Enterprise Architecture in Higher Education

This is part three of my Social Media Guideline series and the final post in the series.

Social media is becoming a mainstay in how we engage and collaborate with our colleagues, peers and customers.  With the introduction of social media tools into our businesses, there is a need to develop some guidelines and polices.  I am working on a social media strategy for the HEITBC consortium in British Columbia. Please substitute your company name for HEITBC in the guidelines below.  Collaboration is one of the key mandates of the organization and people are the main ingredient!  This is the third of three posts on Social Media Guidelines.  In this post, we focus on guidelines when posting on behalf of an organization.  If you missed my earlier posts, part 1 – General Social Media Guidelines, you can read it here and part 2 – Guidelines when posting as an Individual, you can read it here.

Here are some of the social media guidelines I put together for when you are posting as a representative of an organization.  Employees, Board Members and Contractors have a higher responsibility when posting to social media platforms particularly when their posts represent the “voice” of the organization.

Guidelines when posting  on behalf of an Organization

1. Apply the General Guidelines – Be Authentic, Be Thoughtful, Respect Others, Acknowledge Others, Be a Valuable Member
2. Use the HEITBC “Voice” – Be clear in your message that this is an official message representing HEITBC. We seek to have a common voice when representing our organization on social media
3. Respect Policies – respect the HEITBC published policies including seeking approval for official messages
4. Be Accurate – ensure that all information is accurate and reviewed before posting.  If you notice an error, correct it and notify the poster about the mistake.
5. Protect HEITBC Trademarks – All endorsements must be approved by the Executive Director and the Board before using HEITBC logos, images or trademarks in any postings
6. Timely Interaction – Monitor comments, respond in a timely manner and remember the General Guidelines

Looking forward to your comments and feedback.  This concludes the three part series on Social Media Guidelines.  I hope you found these helpful and potentially seeds for implementing  something similar in your organizations.  I don’t believe this is something to be ignored.  Taking a proactive approach to guiding social media interactions is an excellent way to manage risks.

Social media is becoming a mainstay in how we engage and collaborate with our colleagues, peers and customers.  With the introduction of social media tools into our businesses, there is a need to develop some guidelines and polices.  I am working on a social media strategy for the HEITBC consortium in British Columbia.   Collaboration is one of the key mandates of the organization and people are the main ingredient!  This is the first of three posts on Social Media Guidelines

Here are some of the social media guidelines I put together.

General Guidelines

1. Be Authentic – be open about your identity, understand that you are responsible for what you post and share, and correct any mistakes you have made – “Be Yourself”
2. Be Thoughtful – there is no “privacy” with social media engagements, be proud of what you post and share, do not post anything that you would not say in a public forum – “Think before you share – there is no delete button for the Internet”
3. Respect Others – be respectful of people, their privacy and their opinions, understand the privacy laws that govern all of us, be constructive when you disagree with an idea or concept – “Disagree with the concept not the person”
4. Acknowledge Others – give credit to the originator of any content you post, acknowledge all copyright and intellectual property materials that you post – “Give credit where credit is due”
5. Be a Valued Member – effective collaboration requires you to participate, please contribute regularly and help where you can – “Pay it forward”

These guidelines can be applied to all communication and I do find it odd that we have to restate them just because we are using social media platforms as the communication medium.  Looking forward to your comments and feedback. Stay tuned for Part 2 – Guidelines when posting as an Individual.