Setting the Boundaries: Developing Social Media

Policies for Your Organization

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A one-stop-shop for giving.

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Today’s Presenter

Kirstin Beardsley

Communications and Marketing Manager

CanadaHelps

Who Are You?

What are we so afraid of?

“Engaging in social media requires a shift in the way companies view themselves and their relationships with [stakeholders].”

• Social Fish & Croydon Consulting Social Media, Risk and Policies for Associations

Everyone has a megaphone

•What are your biggest fears?

GETTING STARTED

Don’t start with a desire to CONTROL

• Your starting point should be to maximize the potential of social media for your organization.

Start with a desire to use the tools effectively

Do you need a social media policy?

• Zappos: Be real and use your best judgment.

Benefits of a social media policy • Setting expectations

• Educating staff and volunteers

• Protecting your brand

• Avoiding legal liability

• Clarifying the reasons you use social media

Before you begin:

Review existing policies

Before you begin: Develop your social media strategy

Before you begin: Clarify roles & responsibilities

Before you begin: Identify the risks for your organization

•What are the biggest risks for your organization?

WHAT A SOCIAL MEDIA

POLICY IS NOT

A social media policy is not a guarantee against mistakes

A static document that never gets reviewed

A staff management tool

WHAT A GOOD SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY IS

An opportunity to educate and create dialogue with staff.

A chance to review your social media strategy.

A balance between RULES and GUIDELINES for success.

•What are you hoping a social media policy will accomplish within your organization?

GETTING STARTED

Elements of a Successful Social Media Policy

• Clarity

– Avoid legalese

– Use bullet points

• Light, Casual Tone

– Avoid punitive language

– Focus on the DOs, not the DON’Ts

• Practical

– Keep it short and easy to implement

– Should be intuitive to follow (i.e. people shouldn’t have to find the policy before posting, or they won’t use it)

Anatomy of a Social Media Policy

• What the policy covers

• How your organization uses social media

• Link social media to your values and culture

• Elements of the policy

• Consequences & discipline

• Who to contact with questions and concerns

Preamble

• Explain:

– Who the policy applies to

– What types of sites and/or social media tools are covered

– When and how updates will be communicated

These are the official guidelines for social media use on behalf of Social Fish. If you’re a Social Fish employee, intern or contractor creating or contributing to any kind of social media… these guidelines are for you.

- Social Fish social media guidelines

How your organization uses social media • Marketing and publicity

• Fundraising, donor engagement and retention

• Connecting with others around your cause

• Building relationship and online community

• Collaboration and collective action

• Sharing expertise on our issues

• Movement building and social change

As a company, we encourage communication among our employees, customers, partners and others – and [social media tools] can be great ways to stimulate conversation and discussion.

- Oracle Social Media Participation Policy

Link social media to your values and culture

The vision of the Coca-Cola Company to achieve sustainable growth online and offline is guided by certain shared values that we live by as an organization and as individuals:

Leadership, Collaboration, Integrity, Accountability, Passion, Diversity, Quality

- The Coca-Cola Company Online Social Media Principles

• Alternately, develop a set of social media “guiding principles”

If you participate in social media, please follow these guiding principles: - Stick to your area of expertise - Post meaningful, respectful comments - Always pause before posting - Respect proprietary information and content - When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it appropriate and polite - Know and follow the Intel Code of Conduct and the Intel Privacy Policy

- Intel Social Media Guidelines

THE HEART OF YOUR POLICY

Responsibility

• Clearly indicate that people are responsible for what they post

You are responsible for your actions. Anything you post that can potentially tarnish the company’s image will ultimately be your responsibility. We do encourage you to participate in the online social media space, but urge you to do so properly, exercising sound judgment and common sense.

- Coca-Cola’s Online Social Media Principles

The “Anonymous”

Supporter

Transparency • Be clear about

who you really are

Identification on Social Media Tools

• How should your employees, volunteers, consultants identify themselves on social media tools?

• CanadaHelps

• Kirstin Beardsley – with a mention about where I work

• Kirstin@CanadaHelps

Don’t be a mole. Never pretend to be someone else and post about DePaul. Tracking tools enable supposedly anonymous posts to be tracked back to their authors. There have been several high-profile and embarrassing cases of company executives anonymously posting about their own organizations.

