A social media policy is an essential tool for any nonprofit organization that uses social media, and it is actually an important tool even if your organization does not use these means. However, it is certain that your team members do, as studies have revealed that there are more than 18 million users of social media software and applications in the kingdom. Unfortunately, the majority do not follow a clear, specific, and written policy for using social media, which is not just a set of rules, but also guides people and advises them, inspiring them in the best and worst cases.

What is a Social Media Usage Policy?

A good social media usage policy is a document that provides guidelines for using social media in favor of your organization. It includes your brand’s official channels as well as how to use social media on both personal and professional levels.

As social media is constantly changing, the popularity of platforms undergoes shifts all the time, not to mention the details of how to use them. A social media usage policy cannot remain locked in a drawer or sitting in a file folder on your device, so you need a direct, updated document that is easy to understand and act upon, whether the reader is a new employee, a digital media department manager, or facing a public relations crisis.

Benefits of a Social Media Usage Policy

You may encounter some issues on social media, or your social media usage strategy might be simple. In either case, why then would you bother drafting, reviewing, and implementing an official social media usage policy for your organization?

There are several convincing reasons for you to believe in the value of writing a social media usage policy since it can help you:

  • Maintain your organization’s identity consistently across channels.
  • Consciously address legal and regulatory sensitivities.
  • Prevent security breaches and minimize their impacts.
  • Reduce the effects of public relations crises.
  • Quickly respond to and overcome crises.
  • Clarify tasks and responsibilities for the team, making it more professional.

What Should a Social Media Usage Policy Include:

1. Define Your Team Roles:

Who has the password for all accounts? Or for each account? Who has the right to write and respond?

Including names and email addresses can be helpful so that employees from other teams know who to contact. Responsibilities related to assignment may include:

  • Daily posting.
  • Daily service for donors and beneficiaries.
  • Strategy and planning.
  • Advertising.
  • Protection and passwords.
  • Monitoring and analysis.
  • Approvals (legal or financial or others).
  • Acting during crises.
  • Social media training for other employees.

The roles must be clear and defined by name to maintain your organization’s distinctive appearance and the security of its social media.

2. Create Security Protocols:

There are many security risks for social media accounts, and you have the opportunity in this section to learn how to identify and deal with them:

1- How often do you change your account passwords?

2- Who owns them?

3- Who has access to them?

4- Who has the right to update applications or the operating system on computers or mobile devices?

5- What devices are allowed to access the accounts? They must belong to the organization.

6- Who is the responsible party that has the right to intervene and change policies, roles, devices, or passwords?

3- Plan for Anticipated Security Crisis or Potential Public Relations Crisis:

The goal of the social media usage policy is to prevent the need for a social media crisis management plan. However, it is better to think about what might happen, from both a media and technical perspective. Your crisis management plan should include an updated contact list for emergency situations that includes specific roles: not only for the social media team but also for your legal and public relations experts, up to a designated representative on the board.

Guidelines for defining the scope of the crisis and an internal communication plan, as well as the approval process for responses, will help you address the matter as quickly as possible.

4- Define How You Can Stay Compliant with the Law:

Details differ from country to country, so you will need to review this with your legal advisor, but your policy should at least touch on the following:

  • Copyright: You don’t need to think about it much, so it’s best to explain how to comply with copyright law on social media, especially when using others' content or images of beneficiaries.
  • Privacy is key: Do you know how to handle information related to clients, for example?
  • Confidentiality: Confidentiality refers to respecting your organization’s internal information, whether accessible to people you choose or not. They need to be aware of the implications of disclosing information on social media that the organization considers private.

5. Provide Guidelines on How Employees Should Act on Their Personal Social Media Accounts:

Pew Research Center reported that only 32% of Americans have a policy about how to present themselves online, even though 51% have a policy about using social media in the workplace, which could also be covered by your policy if you wish.

Posting hate speech, threats of violence, harassment, or racist writings on social media may violate the law or violate your organization’s ethical standards, or both. However, employees should be made aware that regardless of all that, they will be responsible for what they say, even when the posts in question are not entirely illegal. It may be interesting for employees to think about how this works and they are likely to find information that mitigates their opinions on social media.

6. Encourage Employees to Participate Appropriately in Conversations About Your Brand:

Your social media team can talk about your brand even while they sleep, and official spokespersons are trained to answer tough questions quickly.

But what about the rest of the members?

How do they remain accountable to your organization?

To answer these questions and others, you should advise your employees to post disclaimers mentioning their relationship to your organization and state that their opinions are their own. In this regard, Adidas encourages its employees to identify themselves and clarify that they are expressing themselves and not Adidas Group. Similarly, Walmart asks its employees not to engage in conversations about the company at all, and this does not apply to former employees.

For more guidance and inspiration on how to promote your organization, check out the employee advocacy toolkit.

Source:

https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-policy-for-employees/