The purpose of these policies is to established certain standards of communications and controls on services throughout Washoe County. These policies will provide a framework for any and every department within the county to understand how to best communicate with our residents to protect the brand and mitigate inadvertent liability issues.
Brand Management Policy
The Washoe County Brand Guidelines were developed with one goal in mind: to create a shared brand identity that reflects the level of excellence and integrity that’s embodied in all of our Washoe County services and communication.
Every employee at Washoe County is a brand ambassador. The Washoe County brand is not just our logo, signage, or website. Every action — whether visual, written or spoken — is a form of branding. This policy reflects Washoe County’s visual branding guidelines and standards. Understanding of, and compliance with, our county branding standards will ensure that all of our staff are working together to enhance the reputation of Washoe County.
USING THE BRAND: Our Washoe County’s Style Guide and Standards is a document that provides guidance in designing internal and external documents. Materials produced for external audiences that should be branded include (but are not limited to) the following: Marketing and outreach materials, agendas, banners, brochures, business cards, direct mail, email signatures, envelopes, flyers, letterhead, nametags, newsletters, online platforms, policies and guidelines, posters, presentations (Power Point), public exhibits (such as recruitment and health fairs), reports, signage (to include temporary and permanent internal, external indoor/outdoor signage) social media, tablecloths, webpages.
APPROVALS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: High level external communications such as public facing printed documents (annual reports, brochures, billboards or print ads) should include a date to reflect the time the document was approved.
Those same high-level communications will need additional approval from the Department Head, County Manager and/or the Communications Director. Internally used routine items such as agendas, meeting notes or more casual presentations commonly do not need further review and approval before distribution. If you have questions, please check with you supervisor or the Communications Division for clarification.
Examples of departmental logo use and specifications can be found on the Washoe County intranet – Inside Washoe. If an appropriate logo for a document is not found in these resources, please contact the Digital Communications Supervisor to determine if a customized logo may be appropriate.
THE WASHOE COUNTY LOGO: Washoe County’s identity must be presented in a professional and unified way on all departmental publications to staff, stakeholders, and the public. Materials branded with our logo will be viewed as trustworthy and representative of Washoe County’s mission. The Washoe County Logo guidelines found in the Washoe County’s Style Guide and Standards offers guidance for using the Washoe County logo, associated colors, and approved typefaces in an effort to establish and maintain a more consistent and uniform brand identity. Every time a staff member creates a document, sends an email, or publishes a message, there is an opportunity to include and promote our logo—our identity/brand. The Washoe County logo should be displayed prominently on the front cover of all printed material and on the face of all documents produced by Washoe County.
Departments directed by elected officials are authorized to use their own logos, though are encouraged to incorporate the Washoe County logo within their departmental brand or as a separate companion logo in all public facing materials whenever possible to encourage continuity in image and public understanding.
Protected area of the logo: The protected area of the Washoe County logo is 1/8” around all sides of the logo. Surrounding elements must never be placed less than this distance. This rule applies to both rectangular and square logos.
Correct use of Logo: The Washoe County logo can be produced in blue, white or black. In some cases, authorized grey and gold may be used – though will need to be pre-approved through the Communications Division.
Either the square or rectangular logos featured in the Washoe County’s Style Guide and Standards are acceptable for use. The logo is available in different file formats with varying image resolution. Image resolution describes the detail an image holds.
Approved vendors can request high resolution logo files from the Communications Division. If you are currently working with an approved vendor, please have your vendor contact the Communications Division to obtain those files.
Unpermitted use: Our Washoe County logo should never be altered in any way – not stretched, distorted, rearranged, skewed, tilted, or color changed from the color standards outlined in the Washoe County’s Style Guide and Standards. Do not use another tagline, symbols or words with the Washoe County logo. The logo may be placed with other partner logos on signs and documents but should be proportional in size to the other logos. All components of the logo must be legible when used.
