4.0 Social Media Guidelines

PSG Number: GM-14-005
Topical Area: Web Design and Development
Issue Date: 11/1/2013
Effective Date: 11/1/2013
Updated: 10/5/2015
Document Type: Guideline; Published (approved by Web Standards Group and GTA)
POC for Changes: Georgia.gov Interactive
Synopsis: Social Media Guidelines for State of Georgia Agencies

4.0.0 Introduction

Social Media integrates technology, social interaction, and content creation using the "wisdom of crowds" to collaboratively connect online information. Through social media, people or groups can create, organize, edit, comment on, combine, and share content (as told by DigitalGov.gov).

The first question many government agencies ask is: should government use social media outlets? Our position is a resounding Yes. Your constituents are already using social media, and they’re already talking about you (whether in a positive or a negative way). By engaging in the same social media platforms as your constituents, you can make sure you’re hearing their feedback, and you can also help to shape the public perception of your agency and guide the conversation.

4.0.1 Why Should Government use Social Media?

Puts a human face on government that allows you to provide real-time customer service.
Helps build interactive communication & community.
Allows you to listen to your audience - capture the pulse of public sentiment, get real-time feedback and “instant polling” from constituents - and thereby increase your effectiveness.
Increases awareness of your agency, its programs, and its impact
Allows you to monitor and influence messaging about your agency and programs
Reaches your audience where they are - rather than expecting them to come to you.
Expands your reach to new and diverse audiences that wouldn’t typically visit your website.
Provides opportunities for viral engagement - your audience can help share your message.

4.0.2 Types of Social Media

Many types of services are categorized as Social Media. For the purposes of these guidelines, we will focus on the following:

Blogs (e.g. WordPress)
Social Networks (e.g. Facebook)
Microblogs (e.g. Twitter)
Video Sharing (e.g. YouTube)
Photo Sharing (e.g. Flickr)
Social Bookmarking (e.g. Pinterest)

4.0.3 Strategies for Social Media

In order for your agency to be effective when it launches a social media effort, it is important to consider your agency goals and priorities, research social platforms, write a social strategy, and plan for continued use of the platform. Social media platforms are not “set it and forget it” systems- they require interaction and frequent updates. They are not effective if they are not used regularly.

Before you delve into social media research, assign a point person or a small group within your agency to answer these questions:

What are my agency’s strategic goals and communications priorities?
How will social platforms support those goals and priorities?
Who is my audience?
What is my purpose as I engage that audience on a social platform?
Given those goals, priorities and audience, is social media right for my agency right now?

If you determine that engaging social media is right for your agency:

Coordinate with other department and division staff (e.g. legal, human resources) to cultivate champions across your agency and avoid future conflict.
Inquire about department and division initiatives and brainstorm which social media outlets will best support those.
Research and identify which social media outlets you can leverage to best promote your agency as a whole.
Write your social media strategy. How do you intend to move forward with the social platforms you’ve chosen? What restrictions will you set?
Assign a point person or a small group within your agency to be Social Media Managers in charge of monitoring, managing and updating content on each social platform.
Collaborate with your Human Resources department to write an employee social media policy. How should employees behave on platforms when they’re representing the agency? Will you set any restrictions on what employees can say about the agency on their personal accounts? Make sure your Social Media Managers understand and accept that policy.
Be sure your Social Media Managers understand what is expected for each social outlet:
- How often should each outlet be updated?
- What tone of voice should they use?
- What topics are relevant to your mission; which topics should be avoided?
- What comments are considered “appropriate” (even if they are negative), and which will be considered spam or inappropriate comments that should be removed?
Set goals for user response, “Likes” or “Follows,” etc.
- Do you have incentives to encourage others to share, “Follow,” or “Like” your content?
- What are other ways that you can get the word out about your social media page and encourage interaction?
Plan for sustainable social campaigns on the platforms you’ve chosen.
- Are you resourced to maintain all platforms going forward?
- If you’re not sufficiently resourced, which platforms should you launch now and which should you launch only at a later date?
- What happens when a primary or secondary Social Media Manager leaves your agency?

Are You Ready?

If, after careful analysis and planning, you find that your agency does not have the resources to maintain an active social media strategy, it would be wise to wait until you are better prepared.