- DePaul University Social Media Guidelines

Transparency of Origin.

Dell requires that employees and other company representatives disclose their employment with Dell (e.g. Richard@Dell) in all communications with customers, the media or other Dell stakeholders when speaking on behalf of Dell.

- Dell’s Online Policies

The Not-So-Savvy Marketer

Copyright

• Your policy should explicitly direct people to respect copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary marks

Respect copyrights. You must recognize and respect others’ intellectual property rights, including copyrights. While certain limited use of third-party materials (ex. quotes that you will comment on) may not always require approval from the copyright owner, it is still advisable to get the owner’s permission whenever you use third-party material. Never use more than a short excerpt from someone else’s work, and make sure to credit and, if possible, link to the original source.

- Oracle Social Media Participation Policy

The Eager Newbie

Disclosing Proprietary Information • Your policy should explicitly state that no private,

confidential or proprietary information can be shared

Sharing Personal Information

• Include a reference to your privacy policy and a reminder that it applies to social media

Protection of Confidential and Proprietary Information. Dell employees and other company representatives must maintain the confidentiality of information considered Dell company confidential, including company data, customer data, partner and/or supplier data, personal employee data, and any information not generally available to the public.

- Dell’s Online Policies

Don’t Tell Secrets. It’s perfectly acceptable to talk about your work and have a dialogue with the community, but it’s not okay to publish confidential information. Confidential information includes things such as unpublished details about software, details of current projects, future product ship dates, financial information, research and trade secrets.

- Sample Nonprofit social media policy @ www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com

The Passionate Defender

Respect • Clearly state expectations around respect:

– Don’t get into fights

– Disagree in a calm, logical manner

– Correct factual errors in a polite way

– Don’t respond to angry, disrespectful people

– Don’t escalate a disagreement

Exercise good judgement

Avoid personal attacks, online fights, and hostile personalities.

Build a reputation of trust among your peers, clients, media and the public.

- Edelman Online Behavior Policies and Procedures

Examples

Be Respectful.

Anything you post in your role as a Vanderbilt employee reflects on the institution. Be professional and respectful at all times on social media sites. Do not engage in arguments or extensive debates with naysayers on your site.

- Vanderbilt University Social Media Handbook

The Social Media Addict

Productivity

• Include a brief statement about the need to ensure that all of your employee’s work is getting done

Don’t forget your day job. You should make sure that your online activities do not interfere with your job and commitments to customers.

- IBM Social Computing Guidelines

Adding value

• People should be making a contribution to online communities and bringing value

The Activist

Personal Use of Social Media • Remind employees that their personal posts could

impact your organization’s reputation

A common practice among individuals who write about the industry in which they work is to include a disclaimer on their site, usually on their “About Me” page… We suggest you include a sentence similar to: “The views expressed on this [blog, Web site] are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of DePaul University.

- DePaul University Personal Site Guidelines

Handling Mistakes

• Specific guidelines about how you want people to handle their mistakes, such as:

Terms of Use

• Create a separate policy or Terms of Use document for social media sites that you run and/or moderate

• Terms of Use:

– Statement of purpose for the community

– Community rules around respect

– Moderation and deletion of comments

– Privacy statement

– How you will use the posts (i.e. marketing

material, fundraising etc…)

– Prohibited posts:

Consequences and Discipline

• Details about how your organization intends to handle violations of your social media policy

The frustrated

expert

•What stands out for you?

•What are the most important sections for your organization’s policy?

TIPS & REMINDERS

Involve social media users

• Invite the people in your organization who use social media to comment on and contribute to your policy

Teach the policy

• Don’t expect the document alone to work

Leave room for personality

• Social networks are about personal connections – don’t undermine that

Don’t reinvent the wheel

• Review other policies and borrow liberally

• Good policies to look at: IBM, Oracle, Dell, Intel and Coca-Cola

Review the Policy Regularly

• Things change quickly online!

Let Go! • You can’t always be

in control

Questions

THANK YOU!

kirstin@canadahelps.org

@CanadaHelps

www.mycharityconnects.org

Thank you for attending!

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Questions, feedback, comments?

Email us at: amyh@canadahelps.org

Thank you