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Social media standards in government

socailmediaAcknowledging social media’s growing influence, advice for civil servants is now being rolled out.

Use social media to consult and engage, and to be more transparent and accountable. Be part of the conversation and all the benefits that brings. Understand when a conversation should be taken offline.

These are among the new social media guidelines for the UK Government’s civil servants, published in May. A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) told agendaNi that guidelines for the Northern Ireland Civil Service are to be published by the end of 2012-2013.

The Cabinet Office guidelines, written by the Government Digital Service, were accompanied by Home Office guidelines on overcoming barriers to accessing the internet and social media.

With 50 per cent of the population now using facebook, government is “finding that social media has real value when communicating with the public.” Officials are advised that quality of interaction and audience demographics should influence the choice of social media channel. Sticking to channels used by the majority “will save time, resource and money.”

Social media should be used to consult and engage, it states, with civil servants advised to make sure that praise through this medium is passed on to colleagues. Feedback can be garnered through these media, while listening through them is also encouraged.

Twitter’s benefits are highlighted. “You have a real chance to either reinforce or prevent those front-page headlines with the effective use of social media,” the document suggests. One-to-one communication is, though, somewhat sidelined in favour of mass communication.

Being present in social media conversations allows the Civil Service “to provide a catalyst for the creation of online communities.” It adds that such a community  “can become an authoritative voice providing advice to its members, but in a space that is monitored by government to ensure that the advice given is sensible, relevant and timely.”

Accompanying its recommendations for social media usage is a warning to civil servants that the Civil Service code also applies to online usage. As the boundaries between professional and personal are “sometimes more blurred” in social media, officials must be mindful of their duties.

The Home Office’s guidelines on overcoming technical barriers state that social media will become as ubiquitous as email and outline 13 possible solutions to current barriers.

Departments should use modern browser versions or deploy a second one to prevent the legacy browser accessing the internet. Employees should be provided with mobile devices that provide richer internet access. Reducing restrictions on accessing specific sites is recommended. Auditing and monitoring is preferred, rather than denying access to social media.

In the longer term, it acknowledges, some cross-government programmes arising from the Government’s ICT strategy (such as the g-cloud) will need to be designed with increasing social media use in mind.

The DFP spokeswoman said that the department’s new policy will aim to “avoid problems arising from the new advancements between business and personal social media interactions.” The department has considered the Cabinet Office guidelines and incorporated them into policy “as appropriate.”

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