Social Media Policy

Teal Banner Copy Goes Here (OR DELETE)

Introduction

Social media is a digital technology communication platform used to share content, opinions, insights and media via online text, pictures, videos and links. As a member of a heavily regulated industry, Royal Neighbors has developed safeguards to ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations for the use of social media.

To ensure compliance with changing regulations and requirements, this social media policy will evolve over time. As the Society continues to develop and enhance its understanding of the benefits and limitations of the use of social media, it will refine and expand its policy to cover all of its operations to more fully engage its membership.

Agent and Independent Marketing Organization Use of Social Media

Royal Neighbors will continue to require that all members of its sales force obtain prior written approval for the use of Royal Neighbors of America’s name, mark, or mention of any of its products in any social media forum or other written communication, if the intent is to solicit either directly or indirectly, the agents’ clients or members of the general public to inquire about, purchase, or otherwise promote Royal Neighbors of America or any of its products and/or benefits. In addition, Royal Neighbors will require all of its IMOs and agents to obtain written permission for any distribution to or solicitation or recruitment of agents or potential agents if there is any reference to Royal Neighbors of America, its products or benefits or any comparison of Royal Neighbors of America with any of its competitors. Royal Neighbors reserves the right to monitor and control the unauthorized use of its name, mark, or the name or description of any of its products and to take steps to prevent any unauthorized or misleading use of the name, any associated marks, or products. Nothing in this policy is intended to replace or amend the requirements for agents to comply with Royal Neighbors’ agent advertising requirements.

Social Media and Chapters

Royal Neighbors recognizes the benefits of utilizing social media to help the chapters interact with their members. Royal Neighbors will provide the Royal Neighbors Chapter Leaders private group on Facebook. In order to manage and control information about the Royal Neighbors identity and activities, chapters and individual chapter members may not create or use any other social media outlet to discuss Royal Neighbors or any of its activities, including, but not limited to, Facebook, Pinterest, X (formerly Twitter), etc. Royal Neighbors will provide guidelines to its chapter leaders on the use of the Facebook which may be updated from time to time at Royal Neighbors’ discretion. Royal Neighbors reserves the right to monitor and control content on the Chapter Leaders Facebook page. All postings must comply with applicable copyright and intellectual property laws and be either original material from the person posting the material, or have the permission of the author or owner of the material before posting.Royal Neighbors reserves the right to use any photos that you or your chapter members post on the Chapter Leaders page and private group on Facebook in Royal Neighbors communications and marketing materials. Material posted should be related to chapter events or activities or be otherwise of interest to the chapter members. Due to regulations and other legal restrictions, the postings may not relate or refer to any products offered by Royal Neighbors. .

General Guidelines

By making use of Royal Neighbors social media pages, you agree to these guidelines. Royal Neighbors may update these guidelines at any time, in its sole discretion, without notice.

In order to create a community that is lively and welcoming, we ask our social media community to abide by the following guidelines:
- Respect. Please refrain from engaging in personal attacks, posting inflammatory language, or antagonizing other community participants. Hateful or discriminatory comments regarding race, ethnicity, religion, gender, disability, sexual orientation, or political beliefs will not be tolerated. We do not allow obscene, racial, abusive or hateful comments, or any other comments intended to defame anyone or any organization.
- Responsibility. Content that you post on any of Royal Neighbors’ social media sites is your own, even when promoting issues and positions that are in line with the work of Royal Neighbors. We are not responsible in any way for the content of other community member posts, or any personal actions you may take because of the posts. Additionally, do not post intellectual property of others (i.e. copyrighted materials). By posting a photo or content to our social media sites, you represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions necessary to share the photo or content in this manner.
- Focus. Conversations can stray, sometimes to interesting and stimulating places, but we ask that you stay on topic. When you participate in a specific thread of comments, please keep your comments relevant to the conversation. Promoting your own agenda and/or changing the topic doesn't help the community.
- Prohibited. Social media participants may not post messages that are threatening, violent, offensive, abusive, harassing, intimidating, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane, indecent, illegal, or unlawful. Spam is not allowed; we define spam as posting the same message over and over or posts related to commercial promotion. Trolls are not allowed; we define trolls as someone who creates conflict on social media by posting messages that are particularly controversial or inflammatory with the intent of provoking an emotional (often negative) response from other users.
- Our name and likeness. The logo and name of Royal Neighbors is owned by Royal Neighbors. Community participants are not allowed to use our logo or likeness. However, we encourage our members to like and share our posts with their friends and family.

Your participation is also subject to the terms and policies of the social media sites themselves:

Royal Neighbors reserves the right to report unlawful behavior, conduct, and vandalism of our social media communities to specific social media platforms, to Internet service provider(s) or to law enforcement. In addition, we retain sole discretion to reject or hide posts or comments, delete existing posts or comments, or block users from further participation at any time and without prior notice for any violation of these General Guidelines. A community member may be banned immediately for a violation of any of the above General Guidelines and any information they posted may be deleted.

Should a member of the community post a complaint or grievance on one of our social media pages, we reserve the right to address this grievance with the participant directly. We ask that any grievance that has been resolved be so noted by the complainant on the original post.

Royal Neighbors of America’s social media pages are intended for your convenience, only, and to provide general information. We are not providing investment or tax advice and are not recommending or offering any particular insurance product for purchase. Links to information and articles are provided for convenience and general information. When you click on a link to another website, you will be leaving Royal Neighbors of America’s social media page. Unless otherwise indicated, Royal Neighbors does not endorse, authorize or sponsor the linked information.