What is a Social Media Policy?

A social media policy is your library’s code of conduct, letting people at your library know how to act on social media. More and more libraries are developing policies that cover best practices of social media in the workplace as well as providing guidance for staff, patrons or others who post comments or messages to library social media sites. Also included in many of these policies are guidelines for staff that cover issues including how to respond to questions or comments on social media, and guidance on acceptable language and content for employees as well as patrons.

In a time when people are using social media both personally and professionally, a social media policy is a way to set some ground rules for acceptable use. It provides a standard for how content will be posted that could ultimately reflect on your library.

Hopefully, this information will help you to understand some current best practices that you can use to guide you through the process of drafting your own social media policy for your library

Choose Your Tools

It is important to carefully select social media tools. They are an important enhancement to communication, collaboration, and information exchange between staff, library users and the general public. You should also recognize that new tools will emerge which have useful application in the library setting; thus, your policy should be flexible enough to incorporate these new technologies.

Want to learn more about digital tools for librarians? Here are some additional resources:

What is Social Media?

–Social media — The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines “Social media” as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”

What to Include in a Social Media Policy: some general guidelines for drafting your policy

–State Its Purpose and Scope

Library social media policies should immediately state it’s purpose. For example: The purpose of this policy is to address use of social media activities including but not limited to blogs, social networks, online communications, online catalogs, websites, and mobile applications by the Library and its employees, volunteers, elected officials, and patrons.

Below are some examples of the scope of how individual libraries will use social media. Notice there is a range of possible community engagement levels available to libraries.

The library posts information related to its services and operations for its constituents and does not seek out or respond to comments. The Library uses social media to increase awareness of and accessibility to its programs, resources and services in order to serve its mission. The Library’s social media sites are not intended to be traditional public forums for the general exchange of ideas and viewpoints, but a limited public forum for discussing Library programs, events and materials. The library posts information and will conduct occasional calls for survey responses or comments. The library reserves the right to close comments at a predetermined time and not in response to the commentary received. The library invites people to post or comment occasionally on various issues. The Library does not make its social media accounts available for general public discourse, but rather reserves and limits the topics that may be discussed on social media accounts. The library engages with its community regarding matters related to library resources and services. The library serves as a forum for the discussion of many issues related to its collections, programs, and spaces.

–Identify Target Audiences

As a best practice, the library should identify its intended audience. For instance, public libraries may limit its intended audience to their community at large, library patrons, community stakeholders, board members, friends groups, and staff.

— Provide A Disclaimer

Your library’s policy should state that comments expressed on any social media platform do not reflect the views or positions of the library or its employees. Social media users should exercise their own judgment about the quality and accuracy of any information presented through social media.

— Address Privacy and Confidentiality

Library staff should protect patron privacy and confidentiality at all times. Library staff should make an effort to understand the privacy practices of the social media platforms which they use and the implications for patron privacy. If the library cannot guarantee privacy, it should explicitly say so in its policy.

–Clearly State Staff Responsibilities

Clarify who can speak for your library on social media. Social Media accounts serve as the online “face” of your library, therefore, any library staff who contributes content to social media platforms within your institution should be thoroughly trained, not only in best practices for each social media platforms, but in the mission, values, and positions of the library.

Two Rules for Posting:

— Check for Accuracy – Check and recheck that posts are accurate prior to posting. There’s nothing worse than being called out by a patron for providing false or inaccurate information.

— Use Good Judgment – Remember that once something is posted, it’s very difficult to get it back. No matter how hard you try, posted content is forever archived online. There are very few social websites that can completely eliminate your post from online searches.

–Clearly Define Acceptable Behavior

Much like the library’s code of conduct that patrons must adhere to while visiting the library, your social media policy should clearly define not only acceptable behavior, but also behaviors that will not be tolerated. Responses to someone’s opinion should be handled in a non-confrontational, professional tone.

–Clearly Define Consequences

Libraries should clearly state the consequences for posts that do not meet the library’s social media policy.

— Copyright and Fair Use Laws

Make sure your employees understand copyright and fair use laws regarding republishing protected content and sources.

–Allow for Patron Recourse

Social media policies should provide clearly stated recourse and procedures for individuals to express complaints or concerns about posted content on the library’s social media.

–Post Your Social Media Policy

Be sure to make your social media policy publicly available on your website and link to the policy from social media platforms whenever possible.

Sample Public Library Social Media Policies:

Policies that cover how public libraries use social media and provide guidelines for patrons or others posting comments or messages to library social media sites

Policies for library staff including how to respond to questions or comments on social media, and guidelines for acceptable language and content

TIP: While not always feasible or practical, it’s a good idea to assign just one administrator to manage all of your library’s social media posts, including the moderation of comments.

Additional Reading:

Like this: Like Loading...