Social Media

All paid advertising on social media will be approved and placed by Public Information staff. 

Data on the advertising outcomes will be provided to program staff. 

The Public Information staff is responsible for creating and maintaining agency-wide social media profiles. Staff wishing to have content posted on the agency social media profiles should contact Public Information.

Social media tools can enhance public health communication by:

• Increasing the dissemination of information.

• Reaching broader and diverse audiences.

• Providing timely messages.

• Providing tailored messages to targeted audiences .

• Promoting engagement with NKY Health and its programs.

• Promoting transparency.

NKY Health staff who want to create a new social media account, either for a program or a coalition, must contact the Public Information staff. The Public Information staff will work with them to determine the feasibility of using social media and to ensure that the profile follows these guidelines. 

When social media is utilized by programs or for coalitions the NKY Health participates in, a dedicated profile or page must be created by program staff or coalition members. While individual accounts may be used behind the scenes to create program/coalition profiles, the public communication for the pages must be on behalf of the program/coalition—with the exception of the District Director of Health, who may use social networking sites to increase his/her public outreach. 

Staff must not post public information on behalf of the agency using personal social media accounts—this includes commenting (Guidelines for NKY Health employee use of personal social media can be found in section 6.16 of NKY Health's Guide to Personnel Policies.)

Programs wishing to create a social media profile must have the tactic written into the program’s plans, have a strategy for evaluating the outcomes of the social media efforts and must receive approval from their supervisor, Division Director, Public Information staff and the District Director of Health. 

Employees wanting to create a social media profile on behalf of a coalition that NKY Health participates in must receive prior approval from their supervisor, Division Director, Public Information Manager and the District Director of Health. Use of social media must also support the coalition’s broader work and/or strategic plan. 

Finally, employees creating and maintaining social media profiles on behalf of NKY Health must actively participate in initial and on-going training related to the use of social media for businesses and organizations. 

Once the initial social media profile has been created and approved by the Public Information staff, the staff maintaining the profile is responsible for the day-to-day activity related to the profile. 

Profiles should be monitored daily, but must be reviewed at least once per week. Staff must log anytime spent posting on social media as work time—even if it is outside of regular business hours. Supervisors are responsible for ensuring that staff maintain profiles.

The material posted on the profile must be reviewed for spelling/grammar and must contain no typographical errors. The content must appropriately represent the NKY Health’s mission, goals and programming. 

Staff responsible for social networking profiles must ensure all branding and content standards are met, and may be subject to disciplinary action if not met. 

Content on NKY Health social media accounts will be managed by NKY Health employees. Interns and supplemental staff may work on social networking profiles only with close supervision and if materials posted are approved in advance by the intern’s supervisor and verified by the supervisor after posting. When social media outreach is done by an NKY Health employee on behalf of a coalition that NKY Health participates in, the employee is expected to follow the guidelines in this policy and the training provided to him/her. Staff should communicate with the coalition about what he/she is able to post on the coalition’s page. 

NKY Health reserves the right to remove itself from coalition social media profiles should the direction of the content come into conflict with NKY Health's mission, policies or core values. In this case, the profile should also be accessible to a coalition member from another organization to facilitate transfer of responsibilities.

Sharing of photos and/or video from events is encouraged as appropriate. 

A signed Photo Consent form, must be on file with Public Information staff for any individuals identifiable in photos or videos posted on a social media account. 

Posting on social media is seen as an official representation of the agency.  Thus, steps must be taken to ensure that these efforts convey a professional and appropriate message.  Therefore, posts on social media must NEVER:

• Reveal private data or compromise confidentiality.

• Cause public confusion as to the mission, purpose and messaging of NKY Health.

• Negatively impact the reputation and integrity of NKY Health and/or the Northern Kentucky District Board of Health.

• Include requests for  signing petitions.

• Include requests for notifying elected officials.

• Support a political position.

• Support proposed or pending legislation. 

NKY Health employees maintaining social media profiles are responsible for monitoring comments. If employees believe that comments or posts should be hidden or deleted based on the criteria outlined, then s/he must notify his/her immediate supervisor and the Public Information staff, providing the content of the comment/post and the reason for deleting or blocking. 

The Public Information staff will work with appropriate parties to determine if removing the post or comments is appropriate, and that decision is final, meaning that it is not subject to further appeal, grievance, or challenge. Decisions pertaining to removal of negative comments/posts will be documented in writing.  

All NKY Health social media accounts must have the following disclaimer and comment policy posted at all times. Typically, this is done in an “About Us” section:

• Comments that are clearly off-topic or irrelevant to the subject matter of the item being commented upon 
• Promotion or advertisement of a business or commercial interest
• Multiple copies of the same comment, or repetition of substantially similar comments by the same individual or organization 
• Promotion of, or opposition to, any political party, campaign, candidate, or legislations, unless such promotion or opposition is inherently related to discussion of an item posted by NKY Health employees 
• Personally identifiable information of any individual or individuals, including, but not limited to, phone numbers, e-mail and physical addresses, social security numbers, or other identification numbers 
• Threats to any person or organization
• Comments that are vulgar, derogatory, obscene or defamatory; 
• Content that would be considered offensive to a reasonable person, including sexual content and profanity
• Advocacy, promotion or encouragement of discrimination on the basis of race, religion, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender, age, marital status, or  national origin
• Advocacy, promotion, or encouragement of illegal activity 
• False or misleading information, including impersonation of any other individual 
• Information that may tend to compromise the safety or security of the public 
• Content that violates the legal ownership interest of any other party

See section 6.16 of NKY Health's Guide to Personnel Policies.

10/3/2022:

• Updated policy header.

• Updated staff titles. 

• Refined language.