Every once in a while, someone posts a comment on Facebook asking, “Does your genealogical society have a social media policy?” Few say their society has one. Some say they are working on it.
If your society has a presence on social media, you need a policy.
A social media policy outlines how your society, board, and members should conduct themselves online. It helps safeguard your organization’s reputation and ensures consistent messaging across all media.
Use social media to strengthen your society
While some people would gladly prefer to ignore social media, it is here to stay for a while.
Social media can help your society, and its free.
If you want your society to thrive today and in the future, your society needs to explore and use more ways — different ways — to reach out to retain the members you have and to attract new ones.
Your society needs to raise awareness among your members, within the genealogy community, and even in your community at large about what you do as an organization and what you contribute to your community.
Social media can promote what your society does and build your online presence.
Social media policy
Without a policy, however, to guide your society’s social media presence, the board may face issues and have no recourse.
For example, one society felt the need to develop a policy after complaints were made about the perception that someone was using the society’s social media to promote their own business. At another society, some people complained there were too many tweets, and another received complaints the Facebook posts were off topic.
While a policy may not eliminate all complaints, it can certainly help reduce most of them.
Getting started
In the case of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO), where I volunteer as a webmaster, the former director of Communications started the process by drafting a policy and asking for input from those of us involved in social media and/or experienced in communications. From there, she presented the proposed policy to the society’s board for approval.
Once approved, the policy was shared with BIFHSGO members through the monthly e-newsletter and posted publicly on the society’s website.
The final policy lists the objectives of BIFHSGO’s social media presence, content, access to accounts, conflict of interest, monitoring and evaluation.
These are their social media objectives:
- Provide information to the membership;
- Promote the society and build presence in the community;
- Grow membership.
Inspiration
One of the challenges in writing a social media policy is putting the cursor to screen, i.e., starting with a blank page. Fortunately, a Google search of “social media policy” or “how to write a social media policy” will produce a number of how-to articles and templates. Hootsuite offers a how-to for organizations with employees, and similar criteria can be used for a non-profit society with volunteers.
A few societies have published their social media policy on their website, which is where it should be. The following policies may serve as inspiration.
British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa
Genealogical Society of Queensland
