Social Media Policy Examples: War Child and Red Cross Societies

As the use of social media becomes more ubiquitous among nonprofit organizations, the need for nonprofit social media policies is also increasing. 

Two weeks ago I attended a presentation by War Child Canada outlining their strategy for a blogging challenge. At the presentation they also talked about the need for a social media policy - a set of guidelines that "governs the publication of and commentary on social media by all War Child Canada employees and staff".

A social media policy might be useful for a variety of reasons:

• To create a unified strategy across multiple social media networks
• For nonprofits who have offices in different physical locations
• To maintain privacy or security online
• To create a consistent brand and voice
• To adhere to a code of conduct, copyright or standard of ethics
• As an exercise to define social media procedures and opportunities

Though policies are often synonymous with complex and impersonal documents full of corporate jargon, they don't have to be. A policy can be a simple set of guidelines about how to act, respond, share and engage on the social web.

A basic social media policy may contain the following elements:

Introduction - explain the purpose and goals of the social media policy document and identify why it is a necessity for your nonprofit.  

Best Practices - identify how you expect your employees and constituents to act on your organization's behalf. Define acceptable and unacceptable conduct related to sharing, posting, commenting/discussion, promotion, language, images, advertising, etc. This section could also contain a code of conduct - a set of rules and expectations that you want your employees to live up to.

Copyright - outline how you expect images, videos, logos and other promotional material that you own the rights to should be used or references

Communities - compile a list of places that you "exist" online. Define the intent or goals of each community and any specific policies that relate to the social media networks.

Contact - where can employees go or who can they contact for more information.

Social Media Policy Examples

• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - Social Media Guidelines
• War Child - Social Media Policy

Further reading:

• Rough Draft of a Socila Media Policy 
• Creating a Social Media Policy for your Nonprofit
• Where's your Org's Social Media Policy
• Social Media in the Nonprofit Workplace: Does your Organization Need a Social Media Policy?
• Tips for Writing your First Social Media Policy
• Social Media Policies Superlist

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