4.0.4 Policy: Responsibilities and Approved Topics

Remember that people put a lot of trust in content that comes from government entities and consider that content to be authoritative. Any information you post on your agency’s social media outlets should meet the same standards of authority as those for your .gov website.

You should also include lists of approved and prohibited topics for Social Media Managers representing your agency. These will fall in line with standard codes of conduct for agency representatives. Topics to address in your agency’s social media policy may include, but are not limited to, the following:

Agency representatives should not endorse any commercial products, services, or entities, nor should they endorse political parties or groups within the realm of your agency’s social media outlets.
Which parties will your agency “Like” or “Follow” in these settings? For example, will you have a policy that your agency should only follow other agencies and programs, but not other individuals?
What 3rd party programs, if any, will your agency endorse? For example, will you endorse events or programs by certain related non-profits, other state agencies, or federal agencies?
Avoid the appearance of political leanings in your agency’s social media interactions. For more on this, refer to:
Write a localized Terms of Use (TOU) for your social platforms, and review those Terms of Use with legal counsel. Be clear and specific, while building in some elasticity to cover unexpected cases.
- Refer to Explore Georgia’s localized TOU on Facebook.
Plan for mistakes. For example, what happens if a Social Media Manager accidentally posts to the agency account, rather than to a personal account?
Assign point people who should be in charge of responding to different types of interactions, e.g. when should legal counsel be involved in a response?
Keep on hand an approved list of Social Media Managers and plan to change social account passwords when managers leave.

4.0.5 Tone

Social Media Managers should be well versed in their expected level of engagement with any social media platforms your agency participates in. Create a list of expectations for the role, particularly with regard to the tone of these social engagements.

Whether you adopt a friendly, quirky tone or a formal, informative one, we’d recommend the following:

Be as authentic and transparent as possible.
Admit that you make mistakes from time to time.
Encourage and respond to comments and questions.
Ask for social community feedback via surveys and use that feedback to refine your social strategy.
Embrace and acknowledge both positive and negative feedback from your community.
Make suggestions to leadership that can help you provide better customer services to citizens.

It is also important to embrace straightforward language and avoid agency jargon. For more on plain language, see section 3.1.1 of the Editorial Guidelines.

4.0.6 Authenticity

It is important to establish your social media pages as your official voice, and not that of a third party pretending to represent your agency.

Specify in your social media profile or description that this is the official page of your agency, as spoofers are often wary of claiming that authenticity.
Use your officially recognized logo as your profile picture.
Link to your social media outlets from your .gov website, and link back to your agency website from your social media outlet as a simple way to prove this authenticity.
When possible, seek verification from the social platform itself.

4.0.7 Security

One factor to consider with any sort of online platform is the importance of security, to prevent hackers from hijacking your account and, by extension, your message.

Follow these tips to stay safe:

Review the State of Georgia Password Security standards before you create your social media accounts and passwords.
Ensure that your agency’s IT or Communications department has a master list of all Social Media Managers and account passwords.
Consider, if appropriate, adopting two-step verification for your social platforms. Many two-step verifications require that you type in not only your password but also a special code you’ll receive by e-mail or text message.

For more on security and risk management in regard to Social Media, please refer to the GTA guidelines on Social Media Guidelines and Responsible Use.

4.0.8 References

Federal Social Media Accessibility Toolkit
DigitalGov's video on the Hatch Act
Social Software and National Security: An Initial Net Assessment (PDF)
Social Media Outlet Authentication Best Practices
State of Georgia Password Security standards
GTA Social Media Guidelines and Responsible Use

4.1 Social Networks

4.1.0 Introduction

Social networking sites (e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn) use individual user profiles to connect people. These online communities are typically free, and provide each individual and company with its own “page” to create a profile of data and interests.

Government agencies can make use of social networks to engage dialogue with other entities and individuals. By creating a profile, agencies can post updates and photos, and interact with constituents through polls, comments, and discussion boards.

There are many social networking platforms available, and in the social networking landscape, platform popularity can wax and wane fairly quickly. At the time of this writing, Facebook is the most widely used social networking platform in North America, while LinkedIn is popular for professional networking. While these guidelines may specifically reference these platforms based on their popularity, the guidelines broadly apply to any relevant social networking website.

4.1.1 Benefits of Social Networking

Connects people globally
Creates public communities
Distributes public announcements in a widely used venue
Grows opportunities for viral engagement - people in your network can help you share your message.

