Staying Informed and Involved Online
To highlight our commitment to transparency in government, the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) has several web-based tools for outreach, education, and information. To contact MassCEC via email or phone, please visit our Staff Directory. These tools are not intended to replace the channels currently in place for press inquiries or public records requests (press inquiries should be directed to Erika McCarthy (emccarthy@masscec.com) and public records requests should be submitted in accordance with the instructions here). Rather, these tools are meant to enhance our ability to educate, empower, and inform the residents of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Below are some of the many ways we encourage people to stay informed and engaged, including: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
Please note that Records Retention Law of the Commonwealth requires MassCEC to preserve records created or received by a state employee. Pursuant to this retention requirement, comments posted or messages received via an official state agency page on a third-party website (such as an official agency profile on a micro-blog such as Twitter) will be treated as state governmental records and may be permanently archived. Information that you submit voluntarily through social media sites associated with this agency where such information is publicly available, including your name, city or town, and the substance of anything that you post may be disseminated further by being posted online at this website or be publicly discussed by a member of the organization.
Your Third-Party Social Media Accounts
Certain pages on MassCEC’s website may allow you to interact with your own third-party social media accounts on an affirmative basis. For example, from a post on a page, you may be able to click a button to “Like” a post on your Facebook or Instagram account. Clicking such a third-party social media button on MassCEC’s website may prompt you to log into the relevant third-party social media provider if you are not already logged in and should work in the same manner as if you logged in to the third-party social media provider directly (e.g., it may set one or more persistent cookies as a result of logging in). If you are already logged in, or once you are logged in, to the third-party social media provider, the button will facilitate your interaction with that third party social media provider. Moreover, when you add content from MassCEC’s website to your third-party social media account, it is possible that your public account information can be associated with the MassCEC website content that you are posting. For example, if you retweet a MassCEC tweet (more information on the MassCEC Twitter™ account is detailed in this policy below), someone could use Twitter to search for keyword in the original tweet and, potentially, see your public account information.
In addition to your interaction with third party social media providers on an affirmative basis, we may use widgets that interact on a limited basis (e.g., by accessing a preexisting persistent cookie) with your third-party social media provider solely by virtue of your viewing a web page on MassCEC’s website. We will try to note in our privacy policy for MassCEC’s website when we are using such a third-party social media widget. For example, if we use a Facebook widget to display “Likes,” the widget may check with Facebook when you access the page to see if you have already “Liked” the page. If you have, the “Like” button may present you with the option of un-“liking” the post. Similarly, if we use a Twitter widget to display a Twitter feed with a “Follow” option, the widget may check with Twitter to determine if are already “following” that feed and present you with the option to un-“follow” the feed. In these instances, it is technically possible for the third-party social media provider to track your movements across the MassCEC website.
These third-party social media accounts will be governed by their own separate website policies to which you likely agreed when you signed up. These website policies usually include a privacy policy and terms of service. These policies apply to your use of the third-party social media account.
Twitter is a free social networking platform that allows users to send and read other users' updates of up to 280 characters in length. While people use Twitter in many different ways for both personal and professional reasons, we are using Twitter at MassCEC as another way to keep residents, businesses, and stakeholders informed about what we're doing.
You can follow MassCEC at twitter.com/MassCEC
Please note:
- The account is maintained and monitored by MassCEC staff.
- We follow people back who follow us. If you'd rather we not, send us a direct message and we'll be happy to comply.
- While we try to respond to questions on Twitter as appropriate, if you have a question, concern or comment, you may still want to contact MassCEC by other means as identified above.
- While MassCEC staff tweet directly and update Twitter as much as possible, please recognize that we also monitor and maintain many other channels of feedback, outreach and engagement, both in-person and online.
- Unless you protect your updates, messages you post on Twitter are public records and are publicly available. MassCEC will not respond via Twitter to press inquiries or public records requests. For instructions on appropriate methods for contacting MassCEC, please refer to instructions above.
Twitter Comment Policy
We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. The following comments will be removed if posted:
- Profanity and vulgar or abusive language;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Sensitive information (for example, information that could compromise public safety);
- Offensive terms that target specific groups based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion; or
- Any other comments found by MassCEC staff to be offensive, inappropriate, or illegal.
For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain “on-topic.” This means that comments must relate to the topic that is being discussed within the particular social media site. MassCEC will try to respond to resident questions, complaints, or other matters when an answer is readily available, or refer people to the proper contact.
Please also note that Twitter is governed by Twitter’s separate website policies, including its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. These policies apply to your use of Twitter.
LinkedIn is a business and employment oriented social networking platform that is primarily used for professional networking and career development. While LinkedIn can be used in different ways, MassCEC uses it to keep residents informed about job openings at MassCEC, funding opportunities, MassCEC’s activities, and other clean energy industry news.
You can follow MassCEC at linkedin.com/company/MassCEC
Please note:
- The account is maintained and monitored by MassCEC staff.
- We follow people back who follow us. If you'd rather we not, send us a direct message and we'll be happy to comply.
- While we try to respond to questions on LinkedIn as appropriate, if you have a question, concern or comment, you may still want to contact MassCEC by other means as identified above.
