{"id":178,"date":"2017-08-01T20:05:21","date_gmt":"2017-08-01T20:05:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/?page_id=178"},"modified":"2017-08-08T17:57:36","modified_gmt":"2017-08-08T17:57:36","slug":"social-media-best-practices","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/policy-manual\/social-media-best-practices\/","title":{"rendered":"WKU Student Publications Policy Manual"},"content":{"rendered":"

SOCIAL MEDIA: Best practices<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n

For journalists, social media are tools, not toys.<\/i><\/h3>\n

Traditional standards for accuracy, ethics and professionalism fully apply online.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 You\u2019re a journalist 24\/7.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 There is no distinction between a personal and a professional account. While it\u2019s fine to maintain a separate account for work-related matters, remember that any account that bears your name is representative of you and your publication.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Be careful about offering opinions and taking stands in personal posts. They can haunt you.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Expressions of partisanship are unacceptable. You know about putting political bumper stickers on your car, right? Same principle.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 When using social media to gather news, make sure you identify yourself as a journalist.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Before you press the button, make sure your facts are right \u2013 and, also important, that your post is free of spelling and grammar issues. Errors reflect badly on you, and on all of us.<\/p>\n

Break news on the website, then on Twitter.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 It\u2019s important to be fast, but it\u2019s far more important to be accurate.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Post breaking news on WKUHerald.com for the Herald, or WKUTalisman.com for the Talisman \u2013 even if it\u2019s just a sentence.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Use a brief Twitter dispatch to link to the story.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Update the website post quickly as a breaking news event develops.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Follow up major developments with tweets linking back to the updated story.<\/p>\n

Assume everything you write online will become public.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 Be aware of perceptions.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Communicate and politely debate people in social media, but know when to just let it go.<\/p>\n

Use social media to engage with readers, but always be professional.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 Watch your mouth. Do not use language that could be construed to be libelous, discriminatory, indecent, profane or offensive. Not even if you think you\u2019re being funny. Especially<\/em> if you think you\u2019re being funny.<\/p>\n

Independently authenticate anything found on a social networking site.<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 Verify, verify, verify if you think you\u2019re about to post something that\u2019s significant news. Cautionary tales abound from journalists who caused unnecessary panic with their tweets or posts. People will believe what you say. Information \u2013 right or wrong \u2013 can spread faster than you can blink your eyes.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Be careful whom you retweet. Do you reasonably trust them? Really?<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Always look at what you link. If you include a link \u2013 or retweet someone else\u2019s link \u2013 look at it first to make sure you trust it and that its association with your name wouldn\u2019t embarrass you or WKU Student Publications.<\/p>\n

If you make a mistake\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n

\u25a0 Acknowledge your error and correct it promptly. Leave the erroneous post up as a show of transparency to your audience.<\/p>\n

\u25a0 Deleting a tweet or Facebook post does not erase it. Everything posted online lives on forever in a cache somewhere. Everything.<\/p>\n

Get it right, get it first, get it out!<\/i><\/h2>\n
<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SOCIAL MEDIA: Best practices For journalists, social media are tools, not toys. Traditional standards for accuracy, ethics and professionalism fully apply online. \u25a0 You\u2019re a journalist 24\/7. \u25a0 There is no distinction between a personal and a professional account. While it\u2019s fine to maintain a separate account for work-related matters, remember that any account that… Read More WKU Student Publications Policy Manual<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"parent":19,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"nosidebar-page.php","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-178","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":451,"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/178\/revisions\/451"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/training.wkustudentpubs.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}