The official corporate "City of Barrie" social media channels are managed by Marketing and Communications, making a genuine effort to provide timely information and the best possible customer service to residents.
Other official channels managed by Marketing and Communications include Invest Barrie and Creative Barrie. Barrie Fire & Emergency Service, City of Barrie Theatres, and Small Business Centre are managed by departmental staff respectively.
Acceptable Content
Content, comments, or links containing any of the following will not be acknowledged (or, in some cases, permitted) on any City of Barrie social media outlets:
- Sarcastic and/or disrespectful comments;
- Comments not directly related to the particular post or article;
- Promotion of business services, products or events other than significant sponsors, affiliations, or business partnerships;
- Promotion of political candidates;
- Promotion of illegal activity;
- Information that may compromise the safety or security of the public or public systems;
- Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party.
Response Time
The City's social media channels are monitored during business hours: Monday–Friday, 8:30am–4:30pm. Marketing and Communications staff aim to address all appropriate comments (deemed so as per the above lists) within 8 business hours.
Please note that this turnaround time is impacted by staff availability and resources across the corporation, and there will be instances when a response may take more time. In addition, there are some situations that are best dealt directly with specific departmental staff, and responses may therefore provide relevant department contact information.
Health & Safety
In accordance with Occupational Health and Safety Act, and in protecting City employees from harm and harassment in the workplace, the City does not condone the following on social media:
- Abusive, profane, derogatory, or offensive comments;
- Slanderous or defamatory remarks, obscene language or sexual content;
- Information that may compromise the safety or security of City employees;
- Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, creed, colour, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation.
Should comments that meet any of the four criteria above be directed at any City-managed social media channel via social media, the following steps will be taken:
Step 1: The City's account will request removal (or remove directly if possible) the offensive comment/post/tweet, advising the offender that they will be blocked if the offensive content is not removed.
Step 2: If the City's request does not result in the removal of the offensive content, the City will block the offending user. The City of Barrie reserves the right to block/ban specific users from the City's official social media channels whose activities do not comply with the Social Media Policy. For more information please contact socialmedia@barrie.ca.
Note: The City may seek the assistance of the relevant social networking service in flagging and/or blocking offensive comments and users.