4.1.2 When to Launch a Social Network

Social networks require consistency and strategy to maintain. Before launching your presence on a network, ask these questions:

What are my agency’s goals? How will this social network support those goals and improve agency communications?
Who is my audience? Am I likely to find my audience on this network? If not, will I develop a new audience?
What type of content will my audience want to see on this network?
Do I have the resources to continue engaging this network going forward?

4.1.3 Strategies for an Agency Social Network Page

Read the social network’s policies and guidelines, and make sure they don’t conflict with your agency’s policies.
Set up your presence on the site with an entity page, not as an individual profile. (e.g. with a Facebook “Page” rather than a user “Profile”)
Create one account for your agency, and highlight any initiatives or services from separate page “tabs.” Do not create a separate account for each initiative or subgroup.
Select Social Media Managers who will monitor and update your page, and set regular meetings with them to review what’s working on the platform and what’s not.
Write a policy to guide how your Social Media Managers should interact with and comment on your agency’s page. Make sure all managers understand what is expected.
Call your Social Media Managers together, give yourselves 10 minutes on the clock, and brainstorm a list of relevant topics to post on the social platform.
Consider the frequency of page updates. If you’ll be launching a Facebook page, how many posts will you share each day?
Using your list of topics and posting frequency, create an editorial calendar. This will help keep your social media managers organized.
Determine how you will measure success from your page, either from Page statistics within the network, increased website hits, customer interaction, etc.
If you decide to allow users to post on your wall, determine your policy on comments, and assign a moderator to deal with inappropriate comments. (See 4.1.4 “Managing Comments” in the Blogs section for more tips on commenting policies).

Are You Ready?

If, after careful analysis and planning, you find that your agency does not have the resources to plan and maintain an active social networking strategy, it would be wise to wait until you are better prepared.

4.1.4 Authentication For Social Network Pages

Link to your .gov site in the Info tab.
Link to your social networking page from your .gov site.
Use your official logo or trademark as your profile photo.
Be assertive about claiming your authenticity by clearly stating that your social media outlet is official in the Introductory paragraph.

4.2.4 Examples

4.2.5 References

4.2 Blogs

4.2.0 Introduction

A blog is an easy-to-update website or webpage where one or multiple authors write regular entries in an informal tone and typically focus on a single subject. Blog “posts” are typically shown in reverse chronological order, with the newest showing first.

4.2.1 Benefits of Blogging

Spreads the word on hot issues and interesting topics.
Serves as a direct line of communication between your agency and its audience and thereby allows you to influence messaging about your agency.
Opens up a conversation.
Reaches new audiences for government information and service.
Increases agency page rankings in search engines, like Google or Bing.

4.2.2 When to Blog

Blogs require consistency and strategy to maintain. Before beginning an agency blog, it is important to assess whether the blog will help your agency meet its goals. What problem will the blog solve, or how will it improve agency communications?

Questions to answer prior to starting a blog:

Who is your audience?
What is the purpose of launching the blog?
What is your message?
What is your content niche? What stories does your audience want? What topics interest them?
How often do you intend to post? How will you ensure consistency?
What feedback are you looking for, and how will you manage it?

You should NOT blog:

When you do not have the resources to maintain a regular blogging schedule
Solely for the sake of promoting a single short-term initiative
As a one-way communication strategy
As a method for repeating the same content to the same audience (e.g. press releases)

4.2.3 Strategies for an Agency Blog

Give yourself 10 minutes on the clock, and brainstorm a list of relevant topics for posts.
Set a schedule for blogging frequency, and stick to it. Depending on your goals, your frequency may vary, but you should plan to post at least once a week.
Identify your blogging team. Who will represent the agency? What topics will those writers address and how frequently?
With your list of topics and blog schedule in hand and your blogging team onboard, create an editorial calendar. The calendar will help make sure all your bloggers meet their deadlines.
Determine how you will measure success, such as increased website hits, customer interaction, etc. Set goals and expectations for constituent engagement and readership.
Determine what blogging tool you will use to post. Does your content management system (CMS) have a blogging feature built-in, or will you need to supplement your existing website with a blog?
Before you publish any blogs, review your blog’s purpose, message and content niche with your blogging team, and plan to meet with your team at regular intervals to review what’s working and what’s not.
Write blogs that are easy to scan, with section headings, bullet lists of main points, and bolding when appropriate.
Focus on link building within posts to encourage traffic to other areas of your website.
Prepare some blog posts ahead of time to stay ahead.
Consider converting your agency’s existing online newsletter into a blog.
Repurpose content, if you’re short on time. A simple “From the Archives” heading will tell your readers that you’re re-publishing an older article.
Plan to promote new posts to help build up your audience.

