Published: Oct. 29, 2009
Updated: Jan. 24, 2012
The Office of Marketing and Communications has prepared these guidelines to help you establish an official presence for your Duke Medicine entity/department on Facebook.
Please review the Duke Medicine Social Media Policy before initiating a social media presence for an official Duke Medicine entity.
You will need to have a personal Facebook account to create a page for your entity in Facebook.
This document does not address how to conduct yourself online. Please refer to Duke's privacy policies at http://hipaa.duke.edu/.
Ask us a question about using social media on behalf of Duke Medicine.
As official representatives of Duke Medicine, a Facebook page should be created if the goal is to market your entity. Pages are open to all Facebook members and allow for wide participation. Your Duke Medicine entity should not be created as a personal account.
No Duke Medicine Facebook page should have a single admin. This makes sure that you have coverage when someone is on PTO or has left the organization. In cases where you don't have an additional admin, please contact us and we will offer suggestions. Admins must have Facebook accounts.
Departments should maintain a list of individuals with administrative rights. Administrators also should receive their supervisor's approval before creating a Duke Medicine Facebook page.
As an admin, you are committing to upkeep on your Duke Medicine Facebook page. This includes monitoring the page on a daily basis for comments and other interactions from fans. See below for more information on our Comment Policy.
You have a couple of options when you create a page. Your choice affects the type of information you can display.
Local Business or Place: Includes fields for an address, hours, phone, Web site links. Good for specific locations like Duke University Hospital or departments.
You'll need to select a subcategory for your page. The best choices for Duke Medicine entities include:
Company, Organization, or Institution: Another option if your group doesn't fall well into the local business or place category. We've placed Duke Medicine in this category under the subcategory "Non-Profit Organization."
Enter name: Use official full name to help keep your page distinct from other Duke Medicine pages and maintain brand consistency.
This area is where you enter the details about your entity. What you can enter depends on the type of page you created. Go to the Info page and click "Edit Information." Be sure to expand the "Detailed Info" section to add the most information.
The goal of social media forums like Facebook is to encourage and engage in conversations with your fans and followers. We recommend you allow discussions to take place on the page. Please see the DukeMedicine Social Media Response Guidelines for directions on how to appropriate respond to positive and negative posts on your page.
In addition, all official Duke Medicine pages must clearly state our Terms of Use and Comment Policy in the About section. You can find the comment policy in Appendix B of the Duke Medicine Social Media Response Guidelines.
If you receive negative or threatening comments, please alert Risk Management at 919-684-3277. You should remove comments that are not in keeping with the spirit of the page, such as slanderous and obscene posts.
Please select a profile image that meets brand standards. Here are some that you can use if you aren't sure what to pick:
If you have question about whether your image meets Duke Medicine brand standards, contact us or explore the brand guidelines.
Applications add more functionality to your page. By default, many applications are already on. You access Applications by clicking "Edit page" in the right column.
Here are some suggestions related to Applications:
Facebook's greatest value is in the ability for fans to engage in dialogue with us and each other. However, Facebook is not the appropriate place to engage in clinical discussions. If a fan asks for medical advice on Facebook, please direct them to official and secure channels for advice and appointments, such as 888-ASK-DUKE (888-275-3853).
You should not post patient stories or photos if you have not received the appropriate HIPAA authorization signed by the patient and received approval from the DUHS Privacy Office. See the policies Photographing/Videotaping/Audiotaping of Patients and Authorizations for Use and Disclosure of Protected Health Information for information on appropriate authorizations.
You must keep the HIPAA authorizations filed and available for review for any patient for which you are disclosing PHI. Read DUHS's Social Networking Privacy Guidelines.
Before you post an image or other content to a Duke Medicine Facebook page, make sure you have the rights to do so. Many images used in official Duke Medicine publications and Web sites have restrictions on them. If you are unsure if you have the rights to use an image, contact us.
Your page is not available to the Facebook community until you publish it. When you have your settings where you are comfortable with them, publish the page from the "Edit page" screen.
