Social media at UNIL: Basic principles

1. Before you create a presence on social media, ask yourself: what is the purpose of this presence? What information are you going to share? Who are you targeting? What tool are you going to use? What priority will you give it? How will it interact with other forms of communication? What resources do you have? Who will be responsible for it?
2. Establish a communications strategy. Consult this document to guide your thinking.
3. Notify your line manager and Unicom (socialmedia@unil.ch) that you intend to set up a social media account on behalf of a UNIL unit.
4. Find out which other UNIL units have an official presence on social media (view list).
5. Use the official logos to indicate clearly that you have an official presence, and choose a relevant name. The logos can be found here. For Facebook: the word UNIL must appear in the name and page description (for example, ‘UNIL Faculty of Biology and Medicine’).
6. Set a consistent tone that is relevant to your target audience, for example, colloquial or formal. You need to stick to this in the long term. It is important to rephrase and avoid simply duplicating information that is already on the website.
7. Test the profile or page for a while, in private. You are strongly advised not to go public with a social media presence that is still under development.
8. Once the presence is public, connect with other UNIL units with a presence on the same network. Share their information whenever possible and provided it is clearly relevant.
9. Initially, prepare your content in advance, using a calendar, to maintain a lively presence.
10. Respond to questions and comments. Remember that you represent the institution and that social media never forget. Never publish images for which you do not own the rights, or pictures of recognisable people without their consent, especially minors. If a dispute arises, respond calmly and accept justified criticism. The community often cleans up its own act.
11. Set up a statistical tool to measure the impact of social media on your target audience. It is likely that your strategy will need to be adjusted in line with the successes and failures you encounter.
12. Exchange best practices and experiences with other social media actors at UNIL as part of the OURS working group. Document successful and unsuccessful interactions with screenshots and concrete examples.

Now you just need to get started!

This policy applies to the social media presence of UNIL's institutional units (Faculties, departments, sections, services, laboratories, etc.) and not to associations or individual members of the UNIL community.

Goal

The presence of UNIL units on social media is intended to show that the institution is alive, rich, open to dialogue and attentive to the needs of its community and all those who have an interest in it.

Openness

UNIL units are free to have an active presence on social media.

Clear tagging

The presence of UNIL units on social media must be clearly tagged as official.

Responsibility

People communicating on behalf of their unit on social media are responsible for the content published, which must not cause harm to the institution. Content originating from other accounts, shared as part of a repost, for example, must also not damage the institution. Posts that contain illegal, slanderous, defamatory, insulting, tendentious, immoral, racist, sexist or pornographic content or that incite violence are prohibited. The interests and opinions of the persons responsible for the content must not be expressed under the identity of the unit they represent.

Gearing to target audiences

The target audiences for any social media presence must be defined in advance. The purpose of social media is not to reproduce UNIL's organisation chart or its website architecture but to communicate with the internal and external community.

Non-exclusivity

No content related to UNIL’s missions should be found solely on social media: institutional websites remain the primary point of reference.

Reciprocity

Various presences on social media should interact, collaborate and support each other, in order to raise awareness of the UNIL brand.

A living presence

Any social media presence must be updated regularly with new content, including outside semesters.

Controversial issues

Social media are designed for debate. There needs to be a model, such as the decision tree, in place for responding to controversial issues.

UNIL's values and academic practice are based on the exchange of ideas and debate.

The University of Lausanne Charter, which UNIL members undertake to respect, "guarantees its members respect for fundamental human rights and gives them full freedom of conscience and belief, while respecting the rules of community life".

In addition, UNIL carries out its missions in accordance with fundamental academic and ethical principles that result in an objective exposition of different strands of thought, as well as the use of rigorous critical methods in the discussion of scientific, social, political, philosophical or religious opinions  (LUL art.3 ). These principles apply to all members of the community (staff and students) in their dealings with other members and with the institution, whether in the real world or online.

The public engagement of scientists on social media is discussed in the report of the Working Group on Research and Engagement (p. 72 and following). 

Read the interview in the December 2022 issue of L'Uniscope.

Unacceptable behaviours

There is a growing trend on social media and mobile apps towards aggressive behaviour. It may also come from disaffected members of the UNIL community and be directed against other members of the community, other individuals or groups. This poses a significant risk to the cohesion and reputation of the UNIL community.

Whether or not messages are posted from the campus or using UNIL's IT infrastructure is irrelevant, as they acquire a public dimension and often a very high profile on social media.

If you have been or are a victim or witness of harassment, discrimination or violence on social media in the context of your work or studies at UNIL, the following services are here to help: Help | UNIL

In the most serious cases, such behaviour may amount to defamation, slander or insult (art. 173, 174 and 177 of the Swiss Criminal Code), threats (art. 180 of the Swiss Criminal Code) or harassment (art. 28 of the Swiss Civil Code). It may also breach art. 261 bis of the Swiss Criminal Code on incitement to hatred or discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity or religion. In such cases, victims may lodge a criminal or civil complaint.

If it considers that UNIL or the cohesion of the university community is in danger, the UNIL Rectorate may take measures up to and including administrative sanctions against its staff or disciplinary measures against students.

Rectorate Directive 0.4 concerns the prevention and management of conflicts and attacks on individuals within the university community.

Changes to comments

The University of Lausanne encourages users of social media to interact with each other respectfully and in accordance with the UNIL Charter as well as the standards and principles in force within it.

Remember that your name and photo appear in every comment you make on UNIL's social media sites and that they are therefore visible to everyone.

The University of Lausanne is not responsible for any comments or photos posted by any individual on UNIL's social media accounts. It reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to delete any comments or photos from its social media accounts that run counter to the standards or principles that govern it or that it deems inappropriate. Comments of a commercial nature or suspected of being of a commercial nature with the aim of selling a product or service not directly provided by the University of Lausanne that appear on UNIL's social media accounts without its express consent will be deleted. The same will apply, in particular, to any content that is unlawful, libellous, defamatory, abusive, tendentious, immoral, racist, sexist or pornographic, or which incites violence.

The University of Lausanne also reserves the right to remove any links to other pages on social media or, in particular, to other websites that it deems inappropriate in accordance with the aforementioned principles and current legislation.

For other matters, the University of Lausanne refers you to the conditions of use of the social media platforms concerned.