Web

Best practices for personal use

Be transparent

• Be honest about your identity.
• Keep in mind that you could be perceived as a spokesperson for Virginia Tech just because you are an employee.
• Never use Virginia Tech brand identities on personal sites or imply that personal accounts are university accounts.

Be accurate

• Cite sources when possible and use the “share” function to relay information exactly as it was posted by someone else.
• If you make an error, correct it quickly and visibly by posting a retraction.

Be mindful

• Social media is never private. Even if your privacy settings restrict your comments from being shared, they can be copied and pasted to unintended viewers.
• Archival systems can save information even if you delete a post and search engines can turn up posts open to “everyone” years after the publication date.
• If you question whether you should post something, then you probably shouldn’t.
• Respect U.S. copyright, trademark, fair use, and disclosure laws.
• Use stringent privacy settings and check them regularly. Social networking applications sometimes change privacy defaults without notifying users.

Be respectful

• Recognize the culture and etiquette unique to social networking.
• Refrain from sharing confidential information online.
• Respect how you present yourself in social media.