Hull City Council social media use and guidelines
The Council's main corporate accounts are -
- Twitter - @Hullccnews
- Facebook - Hull City Council
- Instagram - Hull City Council
- LinkedIn - Hull City Council
These accounts are monitored by Hull City Council's digital communications team and the Customer Experience team.
Why we use social media
Social media is one of the most popular and preferred methods of communication.
Therefore, it is important that we have a strong presence on social media channels to improve communications and promote engagement and interaction with residents and customers.
How we use social media and what we ask people to respect when interacting with our channels
We monitor and update our accounts between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.
When appropriate, we endeavour to respond as soon as we can to -
- posts
- messages
- comments
We want our social media channels to be -
- inclusive and welcoming
- a place where people feel comfortable taking part in conversations with -
- us
- the wider city
- other users
If you'd like to contact us via social media, we ask that you -
- be civil
- respectful
- relevant
Do not post messages that are -
- unlawful
- libellous
- harassing
- defamatory
- abusive
- threatening
- harmful
- obscene
- profane
- sexually oriented
- racially offensive
Do not -
- use foul or aggressive language
- publicise personal information, such as contact details for -
- yourself
- anyone else
- impersonate someone else
We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break this guideline.
Persistently breaking these guidelines can lead to you being blocked from our accounts.
Following other accounts and sharing information
When we follow other accounts it -
- is based on relevance and usefulness to the council
- doesn't mean we endorse any -
- individual
- organisation
- comments
We will only share messages/information we think will be helpful or interesting to our followers.
Social media and the pre-election period
The pre-election period is the term used to describe the period between the time an election is announced and the date the election is held.
During this time, there are extra restrictions placed on the council on the publicity it can issue.
Publicity, including social media, should not deal with controversial issues such as -
- reporting views
- proposals
- recommendations
in such a way that identifies them with -
- individual members
- groups of members
During this period, the council is still permitted to promote appropriate services, providing that the information is factual and not political in nature regarding -
- events
- information
- responses to comments
Therefore, during the pre-election period, we will continue to publish content and information on social media, but may have to remove responses if they are overtly party political.
All social media platforms run by Hull City Council are subject to the rules of the pre-election period. This is in accordance with The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity (Local Government Act 1986).