4.2.4 Blog Authors

Consider setting up profiles for each individual blog author, rather than posting as one generic agency voice. Some of the benefits of attributing blogs to individual authors include:

Allows for a more personal voice in the writings
Reduces the risk of blog posts taking on the tone of a press release
Puts a human face on the agency

Whether you choose to post as one voice or as individuals, consider establishing a workflow policy that requires all posts to be proofread and approved by a main point of contact in the communications department prior to publishing.

4.2.5 Managing Comments

Opening a blog for comments carries with it both benefits and risks. To mitigate these risks, it is important to be prepared to handle the following types of comments:

Irrelevant or off-topic material
Spam
Personal attacks or threats
Obscene, defamatory, profane, or otherwise offensive or inappropriate language
Product endorsements
Personal information that identifies the commenter by name, etc.
Comments that suggest or encourage illegal or dangerous activity
Repetitive posts copied and pasted by multiple users

Write terms of use to address these inappropriate comments and post those terms on your website; make it clear that you will not approve certain types of comments, such as those listed above.

Additionally, adjust your blog comments settings to show only pre-approved comments. Assign someone from your team to approve comments for publication and delete those considered inappropriate.

You may also want to consider whether you will allow anonymous comments, and how your team will handle customer support questions that come through the blog comments.

4.2.6 Are You Ready?

Have you prepared a list of relevant topics?
Do you have an editorial calendar?
Are your content authors prepared to create new content at the specified frequency?
How do you plan to promote your blog?
Have you worked out your strategy for managing comments?

If, after careful analysis and planning, you find that your agency does not have the resources to maintain an active social media strategy, it would be wise to wait and start an agency blog later, when you are better prepared.

4.2.7 References

National Cancer Institute's Comment Policy

4.3 Microblogs (e.g. Twitter)

4.3.0 Introduction

Microblogging refers to a form of blogging that allows users to post very brief text updates, similar in size to an SMS text message. Twitter and Tumblr are both considered microblogs. Users can subscribe to updates from individuals and entities they are interested in, or search for posts by keyword. Account members can also send messages directly to other members as a form of short, public conversation.

4.3.1 Benefits of Microblogs

Starts a conversation
Allows you to broadcast messages: news, announcements, emergency notifications
Allows you to seek input from the public - i.e. Crowdsourcing
Helps your agency remain transparent
Helps with agency recruiting efforts

4.3.2 Policies and Tips for Microblogging

Set a plan for the “voice” of your microblog. You should use plain language and avoid agency jargon.
Establish a point person in charge of posting to the microblog, and be sure this person is aware of your social media policies.
Determine whether you would like to use a third-party service, (such as HootSuite or TweetDeck), to schedule your content and monitor your conversations.
Think before you tweet.
Check your facts before posting.
Develop a policy on retweeting - your agency should only retweet posts from appropriate sources.
Make a list of partner hashtags, and use those hashtags to engage in conversations.
Use trending topics and hashtags carefully. If you decide to post about a trending crisis (e.g. a school shooting), you’ll want to be both relevant and sensitive.
During times of crisis, you may want to stop publishing scheduled posts for your microblogs. If you choose to continue scheduled posts, make sure they are appropriate for the situation.
Select a point person to monitor replies and direct contacts, and respond when appropriate.
If your website has RSS feeds (such as feeds for press releases or blog posts), consider the pros and cons of using a tool that automatically posts those to your microblog.
- Beware of the “noise” factor - if you’re automatically posting everything from an RSS feed, individual and more personal posts may get overlooked.
Consult your agency to determine if you need to keep records of posts for records retention purposes. If so, you will need to set up a tool that can automate records retention. (TwInbox is one option).

4.3.3 Security Considerations

Twitter and other microblogs are popular with spammers and hackers, so it is important to take precautions to avoid having your account hacked.

