Social Media Platform Policy: Do you have one?

Social Media Platform Policy: Do you have one? 

by Robert Tornabene

So you are your Organizations Social Media Manager? So have you thought through how you will address content posted to one of your Social Media Platforms? Do you have criteria? Is there a procedure or practice in place to address issues such as sales, promotions, solicitations or inappropriate content? How do you make that policy available to your follows, fans, and posters to you platforms? These are all questions that all need to be addressed in order to have a well rounded and safe approach to your organizations Social Media Platforms.

Any Organization utilizing Social Media should have clear guidelines laid out and available to the public. These guidelines would address issues that followers, likers, or users to your Social Media Platforms would need to abide by. They provide standards of conduct, which in the event an issues were to arise for specific types of behavior you can address them.

You first should define what your Organizations Social Media Policy defines, what is acceptable, what is not. A Social Media Manager should plan to routinely post a link to their Social Media Policy. These posts should be across all your Social Media Platforms.

What your Social Media policy should have.

1. It should identify your Organization, as well as your current and active Social Media Platforms.
2. It should define who to contact regarding your Social Media Platforms. Examples would include your Public Relations/Public Information Officer, Social Media Manager or Freedom of Information Officer.  
3. The Social Media Policy should include key policy issues, Terms of Use, Prohibited Content and Disclaimer. 
4. A small section should also be about links and validity of links. However, it is inherint on the Social Media Manager to check the link to determine if the connected content is not a link 

Terms of Use (TOU)

Terms of Use are those areas which define purpose, platform, contact and type of information to be disseminated.

• This should include identifying the the purpose of the of your Social Media Platforms. For Law Enforcement, Emergency Services, Local Governments, and Non Governmental Organizations the primary function will be as a communication too. 
• The TOU may include terms such as raising awareness and information for the general public in and around the community you serve. 
• TOU should indicate what types of information you plan on putting out on your Social Media Platforms. These might include public safety messages, news releases, photos, videos, Amber Alerts, road closures, power outages and other emergency announcements. 
• TOU should also indicate that all of the organizations Social Media Platforms shall comply with all applicable organization policies and procedures. 

Prohibited Content:

Prohibited Content defines that all posts are monitored and subject to removal from the site when they violate the defined prohibited content.  Prohibited content can include but is not limited to:

• Profane language or content
• Content that promotes, fosters, or perpetuates discrimination on the basis of race, religion, gender, marital status, familial status, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, source of income, or other protected status under applicable law
• Inappropriate sexual content or links to inappropriate sexual content
• Solicitations of commerce
• Conduct or encouragement of illegal activity
• Private and confidential information
• Information that may tend to compromise the safety and security of the public or public systems
• Content that violates a legal ownership interest of any other party
• Comments in support of or opposition to political campaigns or ballot measures
• disclaims any and all responsibility and liability for any materials or content that the is deemed inappropriate for posting. The organization shall make efforts to remove said materials in an expeditious or otherwise timely manner, but disclaims liability if circumstances exist that prevent or hinder efforts to remove said materials.

Disclaimer: 

A disclaimer is a defensive measure, used generally with the purpose of protection from unwanted

claims or liability.

• The Organization does not endorse nor otherwise support or sponsor any advertising that may be posted by the Social Media host (Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube) on the organization site. Facebook Page, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube account are privately operated sites and the privacy terms of each respective site apply.

Link Re-liability & Accuracy:

Link Re-liability simply means that the link connects to it's designated location. Link accuracy means that the link actually connects to the identified location, and it not a spoofed link. An example would be a link that would re-direct a user to an inappropriate internet location.

• The organization does not guarantee the reliability or accuracy of any third-party links.

Content Removal Notice:

This is a simple statement that the organization reserves final say on any comment or interaction that violates the Social Media Policy.

Considerations

Regardless of what layout your provide or what type of format you decide to present to your users, it should be consistent, publicly available and simple understand.

In the event there is a policy violation, present to link to the person, or handle that has violated your policy. Be sure to screen capture to violation and save it before deleting it from your feed or
timeline.

Freedom of Information Act requirements in your specific state may require your organization to retain information that is posted across your Social Media Platforms. You should consult with your organizations legal counsel along with your home states Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Records Retention Act for clarification.

Conclusion

By following these simple guidelines organizations can reduce the impact of inappropriate content, links or posts and improve the quality of content to your fan base across all of your Social Media Platforms.

Failure to have a defined policy can result in issues such as allegations of "transparency" failures, concealment and mistrust. In addition, without defined parameters as a primer for both the individual user and the agency it opens the agency up to liability issues.

Happy posting!