TOWN OF FARMINGTON
SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY GUIDELINES

Introduction
The Town of Farmington recognizes the important role that technology plays in communication today and has determined social media to be a viable platform to enhance communication with its residents and neighboring communities.

Purpose
This document shall serve as a guideline for the Town of Farmington as its officials begin to use social media platforms, including but not limited to Facebook, as a way to more efficiently communicate meetings, events and matters of public interest related to the town and its residents.

This policy is only a guideline and the Town of Farmington reserves the right to modify document content at any time. The most current version of this policy will be available on the official town website, www.townoffarmingtonlax.org. This website will remain the primary means of online communication and any posts or announcements should link back to the website when possible.

Usage Rights
The Town Clerk, Chairmen and Supervisors will be granted administrative rights to the Town of Farmington Facebook page along with other social media accounts as they become active.

Each social media platform account shall remain sole property of the Town of Farmington.  Administrators are authorized to create and post content but possess no ownership rights to the account or its content. Upon termination of service to the town, officials shall surrender all administrative access rights for these online accounts.

Content Policy
The purpose of all Town of Farmington social media platforms is to present matters of public interest including information regarding town residents, businesses and charitable organizations.

Public comments are permissible, however, the Town of Farmington reserves the right, but assumes no obligation, to reply to, review, approve, deny or remove any content.

All town communication through social media shall be professional in nature. Postings or comments containing any of the following are not allowed

  • Non-topical content;
  • Vulgar or abusive language or content;
  • Threatening, obscene or defamatory statements;
  • Sexual content or links to sexual content;
  • Content that promotes, fosters or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;
  • Suggestions or encouragement of illegal activity;
  • Unsolicited proposals or other business ideas or inquiries;
  • Content that Infringes on copyrights or trademarks; or
  • Content that would be restricted by local, state, or federal law.
  • Content promoting political purposes, a political candidate, or party

Wisconsin open records laws and policies do apply to social media content and therefore content must be able to be managed, stored and retrieved to comply with these laws. Any content identified as not suitable may be hidden or taken off the platform. Records of the dismissed content shall be recorded along with a reason as to why they were removed.

Comments expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Town of Farmington or its administrators. No responsibility or liability shall be assumed by the town for any content posted on this site.

updated: 09/2019