Social Media Guidelines
These guidelines should be read in context of our mission, vision and values. They set out how we will behave on social media websites. If you have any comments or suggestions for improvement on them, email communications@wolverhamptonhomes.org.uk We initially posted these guidelines on Google Docs in April 2011 and linked to them from our Twitter and Facebook accounts, thank you to the people and organisations who commented on them and re-posted them.
1. Be Open About Who We Are
Social media presence will be managed by named officers, who take ownership and responsibility for all content published. All officers will use either their initials or first names in posts, and where applicable job title, so that we are accountable for all we post on behalf of the organisation. This serves a dual purpose: it also shows the human face of the organisation. As members of staff change or move roles, the profile of Twitter and Facebook should be amended accordingly. The Communications Team will be responsible for up-skilling officers who wish to use social media, advising on campaigns, projects and initiatives and taking overall responsibility for social media content that is generated by Wolverhampton Homes.
2. Be Open About Our Successes and Our Short-comings
Anything less than complete honesty in social media will be sniffed out and exposed. It is much better to be honest about our failings and make it clear how we intend to put it right. If we make a mistake, we should apologise promptly and honestly, explaining what happened and what we will do to put it right.
When we have something to celebrate, officers will share the news in a humble, natural and friendly way. We should not be seen to be ‘blowing our own trumpet’ too frequently: it would be seen as annoying to the people who follow us. If we are criticised on social media platforms, providing the criticism is fair, we should apologise honestly and promptly.
If the criticism is inaccurate or the person has misunderstood the issue, we should seek to respectfully correct them. On occasion, inviting the customer to take the conversation off-line may give us an opportunity to explain the position in greater detail than social media allows. We should avoid getting involved in an argument with customers or stakeholders. We should respond as we would to any criticism which was delivered face to face or via the telephone – the customer is always right.
3. Embrace Learning
One of our core values is embracing learning and our social media use should embody this. There is no way that we can understand how every social media platform works when updates to existing sites and new sites are being developed all the time. In the spirit of social media, officers should be eager to learn through all channels open to us and equally eager to share what we’ve learnt. At the time of writing, our primary social media channels are Twitter and Facebook, however officers will need to flex our approach to the changing world of social media as new channels develop.
4. Be Authentic in Our Tone of Voice
For an organisation’s social media usage to resonate with its audience, its tone of voice must be true to its values, have a human voice and reflect the organisation’s personality. Wolverhampton Homes’ personality is friendly, caring, local to Wolverhampton, non-profit-making and non-political and our social media usage must synergise with those values. We should have a balance mix of friendly, more ‘fun’ posts and those that communicate corporate messages. If either type of post was allowed to dominate, it would negatively affect our reputation. Our social media usage also offers a good opportunity to demonstrate our customer service values and be clear, gracious and empathetic.
5. Be accurate
Frequently, the officers managing our social media accounts will have limited time to respond, however this should not mean that accuracy suffers. Officers will use the Fact Ownership Procedure for media relations to ensure that everything we say on social media platforms is accurate. If we are in any doubt about the accuracy of content, we should not post it.
6. Respond promptly
Social media, by its nature, is about conversation so it is important that officers listen first before posting and check replies and comments frequently throughout the day. Most enquiries or comments should have an immediate response from the officer. There will be occasions that officers will not be able to see a posting for a few hours, for example if the Communications Team is depleted through annual leave or sickness and officers are in meetings. On these occasions, the officer should apologise for the delay in coming back to the customer or stakeholder.
At this stage of our social media use, we cannot justify the resource for a dedicated officer and to staff the platforms 24/7. Instead, on Twitter it is preferable to post a greeting when we are available in the morning and one when we leave at the end of the day. This indicates we are available for conversation and able to take enquiries. This would be seen as overkill on Facebook, so instead in the description of the organisation, we will say when we are available to respond to comments. We currently spend less than an hour a day of one officer’s time updating and responding on social media platforms. Over periods where the business is closed, for example Christmas, Easter or Bank Holidays, officers should post content which lets the audience know when we will be available, with a link to our opening hours.
7. Respond respectfully
As with all communication with customers and stakeholders, we will respond respectfully. This reflects our values and gives those who are not engaging with us but are reading our posts confidence that we respect our audience.
8. Do what we say we will
If we make a promise on social media, we must keep that promise (the same way we would with any other form of communication). Officers should diarise to go back to the customer/stakeholder with a follow up response at the appropriate time and date.
9. Be useful
Wherever possible, we should aim to add to the conversation by providing useful information. This may be by posting links to our web pages about topics that people are talking about, providing contact details or re-posting information that we believe our audience may find useful.
10. Allow and Encourage Comments
We will always allow our audience to make comments about the content that we post. Whenever anyone responds to us, we should be pleased that they are engaging with us (even if it is about a negative issue). We will seek to encourage our audience to do this in every way we can. This may be by posting questions, holding competitions or simply responding to their posts.
11. Exercise Common Sense
Social media use requires common sense. A good rule of thumb is if you would feel comfortable saying what you are posting to a room of people, it is safe to post. All our posts will be politically neutral, in synergy with our brand values. This is particularly important during purdah.
12. Communicate openly in a crisis
During a crisis, social media platforms come into their own. We should use our two primary social media channels: Facebook and Twitter, in addition to our website, to update our audiences during a crisis. It may be that we have done something to cause the crisis. In this case, we would focus on advising our customers of the situation and the next steps, rather than accepting responsibility before all the facts are known. It may be that another organisation is responsible for the crisis and is managing the communications. In this case, we can respond and communicate about the elements of the story that are relevant to us and re-post material that the leading organisation posts.
13. Take Appropriate Security Measures
The Communications Team will control and change passwords on a three monthly basis and whenever there is a change of personnel. All officers using social media channels should not click on links from untrustworthy organisations or individuals.
14. How to Respond to Illegal, Offensive or Defamatory Material
Our approach to social media is that we trust the community that we seek to engage with and would only take prohibitive action in extreme circumstances. If one of our audience posts illegal, offensive or defamatory material on our Facebook page, we will remove it and block the individual. If someone is verging on posting material that is offensive, we will issue them with a polite warning not to post such material. If one of our audience mentions us in an illegal, offensive or defamatory post on Twitter, we will report them to Twitter, and if necessary the police. If someone sends an offensive direct message on Twitter, we will block that individual.
15. Measure our performance
In common with our other communications activities, we recognise it is important to measure and evaluate our social media use. We will use the following methods measure performance:
We will also seek to adopt new methods of measuring the value of our social media use as new tools emerge.
You can download our full Social Media Guidelines 2011.pdf 38Kb - feel free to adapt and share them.
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