Social Media Guidelines |
August 12, 2011 These guidelines are to guide the Griffin-Spalding County School System’s social media efforts, regardless of the platform. Social media is a very dynamic ecosystem so don't be surprised if we continue to revise or elaborate on our guidelines at a later date. In the meantime, we welcome your feedback. I. Management a. Key responsibility for maintenance of the “The Griffin-Spalding County School System, Griffin, GA” Facebook Page will rest with the Communications Specialist and the Director of Instructional Technology. b. Page administrators will be assigned for quick and easy access to the account. c. In the event of an inappropriate comment being posted, an administrator will remove the comment and replace it with, “This comment violated our community discussion guidelines.” II. Content a. “Useful” – Can parents, students, and community use this information? b. “Timely” – Is the information currently relevant? c. “Frequent” – Keep users/followers engaged by posting information frequently. Facebook Wall Discussion Rules · Keep content and language clean. · Allow others to disagree on comments, posts, status, etc. · Personal attacks are not allowed. Employee Use of Social Media These are the official guidelines for social media at the Griffin-Spalding County School System (GSCS). If you're a GSCS employee or contractor creating or contributing to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of social media—these guidelines are for you. We expect all who participate in social media on behalf of GSCS to be trained, to understand and to follow these guidelines. Failure to do so could put your future participation at risk. These guidelines will continually evolve as new technologies and social networking tools emerge—so check back once in awhile to make sure you're up to date. When You Engage Emerging platforms for online collaboration are fundamentally changing the way we work, offering new ways to engage with stakeholders, colleagues, and the world at large. It's a new model for interaction and we believe social computing can help you to build stronger, more successful relationships. And it's a way for you to take part in conversations related to the work we are doing at GSCS and the things we care about.
If you participate in social media, please follow these Guiding Principles:
Rules of Engagement Be transparent. Your honesty—or dishonesty—will be quickly noticed in the social media environment. If you are blogging for your work, use your real name and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. Transparency is about your identity and relationship to GSCS. You still need to keep confidentiality around proprietary information and content. Be judicious. Make sure your efforts to be transparent don't violate privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines. All statements must be true and not misleading and all claims must be substantiated and approved. Please never comment on anything related to legal matters, litigation, or any parties we are in litigation with. Also be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully. Don’t participate when the topic being discussed may be considered a crisis situation. Refer all social media activity around crisis topics to the Communications Specialist. Write what you know. Make sure you write and post about your areas of expertise. If you are writing about a topic that GSCS is involved with but you are not the GSCS expert on the topic, you should make this clear to your readers. And write in the first person. Remember, you may be personally responsible for your content. Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself as a GSCS employee, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and about GSCS by our stakeholders and the general public-and perceptions about you by your colleagues and managers. Do us all proud. Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your work and with GSCS values and professional standards. It's a conversation. Talk to your readers like you would talk to real people in professional situations. Consider content that's open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. Are you adding value? There are millions of words out there. The best way to get yours read is to write things that people will value. Social communication from GSCS should help our stakeholders and co-workers. It should be thought-provoking and build a sense of community. If it helps people improve knowledge or skills, build their businesses, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand GSCS better—then its adding value. Your Responsibility: What you write is ultimately your responsibility. Participation in social computing on behalf of GSCS is not a right but an opportunity, so please treat it seriously and with respect. Create some excitement. As an organization, GSCS is contributing to our community, state, and nation. Let's share with the world the exciting things we're teaching, learning and doing—and open up the channels to learn from others. Be a Leader. There can be a fine line between healthy debate and incendiary reaction. Do not denigrate others or GSCS. Nor do you need to respond to every criticism or barb. Try to frame what you write to invite differing points of view without inflaming others. (Some topics—like politics or religion—slide more easily into sensitive territory.) So be careful and considerate. Once the words are out there, you can't really get them back. And once an inflammatory discussion gets going, it's hard to stop. Did you screw up? If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. If you're posting to a blog or status, you may choose to modify your comment—just make it clear that you have done so. If it gives you pause, pause. If you're about to publish something that makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, don't shrug it off and hit 'send.' Take a minute to review these guidelines and try to figure out what's bothering you, then fix it. If you're still unsure, you might want to discuss it with your supervisor. Ultimately, what you publish is yours—as is the responsibility. So be sure. Contributing to this policy: · Intel (Social Media Guidelines) · Shift Communications (Top 10 Guidelines for Social Media)
|