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Social Media Policy

BID #: N/A

ISSUED: 1/26/2017

DUE: TBD

VALUE: TBD

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Executive Summary

This document outlines the Social Media Policy for Robbinsville Township, adopted via Resolution 2017-15 on January 26, 2017. The policy establishes guidelines for the use of social media sites by the Township to convey information to residents, employees, and visitors. It covers aspects such as content moderation, acceptable use, oversight, records retention, and terms of use. The policy applies to all municipal agencies and departments, ensuring ethical conduct and professional decorum in online communications.

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--- Document: Social Media Policy Document ---
Township of Robbinsville 
 
Resolution 2017-54    
County of Mercer 
 
 
RESOLUTION ADOPTING SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY 
 
 
 
WHEREAS, given today’s technology and the use of social media sites for government 
purposes, it is in the best interest that the Social Media Policy, attached hereto and made a part 
hereof be adopted. 
 
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Township Council of the Township 
of Robbinsville, County of Mercer, that the attached policy is hereby approved. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I certify this to be a true copy of a Resolution adopted by the Township Council of the Township 
of Robbinsville at a meeting held on January 26, 2017. 
 
 
_____________________________ 
     Michele Seigfried, Municipal Clerk  


 
Robbinsville Township 
Public Relations and Social Media Policy 
 
(Adopted via Township Council Resolution 2017-15 on January 26, 2017) 
 
Purpose: 
 
This policy sets forth guidelines for the establishment and use by Robbinsville Township of all 
social media sites as a means of conveying township-related information to its residents, 
employees and visitors. The Township has an over-riding interest and expectation in deciding 
what is “spoken” on behalf of the Township on its social media sites.  
For purposes of this policy, “social media” is understood to be content created by individuals, 
using accessible, expandable, and upgradable publishing technologies, through and on the 
Internet. Examples of social media include Facebook, blogs, Instagram, MySpace, RSS, 
YouTube, Second Life, Twitter, LinkedIn, SnapChat, Delicious, Tumblr and Flicker. For 
purposes of this policy, “comments” include information, articles and pictures. It also includes 
other communication mediums created by the Township and the Robbinsville Township Office 
of Emergency Management (OEM), including but not limited to Nixle and reverse 911.  
 
Scope:  
 
This policy shall apply to all municipal agencies and departments, as well as any affiliated 
government or non-government agency, official and/or commission or Council permitted by the 
Township to post on Robbinsville Township social media sites. 
 
General Policy: 
 
1. These guidelines must be displayed to users or made available by hyperlink.  
2. The Robbinsville Township website at www.robbinsville-twp.org and/or 
www.robbinsville.net will remain the primary and official internet presence for information. 
3. Township social media sites and this policy are subject to all applicable federal and NJ laws 
and regulations, as well as applicable record-retention requirements.  
4. Employees representing the Township via its social media sites must conduct themselves at all 
times as a representative of the Township and in accordance with all of its policies.  


5. This Social Media Policy may be revised at any time by the Township Business Administrator 
and/or Township Council. 
6. Items submitted for use in the Township’s weekly Newsfeed must be approved in advance by 
the Business Administrator and the Office of Communications and Public Information. 
 
Public Relations & Information: 
 
 Although the Township does not copyright its content, proper attribution for any content 
reproduced in any public forum or news publication must be given to the Township, 
unless otherwise waived by the Office of Communications and Public Information. 
 Following any Grand Opening announcement for a local business, unless there is a 
change of ownership, location change, a substantial remodeling or restructuring of the 
business, the Township cannot directly promote that business. This is done to keep a level 
playing field among all competing businesses. The lone exception to this guideline is if 
the business or sponsored endeavor is used to promote a non-profit or non-political 
fundraising/charity event. 
 It is the responsibility of the Robbinsville School District to secure all necessary parental 
permissions before submitting photographs of children for use on any of the Township’s 
media portals. Since the school district and the Township are two separate and distinct 
entities, the Business Administrator and the Office of Communications and Public 
Information reserve the right to disqualify any photographs containing unauthorized 
images of children, district employees, board members or other officials in order to 
prevent preferential treatment to any one person or group. 
 
Social Media: 
 
The sole purpose of social media sites used by the Township is to present information 
concerning Robbinsville Township and its government to its residents, businesses and visitors. 
Please note these are moderated online discussion sites and a limited public forum. The 
Township’s social media sites are not intended for comments that do not relate to the purpose or 
topic posted. User comments should directly relate to the comments posted or displayed by the 
Township on this site, and the site is not meant for comments that do not relate directly to the 
purpose or topic established by the Township. General inquiries, comments, communications and 
service requests should be submitted directly to the Township. The information on the 
Township’s social media sites does not constitute the official record of any agency or entity 
within the Township. To request official records, you must contact the Township Clerk at 609-
259-3600 ext. 105 or visit www.robbinsville-twp.org. 
 
Comments, media, or other information posted to or displayed on the sites are subject to 
monitoring and review at any time. Users of the site(s) should have no expectation of privacy 
with respect to any such comments, media or other information. Robbinsville Township 
disclaims all responsibility and/or liability for any materials the Township deems inappropriate 
that cannot be removed in an expeditious and otherwise timely manner. 
 
Certain categories of speech, including obscenity and direct threats, are not entitled to full 
protection under the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. Commercial speech is 


also subject to different treatment under the law, and can be excluded from a government page. 
Privacy laws can be invoked to justify the removal or personally identifiable information such as 
phone numbers, home addresses, and social security numbers. 
 
