removal of their social media presence (Reference Acceptable Use Policy and Reference Section X. Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized and Illegal Use). VII. Youth The Code of Pastoral Conduct for the Diocese of Greensburg clearly sets forth standards and expectations for all those who act in the name of the Diocese. This Code of Pastoral Conduct applies to all Church Personnel and must be complied with and used as a reference and guide when communicating with young people. Although this Code of Pastoral Conduct cannot cover every aspect of every circumstance that one may encounter in the course of church related work it must be seen as a concise enumeration of expected public and private behavioral standards for those working or volunteering in the parishes, schools and other entities within the Diocese. Parents must be informed that Diocese, Parish or School social media tools are being utilized as a standard part of the ministry. Parents/guardians must be informed about the terms of use, age restrictions, privacy options and controls for each site. After providing this information to the parents/guardians they are also responsible to be aware of such terms (Reference Appendix I Guidelines). Social media communication by Church Personnel with youth must occur only on official sites of the Diocese, Parish or School. (Reference Code of Pastoral Conduct Section 3.16). 3 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

4 VIII. Personal Social Media Public criticism of the Diocese or Diocesan policy, public disagreements with established church teachings, including, but not limited to, same sex marriage, abortion or contraception, and/or disrespect of the Universal Church and Catholic Hierarchy, may be grounds for Diocesan disciplinary action. This will be handled on a case-by-case basis. All ministry work must be conducted on a ministry-related site. Church Personnel must not use personal social media of any kind to conduct church-related or school-related ministerial work. IX. Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism Language Federal laws, cases, policies, regulations, and guidelines pertaining to copyrights will govern the use of material accessed through the Diocesan resources. Users must make a standard practice of requesting permission from the holder of the work, or complying with the Fair Use Doctrine, and/or complying with license agreements. Church Personnel will respect copyrights, request permission when required, and comply with the Fair Use Doctrine, and/or license agreements. Violations of copyright law can be a felony, and the law allows a court to hold individuals personally responsible for infringing the law. The Diocese does not permit illegal acts pertaining to the copyright law. Therefore, any Church Personnel violating the copyright law does so at their own risk and assumes all liability. Violations of copyright law include, but are not limited to, making unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material (such as commercial software, text, graphic images, audio and video recording), distributing copyrighted materials over computer networks, remixing or preparing mash-ups that violate the law, and deep-linking and framing into the content of others websites. Further, the illegal installation of copyrighted software or files for use on the Diocese s Computers is expressly prohibited. This includes all forms of unlicensed software shrink-wrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, and electronic software downloaded from the Internet. Diocesan guidance on plagiarism will govern use of material accessed through the Diocese s computers, systems, networks, and cloud services. Church Personnel must not plagiarize other works, regardless of whether they are copy written or not. The Diocese s reserves the right to use plagiarism analysis software when questions arise in this area. The Diocese may limit its copyright liability by complying with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act s safe harbor notice and takedown provisions. X. Consequences for Inappropriate, Unauthorized and Illegal Use Church Personnel must be aware that violations of this Policy and other Diocesan policies mentioned within, as well as Internet Service Providers, Social Media Providers, local, state, and federal laws dealing with social media, and unlawful use of the Diocesan systems, may result in loss of Diocesan access and a variety of other disciplinary actions, including but not limited to, warnings, usage restrictions, loss of privileges, position reassignment, oral or written reprimands, suspensions (with or without pay for employees), dismissal, breach of contract, penalties provided in statutes, regulations, and other laws, and/or legal proceedings. This will be handled on a case-by-case basis. This Policy incorporates all other relevant Diocesan policies, such as, but not limited to, the employee discipline policies, the Code of Pastoral Conduct, electronic devices, and harassment and discrimination policies. Church Personnel are responsible for damages to computers, systems, networks, cloud services, wireless electronic devices, equipment, and software resulting from negligent, deliberate, and willful acts. Church Personnel may be responsible for payments related to lost or stolen computers and/or Diocesan equipment, and recovery and/or breach of the information and/or data contained on them. 4 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

5 Violations as described in this Policy, other Diocesan policies, regulations, rules, and procedures must be reported to the Diocese, Parish or School, and appropriate legal authorities. Actions that constitute a crime under state and/or federal law, could result in arrest, criminal prosecution, and/or lifetime inclusion on sexual offenders registries. The Diocese, Parish and School will cooperate to the extent legally required with authorities in all such investigations. XI. Liability Church Personnel are responsible for what they post, and could be liable for their posts that among others, contain copyright infringing material, defamatory statements, or are legally obscene (Reference Appendix I Guidelines). Each social media tool or service has its own rules for use and these must be followed. XII. Ownership The Diocesan website and all Diocese, Parish or School related websites and social media attached to it are the property of the Diocese and subject to Diocesan review and oversight. If policy is not followed the social media site will be removed by Diocesan Social Media Personnel. Ownership includes any site that uses any part of the Diocese name, any Parish name or School name and any of their identifying elements, e.g., colors, crest or logos, acronyms, etc. Ownership also includes any group or ministry affiliated or sponsored by the Diocese, Parish or School. Church Personnel must work with violators to implement proper monitoring of the specific Diocese, Parish or School site. Misuse of any of the Diocesan sites and violations of any Diocesan policies concerning use of Diocesan sites by a Diocesan, parish or school employee can lead to disciplinary action, which can include termination of employment or volunteerism for serious violations. XIII. Training and Support All Church Personnel using or monitoring Diocese, Parish or School related social media must be trained and must sign a copy of the Diocese of Greensburg Social Media Policy prior to establishing a social media presence. The Diocesan Office of Information Technologies will provide training and support for Church Personnel using Diocese, Parish or School related social media. Requests for assistance and support for Diocese, Parish or School social media presence must be made through the Help Desk at S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