Continuity of Outreach: The Communications Division must be informed of all external communications and media engagements in order to properly support and ensure continuity of content, media strategy, distribution, consistency, timing, delivery method(s) and frequency of messaging. Employees who need assistance with information to the public should contact their Department Head or the Communications Division to go review the scope of the project. Important details that should be known at the time of engagement include the who (program and target audience), what (details of the event, program, initiative or issue), when (dates and when to release to the public) and why (the importance) of the messaging. The Communications Division has the discretion to choose distribution methods, which include press release, cmail, social media and other outlets. In order to have the most options to distribute, it is recommended that all press release requests are issued at least two weeks before the information needs to be sent. All crisis communications will be given top priority and may cause delay in sending out other messaging.
Print Management Policy
The purpose of the policy is to establish controls for managed print services throughout Washoe County.
Responsibilities: The Communications Division, through Digital Communications, is responsible for print management services on behalf of Washoe County and serves as the liaison between our Washoe County departments and outside professional print vendors to provide the best possible outcomes for our departments, while providing due diligence and responsible government practices to our taxpaying residents.
Communications print management mission is to provide the most effective, efficient, and economical print solution for Washoe County.
Process: With the exclusion of daily necessary copier/desktop printer use, departmental staff will route all print requests exclusively through Digital Communications via electronic print requisition(s).
Digital Communications invites all approved local and regional northern Nevada print and reprographic vendors to participate in a cooperative of print partners who submit estimates for departmental print jobs within Washoe County. The open competitive platform ensures best pricing, quality assurance, timeline, and branding compliance. Additionally, the process allows for increased departmental staff productivity, access to print partner best practices, more advanced technology, and partner accountability. The design of this process provides fair and equitable opportunities for all print organizations, ensuring our departments, through Digital Communications, have provided due diligence in their selection process.
All transactions for the purchase of print services for the county shall also be handled with the assistance of the contracts and purchasing administrator’s office and in accordance with applicable county purchasing polices and applicable purchasing laws, including the local government purchasing act (NRS chapter 332).
Branding: Departments must comply with the Washoe County Branding Policy when submitting documents for print.
Document Quality Control: In the event a document is received by Digital Communications that does not meet Washoe County’s quality assurance and branding standards, we will collaborate with that Department to make necessary revisions.
While Digital Communications strives to proofread and edit all materials for accuracy, the department is ultimately responsible for the content of materials submitted for duplication. Other than branding compliance, Digital Communications will not change any content of the material submitted to be duplicated without consulting with the Department and/or providing proof review.
WEBSITE CONTENT POLICY
The Washoe County website is managed by a collaborative effort from multiple departments and content editors. As owners of the website’s content, staff members from each department are responsible for creating, updating, and removing content on their respective page(s).
In order to ensure our website features high-quality content while also meeting accessibility, code and brand standards we have created the following guidelines to provide the best possible user experience.
Timely Updates: The Washoe County website is a living document. All content editors are responsible for updating their department content in a timely manner. As a content editor, when going through the section(s) of the site you have been given access to, make sure to check that all dates and content are up to date and not displaying old, outdated or incorrect information. Content that is date and time specific must be updated or removed after the date has expired, unless the content is necessary for record keeping or documentation purposes.
Content: Content editors have access to make changes to their assigned sections. If you need assistance with creating or changing content, please submit a request with the Communications Division providing as much detail as possible. If there is a technical error within the site, please submit a helpdesk ticket with details and screenshots of the error.
All content should be relevant to Washoe County and the services it provides the citizens. Include all necessary information about a subject. If some important information is undetermined or unknown, state all known facts and provide a timeframe during which the other information will be added if possible. Omit all non-relevant content. Do not recreate content that already exists on another page; instead, link to the relevant page. This will help avoid conflicting and outdated information.
Styles and Appearance: Consistent look, feel and function improves usability and presents Washoe County as a unified organization. Customizing the look and feel outside of the standards set by the communications division leads to inconsistencies in the site’s structure and appearance. Do not use code to manipulate or change styling or structure of pages.
Copyright: All web and social media content must comply with Copyright laws. Text, images, and videos that do not meet these requirements must be deleted immediately. Only original content created and or owned by Washoe County may be displayed on the website.
In cases where copyrighted material is posted with the permission of the content owner, that permission must be attained in writing and be available for verification if needed. Stock photos may be used with approval of communications division.
