What Does Your Social Media Policy Say?

You can't ignore it. Social media is everywhere these days...at home, at work, and with the popularity of smartphones and their ability to access sites on the go, it's everywhere in between.

With that in mind, developing a policy to guide employee use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., is likely a smart move for managers and administrators who are responsible for overseeing such activity.

Earlier this year, the Center for Technology in Government at the University at Albany/SUNY released its Guide on Eight Essential Elements for Government Social Media Policy. It is designed to help government agencies, including EMS departments, understand the necessary components of developing social medial policies.

"Whether or not to even get involved in social media activity is a difficult question to answer," says Jana Hrdinova, program associate at the Center for Technology in Government (CTG). "There are many differing opinions. Our consensus is to explore it, but do so carefully. Consider the possible consequences so you can mitigate them. Set policies ahead of time so employees know what to expect. That gives them the freedom to explore and experiment in a safe environment that promotes creativity."

The Guidebook was developed after the CTG team evaluated social media policies of 26 publicly available government social media documents and interviewed 32 government professionals who were using, or were considering using, social media tools.

The resulting information identified eight essential elements of a successful social media policy regarding employee participation while at work. Regulating personal use and conduct of social media as it relates to comments about work/employers/employees made on personal time is much more difficult. "Most agencies don't seem to be touching on personal use," she says. "It's a difficult issue to navigate. Everyone seems to be waiting. It's easier to regulate professional use while at work. It isn't as complicated."

The Eight Essential Elements

The eight essential elements include employee access, account management, acceptable use, employee conduct, content management, security, legal issue and citizen conduct.

1. Employee access: Until recently, some government agencies have simply restricted social media websites. However, the lines between personal, professional and official agency use have blurred, raising new questions of who has access to what.

For example, sites such as govloop.com, a social network of government employees, can fall into both personal and professional use. "The site has both social and professional components," says Hrdinova. "For example, someone may log on to find information about who has experience with writing a social media policy."

Even the White House has a Facebook page and employees may want to research information about a newly issued directive. But they may also want to check their personal page during lunch or breaks so it's important to determine who gets access, and to what extent. "This will vary from unlimited access for everyone, to only a few people with specific functions," she says.

2. Account management: Set up a procedure by which social media web sites are managed. This helps an agency keep track of what accounts are being established, maintained or closed by their employees for professional or official agency use.

3. Acceptable use: This outlines an agency's position on how employees can use social media sites while at work. The CTG found that many agencies struggle with what is acceptable in terms of personal and professional use, i.e. how much time can an employee spend on a personal Facebook page while at work, or how much time can he/she devote to participating peer-to-peer networking on sites such as govloop.com.

Only three of the 26 policies reviewed addressed this issue. City of Arvada (CO) employees are restricted to business communication and fulfilling job duties while the U.S. Air Force encourages it members to think of themselves as on-duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Other agencies indicated it isn't a one-size-fits-all and is best monitored and managed by supervisors individually.

4. Employee conduct: Address how employees behave while participating in social media. In general, this falls in line with ethical code of conduct policies already established, such as restricting the use of profanity, inflammatory comments, etc.

5. Content management: This is one of the most important elements, Hrdinova indicates. "Identify rules and operating procedures," she says."Outline how information is posted, who updates it, what the approval process is, etc."

6. Security: Educate yourself about the risks associated with social media usage. "By the nature of social media you expect to be among friends so there's an inherent sense of trust," she says."You don't always stop to think if it's really your friend who is sending you information. But infrastructure can be taken down by a virus. Many agencies are scared of these types of threats. It's one of the biggest obstacles for adopting social media."

7. Legal issues: This should address a couple of areas, including how you'll archive information and how long you'll keep it, as well as making sure postings abide by all existing laws and regulations.

Hrdinova points to one example of an organization whose intentions were good, but legally infringed on employee privacy. "It was using Facebook to reconnect with disabled employees they'd lost touch with," she relates. "The site ended up being shut down because if, for example, you were looking for a John Smith you used to know and you contacted the wrong John Smith, you've just revealed confidential information. The legal issues are endless."

8. Citizen conduct: This refers to what kinds of citizen comments and postings are allowed on the official account. Citizens are usually able to post audio, video and text to many social media sites. Agencies must decide how to handle this engagement.

"You'll likely want to post a disclaimer informing citizens that inappropriate language or inflammatory comments won't be posted or they'll be taken down," she says. "There are certain criteria that citizens need to abide by or they won't be allowed to participate."

Putting Policies into Practice

These eight elements can serve as a guide for setting up a social media policy at your agency. "But this isn't an exhaustive list," Hrdinova indicates. "Other things will come up. Our research was a first analysis of the first policies. Policies will get more sophisticated and things will be changing very quickly.

"Consider, too, that a social media policy doesn't need to be a standalone policy. Look at existing policies and see how they apply. You may be able to update those to include social media. Look at what you have, see how it covers what you do, then fill in the gaps."