6 Appendix I Guidelines The following social media guidelines are for educational purposes. These are well-advised and should be followed to the best of your understanding. Disclose Be honest and truthful. Dishonesty will be recognized quickly by Diocesan Social Media Personnel. Once posted, the item may exist forever. 1. Be transparent. Identify yourself by real name and Diocesan role. Do not use pseudonyms and anonymous posts. 2. Be accurate. Stick to your area of expertise and post accurate information that does not violate this Policy. 3. Be aware. Church Personnel must understand they are witnessing to the faith and represent the diocese through social networking, whether public (Diocese, Parish or School social media) or private (personal social media). 4. Be respectful. Follow the Golden Rule. Do not post anything that is illegal, or defamatory, obscene language, discriminatory, demeaning abuse against Church Personnel, pornographic, sexual exploitation, bullying, proprietary information of the Diocese, and/or a Diocesan vendor. 5. Be aware of your audience. Consider the audience before publishing. Posts must be direct and straight forward without alienating groups or individuals, and avoid the use of jargon and acronyms. Protect If it gives you pause; pause rather than publish. Social media builds relationships, it is not the place to disclose confidential Diocesan or personal information about Church Personnel and others that should not be public. 1. Maintain confidentiality. NEVER share confidential Diocesan information or any Church Personnel s personally identifiable information. 2. Protect your identity. Do not provide personal identifying information on Diocese, Parish or School social media, i.e. social security number or home address. Church Personnel using social media as a marketing/communications tool must use their Diocesan address for Diocese, Parish or School account creation. 3. Use sound professional judgment. Everything you publish must be true and not misleading or deceptive and may not violate the privacy of others. Think before posting and responding to posts. Social media tools create dialogue, but people will not always agree on the issue(s). When confronted with a difference of opinion, stay cool; do not counter with negative posts that you will be sorry for later. Church Personnel do not need to respond to every criticism or barb. Express points in a truthful, clear, considerate and logical way. 4. Always backtrack. When reposting or referring to a story or article provide a link to the original post or story. 5. Be humble. Content must be relevant to the audience. Do not post self-laudatory statements about your work or statements about the quality of your work. 6. Report and monitor. The Diocese will protect its brand and identity. Report any misuse of the Diocese crest or bishop s seal, and any misinformation about the Diocese, Parish or School found on any form of social media to the IT Help Desk. 7. Press and Media. Social Media may generate media coverage. Media inquiries about a Diocese, Parish or 6 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

7 School social media item or posting, must be directed to the Diocesan spokesperson in the Office for Communications. 8. Response Plan. Monitor and be aware of social media mentions and call the IT Help Desk if there are any that have negative ramifications. The Diocese Office for Communications will assist with a communication response plan. 9. Official word mark and logos. Only Church Personnel authorized by the Diocese may use the Diocesan crest, bishop s coat of arms, and signature. Use Common Sense Present the diocese in a positive light. There is room for humor, but keep in that mind that humor should always be appropriate and should stimulate discussion, not stifle it. 1. Add value. Make your words helpful and thought provoking. Build community by posting content that invites responses then stay engaged. Broaden your dialogue by citing others who are writing about the same topic(s) and allowing your content to be shared. 2. Stay timely. Conversation in social media occurs in real time. To participate in an active way requires active commitment to refresh content, respond to questions, update information regularly, and correct information when appropriate. You must monitor the Diocese, Parish and School social media site content you post daily and update at least three times per week. Personal social media sites should not interfere with your job duties or work commitments. 3. Seek guidance. If in doubt about whether a post or comment response is appropriate, seek advice from your supervisor. 4. Be accountable. If you make a mistake admit it. Be upfront, quick and clear with your correction. 5. Ask permission. Permission must be obtained before posting pictures of others in non-public forums. Permission must also be obtained before posting copy written material, including but not limited to, videos, podcasts, music, images, etc. (Reference Youth Photographic Release Form and /or AUP). 6. Youth communication. Church Personnel must maintain professional boundaries when using social media to communicate with youth. Be transparent in all electronic interactions. Exercise sound judgment when communicating with youth, and do not put yourself in a position which could be viewed as compromising or have any appearance of impropriety. 7 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg

8 Diocese of Greensburg Social Media Policy Social Media Content Administrator Approval and Consent Form Instructions: Please fill out Part I and Part II below, sign and then forward to the Content Owners for authorization. Content Owners must sign the form to verify your approval of the Church Personnel s access. Then call the Help Desk ( ) and fax this form to Once this process is complete, the supervisor will be notified that the requestor has access. The account will be authorized in one to seven business days once the Office of Information Technologies has received this form. Notification in regards to mandatory training will follow. PART I: End-User Information (Filled out by managing director, director, pastor, administrator, and/or principal): Last Name: First Name: Middle Initial: Department/Parish/School Location: Phone/Extension: Part II: Authorization and Signatures I have read and understand this Policy and the attached Appendix/Guidelines. I acknowledge that any violation or failure to follow this Policy, any Policy referenced in this Policy, or security measures listed in this Policy could lead to disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment by the Diocese and/or criminal prosecution. Social Media Content Administrator Name Social Media Content Administrator Name Supervisor of Social Media Content Administrator Name Supervisor of Social Media Content Administrator Name Diocese of Greensburg, Managing Director (if applicable) Diocese of Greensburg, Managing Director (if applicable) Diocese of Greensburg, Managing Director, Office for Communications Diocese of Greensburg, Managing Director, Office for Communications Diocese of Greensburg, Director of IT Diocese of Greensburg, Director of IT Diocese of Greensburg Help Desk Representative *Remove Websense Security Diocese of Greensburg, Help Desk Representative 8 S ocial Media Policy Diocese of Greensburg