Social Media Policy: The simplest way forward

So many public sector organisations are still banning the use of social media. This seems a bit like being unwilling to give up your horse when the cars are all whizzing past you.  Anyway, the root of this short-sighted vision is often fear. Apart from fear of the unknown (when senior managers have no idea about social media they are more prone to ban it or poo-poo it) there is also the fear of lack of control. In the public sector we're good at writing rules and regulations so when management does get to grips with social media it tends to be via a tortuous and complicated social media policy.

I particularly liked Mike Brown's take on social media policies. He recommends the following (please go to his blogpost to read the whole article:

“Will what you’re about to share online offend, surprise, or shock your

• Spouse
• Mother
• Employer (current or future)
• Clients (current or future)
• Business partners (current or future)
• Coworkers
• Children

in a way which critically jeopardizes your relationship? If you answer even one “Yes” for this short list of people, think long and hard before publishing your content.”

Blogging best practice

Over the last few months I have been meeting up with groups and organisations who want to dip their toe into the social media soup yet are concerned they have need a policy and/or are worried about what is /isn't kosher when it comes to blogging and twitter etc.


I acknowledge the need to develop some guidelines that both enable the best of blogging yet manage corporate requirements. This reminds me of the early days of email when some organisations felt email was very risky and clamped down on it with many rules and regulations. As time went on, the wisdom of the crowd took over and a "norm" was established.

The book "Groundswell" - see my book review blog for a review if you're interested http://www.mybookblurb.blogspot.com/ - has a page http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2004/11/blogging_policy.html listing Blogger Code of ethics which I like. There are also some links in there to publically available corporate blogging policies, like Harvard University, Sun Microsystems.


The BBC has a simple page that makes sense to me as being sufficiently practical without being onerous http://www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/editorialguidelines/advice/personalweb/blogging.shtml



Working in healthcare and think that blogging isn't relevant? Check out 100 Best Health Care Policy blogs and see what is on offer and the potential impact they are having http://www.rncentral.com/nursing-library/careplans/100_best_health_care_policy_blogs

Or if you need a more research based approach then have a look here http://blog.mathemagenic.com/2008/12/15/research-papers-on-business-blogging/

If email is your only means of electronic communication then maybe now is the time to test something new to add to your skill base.

Blogging best practice policy checklists

Over the last few months I am meeting up with groups and organisations who want to dip their toe into the social media soup yet are concerned they have no policy or ground rules for staff to do this. Why do they want to blog - well, various groups and different answers. However, a continuing theme amongst all of them is in finding a way to reach out to others to share their experiences, news, views and opinions - often about products or services they are working with. They are seeking new ways to enable others to learn about and adopt their prodycts and services.

A good place to start when developing your own strategy is

a) avoid reinventing the wheel

b) use existing checklists and guidleines such as those provided by the blogcouncil http://blogcouncil.org/disclosure/

c) be brave and know the genie is already out of the bottle and know that success is in how much you let go rather than how much you control