Washoe County expects its employees to be responsible consumers of copyrighted materials. We also encourage employees to educate their peers on copyright compliance. If any employee witnesses a potential copyright infringement, please bring the matter to the attention the communications division. Employees who illegally duplicate copyrighted works may be subject to disciplinary action.
Linking: When possible, please link information to a corresponding page within the County Website. If you must link to an outside source, the target must be set to open in a new window or _blank.
Washoe County is a government website and does not allow links to for profit businesses or advertisements of any kind, unless the business is a vendor of Washoe County with a contractual agreement to provide services. All other links must be restricted to other government agencies and non-profit organizations that are registered with a 501c3.
SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY
Washoe County strives to present a consistent brand identity across all public-facing platforms and accounts. This policy serves to establish controls for county-owned social media accounts. This is to protect the county’s brand, reputation, security, and liability. It is also to protect employees from liability, as social media is so often tied to personal/individual accounts and management.
Washoe County maintains an Acceptable Use Policy for internet and intranet access and a Code of Conduct, both of which apply to county employees using county technology and hardware while on duty, and employees are expected to adhere to applicable use policy and code of conduct provisions when using county social media.
Privacy: Do not post images of people that includes personal identifiable information (PII). This includes home or work addresses, schools, phone numbers. Identify yourself as a county employee and tell the subject(s) what the image will be used for, and receive verbal or written consent.
Attribution: If a photo is taken on county time by a county employee, or is a stock photo, no photo credit is to be given.
Social Media Action Plan: It is the preference of Washoe County that all county-maintained social media accounts be managed by the Communications Division. There may be cases where departments request to launch their own social media accounts, which must first be approved by the Communications Division. For all new social media accounts, prospective administrators must submit a Social Media Action Plan (SMAP) to the Communications Division. Contact the Communications Division for instructions on what needs to be included in the SMAP.
The SMAP will illustrate how, or in what respect, there is a clear benefit of specific stakeholder outreach that is not already met by other county-sponsored social media accounts. It will identify the long-term sustained ability of the prospective account administrator to create high-quality content and manage the day-to-day engagement as outlined in these procedures, and how the department, board, or commission has developed an effective strategy to maintain the county-sponsored social media account, including who is able to access and post, removal of inappropriate content, ability to provide data for data requests, retention, and destruction of data.
Existing Social Media Accounts Departments using social media accounts created prior to the publication of this handbook shall work with the Communications Division to update the SMAP on record.
Process: The Washoe County Communications Division must approve all social media display names and account URLs. An acceptable name and URL must clearly and concisely identify the department, division or program. Accounts shall not be named in a way that it might be confused with any other county department or a non-county entity.
Profile images must reflect the official department or county logo to clearly identify the account to users and maintain consistent branding. Cover photos must be relevant to the department’s work, comply with all relevant county policies and follow current best practices. Images must be of sufficient resolution and size to not appear pixelated or grainy when displayed. All cover photos and profile photos must adhere to the county’s branding guidelines.
Communications Division (including Washoe311) must be given full administrative access/permissions.
In the interests of promoting participation by and interaction with the public in county matters of public concern, comments may be posted to county social media pages in accordance with the policies and limitations of the social media platform hosts. Comments may not violate the law or the county’s applicable policies on harassment and discrimination.
In recognition of applicable public records laws and retention schedules, the county endeavors to maintain records of use of its social media pages by contracting for records retention services from outside vendors. These records are also maintained in accordance with applicable law even after de-activation of an account.
VIDEO POLICY
Washoe County is solely responsible for the content published on WCTV and the county’s main YouTube channel. WCTV is a government-access channel and is a dedicated outreach channel to provide quality government programming to increase transparency and engagement betweeen the County and its citizens. Our content consists of public meetings, television shows, short-form video content, bulletin boards and other government-oriented programming. The official video archive is the County’s Video on Demand library on the County’s website. YouTube is provided for convenience and accessibility but should not be considered a comprehensive official record-keeping resource.
The Communications Division has a contract with a video vendor and oversees all content created for WCTV and YouTube.