Social Media Customer Use Guidelines
While it is the duty of the City to provide residents, visitors, and the general public with an avenue to give feedback and voice concerns and opinions, we must also create a space where all members of the public feel safe and comfortable to do so. To assist in this endeavor, the City has developed a series of content guidelines which all users interacting with City of Midland social media accounts must follow. Prohibited Content Guidelines
The following types of content are prohibited from being posted on, sent to, or utilized on a City of Midland social media platform:
Profane or obscene language or content;
Content that promotes or perpetuates discrimination against protected classes;
Content intended to sexually harass others;
Content that encourages or promotes illegal activity;
Spam, including multiple messages from the same user containing the same content, or content intended to sell a product or service;
Content that violates intellectual property interests of any third party (i.e. copyright or trademark infringement);
Content that includes sensitive personal identifying information about a City staff member, elected official, or another social media user, including, but not limited to social security numbers, financial account numbers, home or workplace addresses, personal phone numbers, or driver’s license numbers. A workplace address may be considered acceptable for a City staff member if it is relevant for the purposes of meeting with or communicating with the staff member in the course of his or her employment. Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public, including public systems and infrastructure;
Threats of violence towards a City staff member, an elected official, another social media user, or any other individual or group;
“Trolling” - posting inflammatory or inappropriate comments or content for the purpose of upsetting other users and provoking an emotional response or disrupting on-topic discussion. Failure to abide by these guidelines after warning may result in users' comments being removed, hidden, and/or their accounts being blocked from communicating with City social media channels. A link to this document on the City’s website should be provided in the “About” or “Bio” sections of each City social media channel where available. Violations to Social Media Customer User Policy
When a user violates the City’s social media guidelines, it is important not to immediately remove the offending content or ban the user without warning. If possible, “hide” the offending content and follow the notification steps below. Notify the user that they have violated the City’s social media policy and describe the violation in detail. If the platform allows content editing:
Provide the user one (1) hour to edit a comment or message and inform them that failure to do so will result in the removal of the comment or message. If the allotted time elapses without an edit, remove the comment and file a Social Media Action Report. If the platform does not allow content editing, warn the user that future violations will result in their being banned from engaging with the current City channel. If the user escalates the violation, remove any additional violations without a warning message. If a user incurs multiple violations in a single day and/or exhibits an implicit or explicit disregard for the City’s social media guidelines after being warned, ban or block the user from engaging on the platform where the violation occurred. In the instance where a comment must be removed or a user blocked or banned from interacting with a City social media channel, the City social media account manager should complete a Social Media Action Report (located in the appendix) to document the incident. All social media action reports should be completed and forwarded to the Communications Coordinator within 24 hours of action being taken. In general, an instance of 3 or more social media action reports filed against a single user in a 3-month period will result in the individual being banned/blocked from the social media account on which the violation(s) took place; however, more egregious violations may result in an immediate termination of the user’s ability to engage.
