Crafting a Social Media Policy

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June 10, 2010

Daniel Fusch, Academic Impressions

A study conducted last month by Babson Survey Research Group in collaboration with New Marketing Labs and Pearson revealed that:

• Nearly one third of faculty use social media to communicate with students
• Nearly one third of faculty use social media to communicate with peers

As adoption of social media by both faculty and staff continues to grow, it is increasingly important for institutions of higher education to establish a social media policy or guidelines that will equip faculty and staff to represent the institution responsibly. An article at the Council of Public Relations Firms' blog FirmVoice this week highlights the crux of the issue, quoting Mark Eber of Baltimore-based agency IMRE:

For advice on crafting meaningful and usable social media guidelines, we turned this week to two leading experts in the uses of social media in higher education --  Andrew Careaga, director of communications at Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Teresa Valerio Parrot, vice president for higher education at Widmeyer Communications.

Make Sure You're Focusing on the Right Question

In the past, Parrot notes, institutions have become accustomed to speaking directly with media and using their own voice to describe themselves. With the advent of social media, that communication is decentralized. This entails a significant shift in how institutions think about guiding communication.

"We need to focus not on how we can control the message," Parrot warns, "but on how we can provide resources and guidance for those who are communicating." Careaga adds, "We have to give ourselves a reality check. A lot of institutions have found themselves trying to figure out how to get the horses back in the barn. They're already out. People are already out there talking about our institutions, either in positive ways or otherwise."

At least in the strictest sense, control is now a moot point. Careaga and Parrot advise crafting your policy to answer the more critical question: How can you equip faculty and staff and empower them to be your advocates and ambassadors?

Focus on Branding

The social media policy can't be a standalone document. It needs to be driven by and an extension of your institution's marketing plan. Social media guidelines are a vehicle for promoting branded messaging.

Granted, one aspect of your policy is legal. You are providing guidance to help protect the university and its employees. You need to acknowledge and reference legal issues (FERPA, privacy issues, copyright law, and HIPAA if you have a medical center). But beyond this, the goal of your policy needs to be offering guidance on how the institution's employees can portray themselves responsibly as representatives of your institution. "There are a lot of grey areas to work through," Careaga warns. For example, suppose you have staff communicating with prospective students during recruitment. Should an admissions officer "friend" a prospective student on Facebook? What does it mean to "friend" someone and how does that affect the process of student recruitment and admissions? Your social media guidelines need to be a resource for helping employees assess this type of scenario.

What the Policy Must Address

Careaga and Parrot suggest that your social media guidelines need to address:

• What are the objectives of your social media presence
• Who's responsible for managing your social media presence
• What does the tone of the content need to be
• What kind of content should go out there
• When/how should we respond to comments (e.g., to a Facebook post)

Parrot cautions, "Don't limit people's creativity or voice -- this will not be well-received. One of the beauties of social media is that everyone has a voice. Make sure you are framing your policy or guidelines in a way that allows that voice still to be shared." Careaga adds, "Don't make the guidelines too restrictive. Give people permission to participate -- people want to know that it is OK for them to express themselves."

Again, what you are trying to do is not confine the communication but empower your personnel to serve as passionate brand ambassadors. Use your policy to draw clear distinctions between how  employees need to represent the institution and how they may use social media themselves as private individuals. And introduce guidelines that help the relevant staff know when and how they need to respond in the event that negative comments appear. Parrot suggests, "We need parameters for what is and is not acceptable. We may not want to respond in a case where maybe just 1 or 2 people will be offended. We need concrete guidelines that will help us judge when we need to respond, and when we need to just have a thick skin."

Communicating Your Policy

Careaga and Parrot emphasize that you need to distribute the guidelines widely, and you need to distribute them through channels that your intended audience (faculty & staff using social media) will find them. "Don't let your carefully crafted guidelines go to a binder sitting on a shelf," Parrot warns. You will want to communicate them online, you will want to communicate them via your social media channels, and you will want to develop trainings for staff and faculty that are designed to help them internalize your institution's approach to social media.

For example, you can hold workshops:

• A social media 101 workshop designed for your institution's department heads (for example, offer an hour-long session in which you distribute copies of the social media policy and engage department heads in a broader discussion about what your institution is doing with social media and for why)
• A session with your crisis communications committee -- both early in the process of developing the policy, and to review the completed policy

Your policy has to be both communicated and usable. "You can read through the policy without internalizing it when you are about to hit send on a tweet," Parrot remarks. Organize small groups -- or encourage department heads to. Present examples and case scenarios; invite staff to consider specific uses of social media, brainstorm creatively, and problem-solve. Keep the focus not on "rules" but on building brand ambassadors.

Copyright 2010, Academic Impressions

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