• SOPs for Drinking Water
• SOPs for Food Hygiene
• SOP for use of Social Media
• SOPs for Workplace Hygiene
• SOPs for Visiting Faculties

STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES (SOP) 

FOR USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA  

1. PURPOSE:

Social media has become a powerful tool for communication and propagation that have a significant impact on an organization and professional reputation. As its uses obviate the discrimination between personal voice and organizational voice, University of Chitral adopts the policy elucidated in the ensuing paragraphs to help protect personal and professional reputations while participating in social media. The main aims of this SOP are: -

1. 1. • To streamline guidelines for use of social media for educational and constructive purposes and to prevent misuse of social media.
      • Guide employees and students to use social media while effectively complying with online ethics and adherence to University’s organizational rules and regulations.
      • To make the employees and students cautious about ethical principles and legal compliance when they use social media.
      • To caution them about discrimination and defamation online, and how to demonstrate appropriate behavior on social networks.

2. SCOPE

This standard operating procedure applies to employees and students of the University of Chitral till they have the privilege of lien with the University as employee or student.

3. RESPONSIBILITIES

All heads of teaching departments and administrative divisions will ensure adherence to these guidelines by their students and subordinates as the case may be.

4. PROCEDURE/GUIDELINES

Both in professional and academic roles, the employees and students need to follow the same behavioral standards online as they would in real life. The same laws, professional expectations, and guidelines for interacting with co-workers, teachers, students, supporting staff and general public apply online as in the real world. Employees and students are liable for anything they post on social media – those who violate the University policy regarding social media do so at the risk of disciplinary action.

1. 1. • Precautionary Measures for Social Media (SM) Sites:
        • Protect confidential and personal information – do not post confidential or personal information, such as NIC numbers, cell numbers, address and photographs of others (especially female faculty & students) without their permission.
        • The employees and students must follow the code of conduct of the University while posting on social media.
        • Social networking sites are not appropriate forums to engage in differences of opinion with respect to professional or organizational issues or discussing the performance or competence of employees.
        • All employees and students are prohibited from posting defamatory posts both in photographic or writing form against anyone within the University or outside the University; specifically, they should be very cautious in commenting on heads/employees of other agencies/organizations.
        • Political and sectarian posts are strictly prohibited, all employees and students must abstain from posting derogatory and defamatory posts or comments against religious leaders of any sect, leaders of political parties, failing which disciplinary action will be initiated against the concerned employees/students.
        • Respect copyright and fair use when posting, be mindful of the copyright and intellectual property right of others.
        • Do not use University logos for endorsements o Do not use the University or program logos or any other University images or iconography on personal social media sites.
        • Do not use the University’s name to promote any product, idea which does not pertain to the University.
        • Respect University’s time and property, UoCh computers and time on the job are reserved for University-related business only.
        • The University reserves the right to monitor social networking sites and to disable the use of such sites during working hours.

1. 1. • Appreciable Practices Social Media (SM) Sites:
        • Think twice before posting:-
          • Privacy does not exist in the world of social media.
          • Consider what could happen if a post becomes widely known and how that may reflect both on the initiator of the post and the University.
          • Be aware that search engines can turn up posts years after they are created, and comments can be copied and saved.
        • Make endeavors for accuracy:-
          • Get the facts straight before posting them on social media.
          • Review content for grammatical and spelling errors, especially if posting on behalf of the University.
        • Be respectful:-
          • Understand that content contributed to a social media site could encourage comments or discussion of opposing ideas.
          • Responses should be considered carefully in light of how they would reflect on the creator/sharer and/or the University and its organizational voice.
          • Be careful in with respect to your tone and selection of words, for words have different meanings in different tones/contexts.
        • Be mindful of your audience:-
          • Be aware that a presence in the social media world is or can easily be made available to the public at large.
          • This includes University’s stakeholders such as prospective employees/students and community.
          • Consider this before publishing to ensure that your post will not alienate, harm, or provoke any of these groups.
        • Identify your views as your own:-
          • If you identify yourself as a University of Chitral staff member/student on your personal site, it should be clear that the views expressed are not necessarily those of the University.
        • Photography:-
          • Photographs posted on social media sites can easily be appropriated by visitors.
          • Consider adding a watermark to protect your intellectual property.
          • Photographs of other staff/students and classmates must not be published without prior consent of the persons appearing in such photographs.
        • Organizational posts:-
          • Only the authorized persons may post on behalf of the University.
          • Before posting it may be approved from concerned authority at the appropriate level.
          • The accuracy of the information must be ensured while posting on behalf of the organization.
          • The deputed staff should monitor the official pages for derogatory comments and should remove it instantly.
          • Check and recheck the sentences to avoid syntactic errors and semantic ambiguity.

5. MONITORING:

The Heads of departments/divisions will monitor the activities of their staff/students with the help of nominated staff members.

6. CORRECTIVE ACTION:

Any employee/student found or established to be violating the rules, will be dealt with under the E&D rules, for the time being in force.

7. AMENDMENTS:

These SOPs will be strictly followed by all concerned and any changes, modifications, and improvement herein will be recorded/updated in the revision history given below: -

Rev. No.	Suggested Revision in brief	Revising Authority	Effective Date	Remarks (attach the revision document)