Social Media

Would you like to start an HU-associated social media account?

Then please read the following guidelines carefully. If you decide to open an account, please register with the Humboldt-Universit?t social media team via email.

Do you already manage an HU-associated social media account?

Then please inform yourself about the general guidelines and information on managing social media profiles at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin.

Before you set up a social media account, please consider whether this is really necessary and ask yourself the following questions:

1. Who do you want to reach with the content? What target group are you doing this for and what information and topics do you want to reach them with?
2. Can the information be profitably disseminated to the target group in other ways - via your own website or the university's central website, the university's central social media channels, print products, etc.?
3. Which channel best serves your purpose, your target group and your information?
4. Do you have enough content to fill your account regularly and continuously?
5. Are there enough human and financial resources available in the long term to cover the costs of maintaining the accounts? Do responsibilities need to be clarified, authorisations obtained and the time required confirmed?
6. Before you set up your accounts, please contact the Humboldt-Universit?t social media team for advice.

We ask institutes and project teams to consider whether they really need their own account or whether the content to be shared can also be shared effectively via Humboldt-Universit?t's central social media accounts.

The Humboldt-Universit?t social media team will be happy to advise and support you in these considerations as well as in planning and implementation.

Contact the social media team

• If you as an employee communicate on social media on behalf of the university, you should do so continuously. Maintaining and updating the relevant social media channels is just as important as regularly checking feedback.
• Your institution's social media accounts should be permanently available under the same internet address and name.
• If responsibilities are transferred to other/new colleagues, please ensure that administration rights are passed on. Former employees should not retain any administration or access rights. Passwords may need to be changed.

Social media is not a legal vacuum. You should familiarise yourself with the relevant legal regulations, especially in connection with photos, videos and comments. Copyright infringements can result in financial penalties; comments with offensive, defamatory, anti-constitutional, anti-Semitic, racist, sexist, violence-glorifying or pornographic content can have consequences under disciplinary law, labour law and criminal law.

Please observe the following legal regulations:

• Imprint obligation (§ 5 TMG and § 55 RStV) for print products and online publications. This also applies to Facebook pages, Instagram accounts and similar. According to the Federal Court of Justice, the legal notice must be easily recognisable, directly accessible and permanently available.
• Telemedia Act: Information on the imprint obligation, information on the liability of the owner of the respective social media presence (so-called service provider) and on data protection.
• Right of expression: Regulation of the permissibility of (public) statements. Freedom of expression under Article 5 of the German Basic Law (GG) is very far-reaching. However, statements of fact that do not correspond to the truth, insults and so-called abusive criticism are not permitted.
• Federal Data Protection Act: Regulations on the collection, storage and processing of personal data.
• Art Copyright Act: Regulations on the right to one's own image. With a few specific exceptions (images of public gatherings, persons of contemporary history or images in which the persons are only accessories), the consent of the person is required before publication.
• Copyright Act: Protection of texts, images, audio and video content (so-called works). In most cases, the publication or distribution of such works is only permitted with the consent of the respective copyright holder. Please always make sure that the author is named in the image description if you depict works. Special feature for Facebook: Please note that you grant Facebook worldwide usage rights when uploading images, videos, etc., see Facebook's terms of use. You should therefore clarify whether the rights of use of the images or videos you upload permit such use.
• Trade Mark Act: Regulations on the protection of names and logos.
• Legal regulations also arise from the employment relationship. In particular, the duty of confidentiality / official secrecy should be mentioned here.

Please always observe the general terms and conditions, terms of use and guidelines of the provider of the selected social media service. The most common elements include

1. Provisions on limitations of liability of the portal and user liability.
2. The provider grants licences for user-generated content - this means that the user may not have any influence on the use of the data provided and the profile data generated through use.
3. The terms and conditions of use of many providers contain specific requirements for the organisation of competitions or other (prize) competitions on the respective portal. These should be observed in order to avoid problems with the provider (warning or even blocking of the social media presence).
4. There is no obligation for the provider to maintain its offer permanently.

Do not publish any images that could harm the people depicted in them. For portraits, you need the consent of the persons depicted; in the case of children, the consent of a parent or guardian must be provided

PLEASE COMPLETE HERE:

(Templates for declarations of consent....)

• The Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin's central social media team is responsible for the content of centralised social media sites.
• The decentralised institutions or organisational units themselves are responsible for maintaining the content of decentralised social media presences. The information is published in the name of the decentralised institution that manages the respective account.
• Central and decentralised social media presences belong to Humboldt-Universit?t and may only be set up, designed, passed on or deleted with the consent of the responsible supervisor.
• It is recommended that several staff members have administration rights or login data to ensure that they can be replaced in their absence. This is particularly important for any crisis communication. Countermeasures can also be taken if an administrator's account is hacked.
• Humboldt-Universit?t's central social media team must be informed via email about the planned establishment of a decentralised presence in order to clarify possible synergies and the use of corporate design elements and trademarked terms (name, logo and layout).
• If the supervising colleagues leave the university, administration rights must be surrendered and passwords should be changed.