Use a very strong password for your account, and change it often. The State of Georgia Password Security standards recommend that you change your passwords every 45 days. Particularly, make sure to change your password when an employee or intern who had access to the account leaves.
Consider adding two-step login verification to further protect your account.
Don't click on another user's short URL unless they have given it fair context and you trust their source.
Don't retweet a shortened URL unless you have verified the link. One resource for verifying a shortened URL is UnTinyURL.

4.3.4 Authentication for Microblogs

Link to your .gov site from your microblog profile.
Link to your microblog from your .gov website.
Use your official logo or trademark as your profile photo.
Claim authenticity in your profile.

4.3.5 Examples

4.3.6 Glossary

tweet: (noun) a 140-character microblog post on Twitter. (verb) to post to Twitter.
handle: (noun) the account name; you can reference these to start conversations with others.
hashtag: (noun) a keyword or term placed behind a hash mark # to help organize conversations; use these to follow discussions on particular topics. Example: #teamga for Team Georgia posts.
retweet: (noun) a reposting of another user’s tweet. (verb) the act of reposting another user’s tweet.

4.3.6 Resources

4.4 Video Sharing (e.g. YouTube)

4.4.0 Introduction

There are many reasons your agency may want to post videos online, and many options for how to post those videos. Multimedia can make for compelling content that gets information to the public in an interesting way, and how-to videos and audio can help to improve customer service.

Some agencies choose to host their videos on their own web servers, but we recommend utilizing a video sharing service for these purposes instead. We will focus on YouTube for its popularity, but these guidelines broadly apply to any video sharing services.

For more technical information on multimedia and tips on creating videos, see 2.2 Multimedia Guidelines.

4.4.1 Benefits of Video Sharing

Saves money when you host video on a shared space rather than on internal servers
Allows for effective and far-reaching methods for education and training.
Provides opportunities for viral engagement - people in your network can help you share your message.
Helps search engine optimization for your agency sites.
Video sharing services automatically convert videos to different formats to make them available on numerous platforms.
Less technical experience is needed

4.4.2 Strategies for Video Sharing

Before creating a video, it is important to assess your needs and be realistic about whether your message will be best served as a video (rather than as simple text on your website, or as a graphic, etc.)
- Will a busy person find watching the video valuable?
- Will it have strong visual and audio elements?
- Does it provide value to the viewer?
- Will it be watched by enough people to be worth the effort?
Consider whether a video sharing campaign is sustainable. Do you have the resources to make videos on a routine basis?
If you can launch a sustainable campaign, plan a schedule for your videos in the same way you’d plan an editorial calendar for your blog.
Create a YouTube Channel for your content. From there you can control the playlists, provide profile information, and display comments.
Adjust your settings to only allow approved comments. Determine your policy on comments, and assign a moderator to deal with inappropriate comments. (See 4.1.4 “Managing Comments” in the Blogs section for more tips on commenting policies).
Be prepared to write and upload a transcript of the video for accessibility purposes. (For more information on video accessibility, refer to section 1.2, Accessibility Standards.)
Be sure to tag your videos with relevant keywords to help people find your content.
If you opt to use a micro-video sharing service, like Vine or Instagram, make sure you take into consideration the looping effect of your video (you don’t want your end word or phrase to connect with your first word or phrase creating something inappropriate)

4.4.3 Privacy

Anyone who can be identified in your video (even in the background) must sign a video release form giving permission for their likeness to be in your video. Children under 18 cannot appear in a video without their parents’ consent.

4.4.4 Authenticity

Link to your .gov site from your video account profile.
Link to your video channel from your .gov website.
Embed videos from your channel into your .gov website.
Use your official logo or trademark as your profile photo.
Put your agency logo at the opening or closing of each video, or include a small overlay of your logo in the bottom right corner of your videos.
Claim authenticity in your profile.

4.4.5 Examples

4.4.6 Resources

DigitalGov: Multimedia

4.5 Photo Sharing (e.g. Flickr)

4.5.0 Introduction

If your agency has a wealth of photos, you will likely want to share them online. While many web content management systems have built-in photo gallery features, if you want to make your photos even more publicly available and open to comments, you may want to post them on a photo sharing service, such as Flickr, or a Facebook photo gallery.

