Social Media
The organisation I work for has substantially updated its social media guidance for staff of late, reflecting the increasingly dominant and diverse role social media now plays in communication in everyday life. There is a definite change of tone, from one which warns of the perils of disclosure and inappropriate activity, to one which recognises social media's many strengths, benefits and enormous relevance to organisations which need to reach, and hear the views, of the people it serves.
Social media guidance now includes guidance on developing a social media profile, and positively encourages the use of twitter, facebook, etc as part of planned communication by projects and teams. There is reference to the less formal language and occasional use of humour to help communicate accessibility and giving the organisation a "human face".
There is also a recognition that many of the people we serve use social media in positive and negative ways, and in order to understand and protect vulnerable people, staff need to have at least some baseline understanding of what is "out there".
There remains within the guidance advice around boundaries between the personal and professional, with some specific examples of unacceptable personal use, such as content that breaches a client's privacy, or brings the organisation into disrepute (eg inappropriate comment about the employer or work matters). However the guidance also recognises people's right to air their personal opinion, as long as it is clearly stated as such.
Articles on this subject explore the difficulties people experience trying to make a clear divide between the personal and the professional - it's difficult to decline facebook friend requests from colleagues - but do we want to share our everyday lives with our workpals and managers? The advice is to try to maintain boundaries, and use privacy settings to demarcate what you share and who with.
It remains the case that caution is required when using social media, but avoiding it entirely brings its own risks and drawbacks, so perhaps pragmatism is what is required in the brave new world.
Social media guidance now includes guidance on developing a social media profile, and positively encourages the use of twitter, facebook, etc as part of planned communication by projects and teams. There is reference to the less formal language and occasional use of humour to help communicate accessibility and giving the organisation a "human face".
There is also a recognition that many of the people we serve use social media in positive and negative ways, and in order to understand and protect vulnerable people, staff need to have at least some baseline understanding of what is "out there".
There remains within the guidance advice around boundaries between the personal and professional, with some specific examples of unacceptable personal use, such as content that breaches a client's privacy, or brings the organisation into disrepute (eg inappropriate comment about the employer or work matters). However the guidance also recognises people's right to air their personal opinion, as long as it is clearly stated as such.
Articles on this subject explore the difficulties people experience trying to make a clear divide between the personal and the professional - it's difficult to decline facebook friend requests from colleagues - but do we want to share our everyday lives with our workpals and managers? The advice is to try to maintain boundaries, and use privacy settings to demarcate what you share and who with.
It remains the case that caution is required when using social media, but avoiding it entirely brings its own risks and drawbacks, so perhaps pragmatism is what is required in the brave new world.
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