Norfolk County Twitter Terms of Use

Introduction

Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ platform which allows users to post and exchange short messages (up to 140 characters in length) and converse publicly with other users via a mobile phone or web browser. Twitter allows users to share links to online information, publish photographs and share other media such as video. With the exception of direct messages exchanged between users, all messages (or ‘tweets’) are public and visible to all for review, comment and sharing.

Availability

Norfolk County updates and monitors its Twitter accounts during office hours, 8:30am – 4:30pm Monday to Friday. Twitter may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for lack of service due to Twitter downtime.

Following

Norfolk County does not automatically follow organizations or individuals who follow it.

The County may follow relevant organizations including government agencies, organizations in the Health sector and other parties where there is a clear link in communicating and receiving information. The department will generally not follow individuals unless they are known in a professional capacity and satisfy the business rule above. Being followed by the department does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Unfollowing

As part of account maintenance and monitoring, the County shall regularly review accounts it is following. This may result in unfollowing accounts.

Lists

In the interest of organizing our followers into meaningful categories and providing the public with useful industry and topic information, the department may create publicly viewable lists of organizations following its twitter accounts. Inclusion on lists does not imply endorsement of any kind. Should an organization not wish to be included on a list created by the department, it may request to be removed from the list by sending a direct message to the relevant department twitter account.

Privacy

Norfolk County does not capture or record the contact details of parties following its Twitter accounts. Any information identified or deemed confidential or private is treated in accordance with Norfolk County’s Policy and Twitter’s Privacy Policy.

@Replies and Direct Messages

Norfolk County welcomes feedback and ideas from its followers. Each account reads all @replies and Direct Messages and ensures that any emerging themes or helpful suggestions are forwarded to the relevant people in the department. Where the department is not able to reply individually to messages received via Twitter and where common topics and requests exist, Norfolk County may issue a general notification to all parties. The usual ways of contacting the department for official correspondence are detailed in the “Contact Us” section of the Norfolk County website.

Hashtags (#)

It is a convention among Twitter users to distinguish content using semantic tags (keywords), preceded by a # sign. This enables users to search and filter information based on keywords and share information more meaningfully. Hashtags also allow users to quickly identify ‘trending’ topics (as displayed on the Twitter.com homepage).

The department will use hashtags when:

• Providing live coverage of events (live-tweeting), and
• Providing emergency communications through appropriately authorized staff. In this event it is likely that a common hashtag will already have been established and we would follow suit.

Re-tweeting

The department actively seeks opportunities to re-tweet content that contributes to the dissemination and exchange of useful information about Norfolk County and related topics.