Social Media Plan - Public Policy Notification

Goal

TSBP recognizes that the use of social media can be a powerful communication tool. Thus, TSBP intends to use social media networks to promote agency-related issues as well as pharmacy practice-related issues to its licensees and to the general public. In addition, the social media sites provide the public another opportunity for contacting the agency about customer issues.

Specific goals in the use of social media include:

  • increasing awareness and understanding of TSBP’s value;
  • fostering transparency about agency action;
  • providing additional ways of disseminating important information more quickly and efficiently;
  • directing audience to other resources where additional information can be found; and
  • engaging stakeholders in new ways to encourage two-way communication.

Use of Social Media

Social media presence employed by the TSBP may include, but is not limited to:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Mail Chimp

These social media tools are hosted by third parties, and the use of those sites is governed by the social media providers’ own policies, such as their respective privacy policies and terms of service, and not by TSBP or the State of Texas

The Professional Services Division will be responsible for establishing and maintaining accounts for TSBP’s social media sites with appropriate email addresses, usernames, and passwords. The Director of Professional Services will serve as the Administrator of the sites and, with the approval of the Executive Director, will be responsible for all status updates, new postings, and comments made on behalf of the agency on the social media sites. Any other TSBP employee wanting to post to the TSBP social media sites will be required to obtain prior approval from the Administrator.

General Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to the administration of social media sites created and maintained by TSBP:

  • Comments will be allowed to social media sites from the public with engagement and transparency in mind for the purpose of discussing agency or pharmacy-related matters.
  • Social media sites are monitored and moderated regularly to remove inappropriate content or links, in the discretion of the Administrator, during regular business hours from Monday through Friday.
  • Information posted on any social media site may become public records and subject to an open records request.
  • Any social media site will follow current Texas State Records Retention Schedule and archive all postings and comments appropriately.
  • Any individual posting to a TSBP site should refrain from using personally identifiable information in the communication but rather should contact TSBP privately by email, telephone, or other one-on-one communication.
  • TSBP encourages comments that are on topic. However, if a comment is determined to be impermissible, the Administrator will delete the comment and retain the comment along with the reason for deleting the comment. The impermissible comments will not be edited, but rather deleted. An explanation for removing content is not required but permissible.

Content Guidelines

TSBP recognizes that not all comments will be positive but expects the content on its social media sites to follow professional conventions of polite conversation. The administrator may only remove comments or content that have been determined to be impermissible according to the following guidelines. Such impermissible comments include those that are:

  • vulgar or obscene language, graphic references, and personal attacks;
  • inaccurate or off-subject;
  • threatening, harassing, defamatory, or discriminatory;
  • targeting a protected class;
  • advertising or promoting a commercial product, service, or entity or individual;
  • promoting or endorsing a political campaign;
  • containing confidential or sensitive information;
  • encouraging an illegal or violent activity; or
  • potentially harmful to the public safety.

Comments and opinions expressed by the public, potentially including TSBP employees not authorized to officially post on the sites, are their personal opinions and do not reflect the opinion of the agency.

Linking Policy

Links from websites or social media channels affiliated with any other websites do not constitute or imply agency endorsement of those sites, their content, or products and services associated with those sites.

Although social media tools are not clearly defined as state websites, linking to or from TSBP-related social media channels should adhere to 1 TAC §206.73 and SRRPUB11 from the Department of Information Resources when constructing those links.

Waiver of Liability

TSBP assumes no liability for damage incurred directly or indirectly as a result of errors, omissions, or discrepancies. TSBP is not responsible for any content not posted by the Administrator and does not endorse any website or advertisement linked on the sites. The information on the sites is for information discussion and distribution purposes only. The information contained on the sites does not amend or overrule any applicable statute or administrative rule.

Intellectual Property Rights and Ownership

The TSBP respects the rights of all copyright holders, and therefore, has adopted and implemented a policy that provides for the removal of material that infringes on the rights of copyright holders. If any work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, the aggrieved party should provide the following information required by the Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. 512:

  • A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infranged;
  • Identification of the copyright work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site;
  • Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit TSBP to locate the material;
  • Information reasonably sufficient to permit TSBP to contact the complaining party;
  • A statement that the complaining party has a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

For copyright inquiries, the party should contact the TSBP’s General Counsel at (512) 305-8000.