Social-Media Policies Can Help Charity Workers Navigate a New World

About a year ago, Kris Gallagher looked around at the exploding popularity of social networks like Facebook and Twitter and saw a trend growing among nonprofit organizations that used the sites. As more people jumped on the speeding bandwagon, friending and tweeting on behalf of their charities, they made mistakes, sometimes bringing uncomfortable exposure to themselves or their employers.

And, she notes, “they had the tendency to make the same mistakes over and over again,” because they had lots of passion about their causes but little knowledge about using online social networks.

As an internal consultant in marketing and communications at DePaul University, in Chicago, Ms. Gallagher hoped to avoid those problems at her organization by crafting guidelines for its employees.

She felt a sense of urgency about her task. Because social networks are free and easy to use, most nonprofit workers and volunteers are “already out there, or they will be shortly,” she says. “So it’s wise to give them guidelines on how to conduct themselves out there.”

Since introducing the guidelines, and posting them on DePaul’s Web site, she’s discovered herself on the leading edge of a wave: More than two dozen times already, she has given approval for the university’s guidelines to be adapted by other nonprofit institutions. She says with a laugh, “It’s fun to be a thought leader.”

In addition to avoiding mistakes, setting down policies or guidelines can give nonprofit workers a green light to spread their charity’s message online. The American Red Cross created a policy for personal social-media use by employees in 2007, when the charity noticed that of the nearly 500 mentions of the organization per day on Facebook and other social-media outlets, “none of those mentions were by people who work or volunteer here, because I think people were just scared to talk about it,” says Wendy Harman, social-media manager at the charity’s Washington headquarters. “So that was really a permission slip for them.”

Several months ago, in answer to demand by local chapters, Ms. Harman also created a how-to guide for far-flung Red Cross affiliates that want to take advantage of social networks. But, she says, she still gets questions from those chapters several times a day.

Putting together a policy, or at least nonbinding guidelines, for the use of social networks makes sense, say nonprofit managers and technology consultants who work with nonprofit clients. But leaders need to keep their expectations of controlling free speech realistic, especially in workers’ off hours, these experts say. Such guidelines, they say, are really just a new means of monitoring an age-old problem: gossip.

In the past, organizations “had no idea what was being said about them. And now, it’s right in front of them,” says Mary A. Gross, technology services director at Nonprofit Management Solutions, in San Diego. “They can seewhat their staff person—or other people—are saying. And they’re in many cases being more reactive than they should be.”

A well-considered policy, however, should at least “let people know where you stand. Don’t wait till someone does something and then go, ‘Aha! I knew it!’ and then it’s a witch hunt,” says Chris Boudreaux, of San Francisco, creator of Social Media Governance, an online database of social-network policies and a senior manager in the strategic practice at Accenture, a management-consulting organization.

Traffic is moving fast, says Mr. Boudreaux. “Some organizations say, ‘Social media’s new, we should wait and see, we don’t need a policy yet,’” he notes. But he advises clients to push ahead, lay down markers for employees, and update the policy as needed. “If you don’t have all the answers,” he says, “just answer the questions you know.”

Following are more tips for crafting a social-networking policy:

Enlist help. At the very least, an organization’s legal advisers, along with its human-resources, marketing and communications, and information-systems departments should be represented on the team crafting the policy, say experts. The organization’s senior leaders should be involved too, says Ms. Harman. “They don’t have to write it,” she says. “But they should know it exists.”

Also consider drawing in people from around the organization who already use social networks, especially those whose work is central to the group’s mission. At the Cleveland Clinic, for instance, physicians and medical researchers were part of the committee that crafted the Ohio group’s social-media policy this year, says Paul Matsen, chief marketing and communications officer.

Decide what’s most important to the organization. For example, a group with a mission, such as health or social service, that requires special attention to privacy issues may need to address those issues explicitly in the media policy. The Cleveland Clinic expressly prohibits discussion of “personal health information” and photos of patients in social media used by employees and also takes a hard line on giving medical advice or making referrals to doctors who do not work for the clinic.

On the other hand, a university or arts group may seek to take a looser approach, to avoid clamping down on the free-flowing expression that is central to those groups’ missions. Although he cautions that guidelines need to clarify “anything that might be somewhat gray”—like what constitutes defamatory language—there’s a lot of leeway, says Ryan French, director of marketing and public relations at the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis.

“Every organization decides how edgy they want to be, and you have to decide that with your communications strategy,” says Mr. French, whose organization has guidelines for its several in-house blogs. “How open do you want your blog to be? And ours is fairly open.”

The Walker’s guidelines, however, do make a case for civility online, asking bloggers not to “disparage artists, organizations, or individuals. Being critical of an artist’s practice is acceptable, when it is done in a professional manner.”

Don’t reinvent the wheel. The Cleveland Clinic built on its longstanding policy that governs employees’ interactions with print and broadcast media, says Mr. Matsen. So did DePaul, says Ms. Gallagher.

Discuss disclosure issues. Decide if users who discuss their jobs online need to declare their affiliation with the organization.

At the American Red Cross, it’s the first and most important rule, says Ms. Harman: “If you’re going to be talking about your work, you have to disclose your relationship and your role with the Red Cross.”

In October the Federal Trade Commission announced a new guideline that applies to bloggers, which took effect December 1. The new guideline says blog writers and other people— who offer endorsements publicly must disclose any payments they have received from the subjects of their reviews.

Talk about accountability issues. If employees declare their work affiliation on a social network, does the organization want them to clarify that their views do not necessarily reflect their employer’s views? Many groups say yes, to avoid liability and controversy.

Mr. Matsen, of the Cleveland Clinic, offers an example: “If they say, ‘I’m a health-care employee, and here’s my opinion about health-care reform?’ Not really an issue. But if they say they’re a Cleveland Clinic employee, they need to say that they’re not speaking on behalf of the Cleveland Clinic. It’s a subtle distinction, but it’s an important one.”

Think through likely scenarios. For example, says Mr. Boudreaux, charities that work one-on-one with clients might encounter situations in which those clients want to link to the charity workers who serve them, on Facebook or other social sites.

In such cases, he says, an organization might set up a guideline that suggests workerswho choose to interact with clients in that social setting use their office e-mail address to set up a Facebook account, rather than using their personal account.

“It’s really about protecting the employee,” he says.

Temper the policy’s tone. Make sure it reflects the organization’s culture. Keep in mind that these guidelines will likely be seen not just inside the organization but also outside it, says Mr. Boudreaux, if it is posted on a group’s Web site, Facebook page, or the like. Potential supporters—and job seekers—may form an opinion of the organization based on the policy and other documents.

Says Mr. Boudreaux, “If I’m looking at a company, and I see this policy, and it seems very authoritarian and controlling, I may think, ‘Well, gosh, if that’s how they speak to their employees, do I really want to go there?’”

Keep tweaking. Consider putting together a committee of employees who use online networks that meets occasionally and can offer suggestions.

But above all, says Ms. Gross, “recognize that this is not something you can fix” in a permanent way. “Just as you put a policy in place for Twitter,”she says, “something else is going to pop up. This is a very fluid environment right now, and the more general you can be about certain things, the better.”