Moderation of Third Party Content: 
 
Robbinsville Township social media sites serve as a limited public forum and all content 
published is subject to monitoring. Although Robbinsville Township will not edit or re-write 
comments or posts in any forum, it reserves the right to reject, block, delete (if possible) or hide 
user-generated submissions when the content contains: 
 
1. Vulgar, profane, racist, violent or obscene language or rhetoric; 
2. Defamatory or disparaging content; 
3. Conduct in violation of any federal, state or local law; 
4. Sexual content or links to sexual content; 
5. False, misleading or deceptive information or media; 
6. Personal attacks or threatening or harassing activity of any kind; 
7. Clearly off-topic comments, and/or comments not related to the original topic, including 
random or unintelligible comments; 
8. Spam or links to other sites or any nature; 
9. Comments or content that constitutes, promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on 
the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, genetics, status with 
regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or intellectual disability or sexual 
orientation, or any other classification protected by applicable federal, state, or local law 
or regulation; 
10. Content that will compromise public safety or advocate or encourage illegal activity; 
11. Commerce solicitations (ads) that promote particular services, commercial transactions, 
products, or political organization; 
12. Opposition or promotion of any person campaigning for election to a political office; 
13. Non-public information concerning securities, or that constitutes insider-trading or 
forwarding looking statements; 
14. Infringement on intellectual property, or legal ownership interest of any other party; 
15. Personally identifiable or protected medical (HIPAA) or personal information such as 
home addresses, phone numbers, social security numbers or driver’s license numbers; 
16. Information that may compromise the safety, security or proceedings of the public or 
public systems, or any criminal or civil investigations; 
17. Comments that do not directly relate to the information or comments posted or displayed 
by Robbinsville Township on its site(s). 
The foregoing is an incomplete list and Robbinsville Township reserves the right to ban 
or block any user in violation of the above rules. Users also must comply with all Terms 
of Use established by their Internet Service Providers (ISP). 
 
 
 
 


Oversight and Enforcement: 
 
Employees representing Robbinsville Township through social media outlets or participating in 
social media features on agency websites must maintain a high level of ethical conduct and 
professional decorum. Failure to do so is grounds for revoking the privilege to participate in 
agency social media sites, blogs, or other social media features. Information must be presented 
following professional standards for good grammar, spelling, brevity, clarity and accuracy, and 
avoid jargon, obscure terminology, or acronyms. Township employees recognize that the content 
and messages they post on social media websites are public and may be cited as official 
Township statements. Social media should not be used to circumvent other agency 
communication policies, including news media policy requirements. 
Township employees may not publish information on agency social media sites that includes: 
 
• Confidential information 
• Copyright violations 
• Profanity, racist, sexist, or derogatory content or comments 
• Partisan political views 
• Commercial endorsements or SPAM 
 
Any social media site created by a Township employee, Township official and/or Township 
entity and/or commission, and/or Township official remains the property of the Township, 
including all followers, ‘Likes’ and ‘Friends’ generated by the site. If the person who created the 
site leaves the employment of the Township, or leaves a Township commission, they must 
relinquish everything related to the site, including user names, passwords and/or access codes or 
information. 
 
Records Retention: 
 
Social media sites contain communications sent to or received by Robbinsville Township and its 
employees, and such communications are therefore public records subject to (applicable public 
records statute). These retention requirements apply regardless of the form of the record (e.g. 
digital text, photos, audio, and video). The Department maintaining a site shall preserve records 
pursuant to a relevant records retention schedule for the required retention period in a format that 
preserves the integrity of the original record and is easily accessible. Furthermore, retention of 
social media records shall fulfill the following requirements: 
 
• Social media records are captured in a continuous, automated fashion throughout the day to 
minimize a potential loss of data due to deletion and/or changes on the social networking site. 
• Social media records are maintained in an authentic format (i.e. ideally the native technical 
format provided by the social network, such as XML or JSON) along with complete metadata. 
• Social media records are archived in a system that preserves the context of communications, 
including conversation threads and rich media, to ensure completeness and availability of 
relevant information when records are accessed. 
• Social media records are indexed based on specific criteria such as date, content type, and 
keywords to ensure that records can be quickly located and produced in an appropriate format for 
distribution (e.g. PDF). 


• Each employee who administers one or more social networking sites on behalf of the Township 
has self-service, read-only access to search and produce relevant social media records to fulfill 
public information and legal discovery requests as needed. 
 
Agency utilizes an automated archiving solution provided by ArchiveSocial to comply with 
applicable public records law and fulfill the above record retention requirements. The Township 
archive is available at: archivesocial.com. 
 
 
Terms of Use Disclosure: 
 
Robbinsville Township government makes every effort to provide accurate and complete 
information on its website. The information contained herein is not official, nor in any way shall 
it be deemed to constitute legal notice where such legal notice is required by law. The 
information contained in this site is provided as a service and convenience to people needing 
information about Robbinsville Township government. Portions of the information on the site 
may be incorrect or not current. Robbinsville Township government, its officers, employees or 
agents shall not be liable for damages or losses of any kind arising out of or in connection with 
the use or performance of information, including but not limited to damages or losses caused by 
reliance upon the accuracy or timeliness of any such information, or damages incurred from the 
viewing, distributing, or copying of those materials. 
 
This policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time. 
 
 
Robbinsville Township 
2298 Route 33 
Robbinsville, NJ 08691 
(609) 259-3600

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