- While MassCEC staff post directly and update LinkedIn as much as possible, please recognize that we also monitor and maintain many other channels of feedback, outreach and engagement, both in-person and online.
- Unless you protect your updates, messages you post on LinkedIn are public records and are publicly available.
- MassCEC will not respond via LinkedIn to press inquiries or public records requests. For instructions on appropriate methods for contacting MassCEC, please refer to instructions above.
LinkedIn Comment Policy
We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. The following comments will be removed if posted:
- Profanity and vulgar or abusive language;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Sensitive information (for example, information that could compromise public safety);
- Offensive terms that target specific groups based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion; or
- Any other comments found by MassCEC staff to be offensive, inappropriate, or illegal.
For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain “on-topic.” This means that comments must relate to the topic that is being discussed within the particular social media site. MassCEC will try to respond to resident questions, complaints, or other matters when an answer is readily available, or refer people to the proper contact.
Please also note that LinkedIn is governed by LinkedIn’s separate website policies, including its Privacy Policy and User Agreement. These policies apply to your use of LinkedIn.
To view the MassCEC Facebook page, visit https://www.facebook.com/MassCEC/. While people use Facebook in many different ways for both personal and professional reasons, as a matter of policy, MassCEC’s use of Facebook is intended as a means to provide announcements and updates on current events or notices to any other users who elect to “Like” our Facebook page and to engage with residents. The account is maintained and monitored by MassCEC staff.
Facebook is one of the many means we're using to connect residents with their government. We'll review and update Facebook as much as possible as we monitor and maintain other channels of feedback. Unless you protect your updates, messages, or comments you post to MassCEC’s Facebook page are public records and are publicly available.
MassCEC will not respond via Facebook to press inquiries or public records requests. For instructions on appropriate methods for contacting MassCEC, please refer to instructions above.
Facebook Comment Policy
We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. The following comments will be removed if posted:
- Profanity and vulgar or abusive language;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Sensitive information (for example, information that could compromise public safety);
- Offensive terms that target specific groups based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion; or
- Any other comments found by MassCEC staff to be offensive, inappropriate, or illegal.
For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain “on-topic.” This means that comments must relate to the topic that is being discussed within the particular social media site. MassCEC will try to respond to resident questions, complaints, or other matters when an answer is readily available, or refer people to the proper contact.
Please also note that Facebook is governed by Facebook's separate website policies, including its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. These policies apply to your use of Facebook.
To both increase transparency and keep residents informed on what we’re doing, MassCEC publishes photo content to our Instagram account at https://www.instagram.com/MassCEC/.
MassCEC is responsible solely for the content uploaded to the official Instagram account, and not for any related videos or linked photos linked from other users, nor for any advertising or other content contained on the Instagram application or website.
If you use any of our photos for another work, such as a story, blog post, printing, etc., we require that you provide credit by stating at or near the photo, "Photo courtesy of MassCEC."
MassCEC will not respond via Instagram to press inquiries or public records requests. For instructions on appropriate methods for contacting MassCEC, please refer to instructions above.
Instagram Comment Policy
We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. The following comments will be removed if posted:
- Profanity and vulgar or abusive language;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Sensitive information (for example, information that could compromise public safety);
- Offensive terms that target specific groups based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion; or
- Any other comments found by MassCEC staff to be offensive, inappropriate, or illegal.
For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain “on-topic.” This means that comments must relate to the topic that is being discussed within the particular social media site. MassCEC will try to respond to resident questions, complaints, or other matters when an answer is readily available, or refer people to the proper contact.
Also note that this photo share is hosted by Instagram and is governed by Instagram’s separate website policies, including its Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. These policies apply to your use of Instagram.
YouTube
To both increase transparency and save money on video hosting and streaming, we publish all of our video content to our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/MassCEC1 and embed the videos back on our site.
While we encourage you to subscribe to our videos, share them, comment on them (please note our YouTube Comment Policy), and embed them in your own sites. We often include additional context and information on our website that you might find helpful. Take some time, search around, and let us know if you can't find what you're looking for.
Also note that this video share is hosted by YouTube and is governed by YouTube's separate website policies, including its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. These policies apply to your use of YouTube.
MassCEC will not respond via YouTube to press inquiries or public records requests. For instructions on appropriate methods for contacting MassCEC, please refer to instructions above.
YouTube Comment Policy
We expect conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect. We will not post comments that include:
- Profanity and vulgar or abusive language;
- Threats of physical or bodily harm;
- Sensitive information (for example, information that could compromise public safety);
- Offensive terms that target specific groups based on ethnicity, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or religion; or
- Any other comments found by MassCEC staff to be offensive, inappropriate, or illegal.
For the benefit of robust discussion, we ask that comments remain "on-topic." This means that comments will be posted only as they relate to the topic of the video. We will not post comments that include:
- Off-topic comments;
- Questions from the media; or
- Identical comments by the same user (please do not submit multiple comments) or multiple users (a group of people sending identical messages or one person submitting under different aliases). In the case of identical comments, we will approve the first submission.
Please also note that YouTube is governed by YouTube’s separate website policies, including its Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. These policies apply to your use of YouTube.
For questions, please contact Erika McCarthy, Senior Director of Marketing and Communications , at emccarthy@masscec.com or 617-315-9391.