North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue has released a nine page document and 30 minute online tutorial detailing the (state) government’s stance on social media usage for state employees. The document covers social networking sites such as Facebook, Linked-in, You-Tube, Twitter and Online Blogs.
Perdue states on her Facebook page that “Social networking is not the next-big-thing. It’s here now and state government must stay current if we are to be fully transparent and accountable to the public. I encourage all state agencies to take advantage of social media to increase communication and interaction with the citizens of North Carolina.”
The state’s social media policy focuses on these key areas:
• Appropriate implementation, authorization and acceptable use of social media;
• Security measures to protect individuals, sensitive information, and state systems
• Proper records management and preservation.
Here are a few highlights:
• Employees are allowed to have personal social networking sites. These sites must remain personal in nature and be used to share personal opinions or non-work related information. This helps ensure a distinction between sharing personal and agency views.
• “When creating social media accounts that require individual identification, state employees should use their actual name, not pseudonyms.”
• All agency-related communication through social media outlets should remain professional in nature and should always be conducted in accordance with the agency’s communications policy, practices, and expectations. Employees must not use social networking sites for political purposes, to conduct private commercial transactions, or to engage in private business activities. Employees should be mindful that inappropriate usage of social media can be grounds for disciplinary action.
and my favorite (aside from the appendix on the document that defines ‘email message’):
• Like e-mail, communication via agency-related social networking Web sites is a public record. This means that both the posts of the employee administrator and any feedback by other employees or non-employees, including citizens, will become part of the public record.
So watch what you say!
Click here to download the full pdf of the state’s social media policy and here for the online tutorial.
The role of technology in the 21st century workplace is constantly expanding and now includes social media communication tools that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration. Commonly used social media Web sites, such as Facebook©, Twitter©, MySpaceTM, YouTube©, Flickr®, Blogger, and LinkedIn®, have large, loyal user bases and are, thus, increasingly important outreach and communication tools for government entities from the federal to the local level.
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