4.5.1 Benefits of Photo Sharing

Raises awareness of your agency’s activities through photos of events.
Spurs audience discussion; visual content tends to attract higher engagement rates than simple text does.
Offers the potential to reach new audiences.
Allows your audience to easily browse, view, and download content.
Provides an opportunity for your audience to contribute photos that help promote your campaigns.

4.5.2 Strategies for Photo Sharing

Determine your purpose and goals for using a photo sharing service.
- Does your target audience have an interest in the content?
- How will your audience benefit from the content?
- How will your agency benefit from having these photos available?
Assign resources for managing the account, including people to manage tasks such as:
- Photography
- Photo editing and cleanup
- Account management
- Organization of photos and collections
- Adding metadata (titles, descriptions, and keywords)
- Moderating comments
Be sure you have the rights to any photos prior to posting them.
Be sure you have permission to use the likeness of any persons in your photos.
Offer photo contributors “courtesy of” credits when you promote the images across social platforms.
Set your Privacy and Permissions for your photo content
- Who can download content, and at what resolution?
- Who can share content?
- Will you enable comments?
Determine your copyright settings for your photos. Do you want to give others permission to use or share your photos? Are these historical photographs with no known copyright restrictions? There a number of licensing settings available for your photos.
- All Rights Reserved - strict copyrighting policy
- Creative Commons - provides a number of choices for how to allow your photos to be reused. More information at creativecommons.org
- No Known Restrictions - for historical photographs with no restrictions. More information at www.flickr.com/commons/usage
Determine how you’d like to archive photographs for quick reference at a later time.

4.5.3 Tips and Guidelines

Consult with your agency’s Records Management contact to determine if your agency has any requirements related to records management of photos.
Be sure to include descriptive text for each of your photos to make them easier to find and to comply with accessibility guidelines.
Consider only posting the best photos from each event, rather than every picture.

4.5.4 Authentication

Link to your .gov site from your profile page.
Link to your photo sharing profile from your .gov website.
Use your official logo or trademark as your profile photo.
Claim authenticity in your profile.
Provide a .gov email address as your point of contact.

4.5.5 Examples

4.5.6 References

4.6 Social Bookmarking (e.g. Pinterest)

Social bookmarking allows you to group, share and search online materials, such as articles and photographs. Labeled with keywords, or tags, the bookmarks make it easy for followers to learn more about particular interests - the Georgia National Guard, Georgia tourism or STEM education, for instance.

4.6.1 Benefits of Social Bookmarking

Allows your agency to group information based on topics
Encourages information sharing
Directs audiences toward your official agency website
Rates your content, which can help increase your web traffic
Helps you reach new, non-traditional audiences
Promotes search engine optimization

4.6.2 Tips for Social Bookmarking

Before you launch a social bookmarking effort, consider whether the functionality it offers will be of particular value to your agency. You don’t need to engage every social media platform, only those that suit your brand and you’ve determined you have the resources to maintain.
Plan for your campaign. Consider what content you’ll post and how frequently you’ll post it. It’s not enough to simply pin a lot of photos on Pinterest. You’ll have to consider your content strategy and engagement as well.
Share content that’s relevant to your target audience. On Pinterest, be “pinworthy” with engaging visuals.
Tie the content strategy for your social bookmarking campaign into the strategies for your existing social channels. No channel should exist in a vacuum.
Make sure to offer social sharing options on your official website.
Remember that social bookmarking is a form of two-way communication; assign a point person to engage with your followers and then do just that: engage. Don’t pin something and never look at it again. Be part of the conversation.
Identify content that performs well on social bookmarking sites, and focus on posting more of that content.

4.6.3 Security Considerations

Use a very strong password for your account, and change it often. The State of Georgia Password Security standards (PDF) recommend that you change your passwords every 45 days. Particularly make sure to change your password when an employee or intern who had access to the account leaves.
Before reposting a bookmark from another user, click the link and ensure the contents of the location link are what you expect, and are appropriate. (Some social bookmarking spammers will link to something inappropriate, disguised as something else).

4.6.4 Authentication for Social Bookmarking

Link to your .gov site from your social bookmarking profile. Link to your social bookmarking account from your .gov website.
Use your official logo or trademark as your profile photo.
Claim authenticity in your profile.

4.6.5 Examples

Resources

Pinterest: Uses for Government