Contact the social media team

The university's social media presence is designed to enable direct communication with users. In doing so, we emphasise respectful and friendly interaction. We see the following rules of behaviour as the basis for communication:

• The tone is factual, polite and respectful.
• Insults, verbal abuse and provocation on our part will not be tolerated.
• Posts that are discriminatory, anti-constitutional, demagogic, illegal, pornographic, extremist, anti-Semitic, racist, vulgar, denigrating or inappropriate in any other way, as well as advertising, spam and commercial content from third parties will be deleted without comment.
• Confidential content such as addresses, telephone numbers and student numbers will not be published on our social media presence at any time.
• As employees of Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin, we provide information about the social media presence to the best of our knowledge and belief, but this information is not legally binding.
• Staff members of HU Berlin who are active on social media are required to be loyal to Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin.
• When publishing images and texts via Humboldt-Universit?t's social media accounts, special attention is paid to compliance with copyright and personal rights and the right to one's own image. We also expect this from our users.

Please also note the "Guidelines and Service Agreement for Respectful Coexistence at Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin".

Contact the social media team

• Ensure transparency about who maintains the content in your programmes. This means that you should identify yourself as an employee of your respective organisation and use your real name. Leave no doubt as to the function in which you are communicating.
• Accordingly, do not operate an anonymous social media presence as part of the university. Do not use so-called "fake accounts".
• Do not comment on posts anonymously or using a pseudonym.
• Social media communication usually happens quickly and immediately. Mistakes happen. Own up to your mistakes. Do not delete erroneous or critical posts without comment, but admit mistakes and correct incorrect information promptly.
• Take all questions and concerns seriously, even if many questions look as if they have been asked without care or a great desire for knowledge. Do the research work for the enquirer - this is precisely what is required of you on the social web.
• Forward difficult questions to the Humboldt-Universit?t social media team, who are responsible for this within the university.

Contact the social media team

Even though interaction with users is what makes social media so appealing, it can lead to critical situations. You are welcome to contact the university's social media team with any questions regarding problematic posts or comments. You can use these guidelines as an initial guide:

• You should delete illegal content (e.g. offences against copyright or the right to one's own image, insults) immediately. The owner of the social media presence can be held liable for illegal content published there by others if they do not delete it after demonstrably becoming aware of it. Legally, there is initially no obligation to monitor or proactively control the comments or publications of third parties on one's own social media presence. However, if a person reports an infringement to the owner of a social media presence, the latter becomes aware of it. The infringement should then be deleted as soon as possible in accordance with the so-called "notice-and-takedown" principle.
• Advertising and dubious calls should also be deleted immediately. Depending on the individual case, it may make sense to inform the author of the reason for the deletion in order to prevent repetition.
• The best way to react to provocations, abuse, accusations or insults is to withdraw attention (starve the author). Depending on the intensity and frequency of the posts, you can also refer to the netiquette, delete the content and report or block the author.
• It is advisable to take a screenshot before deleting a post so that you can document your actions if necessary.
• You should not delete critical posts, but reply to them objectively if necessary or leave them uncommented.
• You should clear up misunderstandings as quickly as possible and not hesitate to correct errors in content.
• Forward difficult questions to the Humboldt-Universit?t social media team, who are responsible for this within the university.

Contact the social media team

In case of emergency and crisis situations, we ask that only official information from Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin's central social media accounts and the central website be shared. Sharing other unconfirmed information related to the given emergency is not to be shared. This leads to misinformation and confusion among users. Please check whether already planned posts etc. should be postponed in view of the emergency.

Other users, external but also accounts of student bodies, student initiatives etc. pursue different goals, may represent different opinions etc. than the central social media accounts of Humboldt-Universit?t. Before sharing posts, comments etc., please carefully consider whether the content is correct and appropriate for HU-associated accounts.

If you would like to set up a social media account, please use the following design guidelines as a guide and observe the Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin's corporate design.

Logo

The Humboldt-Universit?t zu Berlin logo may only be used as a profile picture by the university's central social media accounts. The Humboldt-Universit?t's trademark (logo) is also protected and may therefore not be modified under any circumstances. For the use of the logo in the header image, see below.

Profile picture

Please use the HU fonts HU-Scala (licensed font) and/or D-Din (licence-free; download on the Typography subpage) for the design of your profile picture. Alternatively, you can also use Georgia and/or Arial. Colours should correspond to the corporate design of the HU (see colours to avoid in the corporate design manual, link below).

Header image

After consultation with the Department of Communication, Marketing and Event Management, organisational units of Humboldt-Universit?t can use the HU word/image mark (logo and/or word mark/lettering) in the header to identify them as belonging to HU (see contact below).

Profile name

In the profile name and in the info/bio of the account, institutions should indicate their affiliation to Humboldt-Universit?t. The name should also be understandable for users outside the HU. Please also note the character limit.

Example:

• Profile name: Institution_HU Berlin
• Info/Bio : Official account of the institution HU/the @Humboldt-Universit?t/Humboldt-Universit?t/HU/HU Berlin

Further information, materials and the Humboldt-Universit?t corporate design manual can be found under Corporate Design.

If you have any questions about the design or use of the logo, please contact the Marketing Department: marketing? Please insert an @ at this point ?hu-berlin? Please insert a period at this pointde.

If you have any further questions, please contact the social media team: socialmedia? Please insert an @ at this point ?hu-berlin? Please insert a period at this pointde.