Publicly available social media sites started in homes and were mainly used for connecting with friends and family. In the last few years, governments across the world have witnessed a lot more requests by their employees to explore the social media, whose effectiveness could be seen in all levels of politicking from campaigns to elections. In Nigeria, notwithstanding the challenges of social media, some state governments have inaugurated social media teams.
I took time out last week to speak with some government representatives and concluded on the peculiar ways social media tools can be used in government agencies. Employees use it for official interests, professional desires, and personal interests.
There are eight vital elements in developing a workplace social media policy in the government sector which can largely address many of the current fears surrounding social media use. Here’s how:
Employee access – Governments have preferences, this could be through web site filtering or blocking of access to areas on the internet that is considered not work related. The balance between unrestricted and controlled access has remained a Catch-22 for many ministries and government agencies whilst some agencies or ministries are indifferent about this, many still thread cautiously, fearful of legal and security risks.
Social media account management – Managing a social media account encompasses the creation, maintenance, and destruction of social media accounts. Developing an account on a social media platform provides the worker with the complete range of tools and competencies for that site, such as joining or starting conversations, groups, joining networking and posting information. The lack of a distinctively mapped out policy on such representative account management may bring about a situation where the agency or ministry’s leadership does not have a clue on what types of social media accounts are being established, maintained or closed by their employees for professional or official use. Consequently, a critical element to a social media policy is for the agency to determine who on behalf of it may establish a social media account and the procedure.
Acceptable use – This clearly outlines how an employee should use agency’s resources and consequences for violation of these policies.
Employee behaviour – These are generally already being governed by certain policies as the code of conduct. None of these addresses the consequences of unfitting conduct on personal social media sites. However, outlining which potential grounds for dismissal might be useful for employees and their managers trying to define the precincts of the personal/professional divide.
Conduct – Recurrently, I encounter questions during trainings on who is professionally allowed to post content on an official agency’s social media page. Content management differ from agency to agency. There are various approaches ranging from negligible editorial control to free hand and, in most cases, given to the department that created the account in discussion with the agency’s public information officer responsible for monitoring.
Safety – Government should always work to develop best practices to ensure security of data and put in place technical frame in terms of their new uses, users and technologies related to social media.
Lawful concerns – Many agencies have concerns about how their employees will abide by existing law and regulations. That’s fine if there are any laws at all guiding social media use in government agencies in Nigeria. But there should be policies proactively addressing legal issues by requiring the use of disclaimers on social media sites – at least a standard disclaimer.
Civilian conduct — unlike more traditional media like newspaper or radio, social media sites allow two-way public communication between government and citizens, making it easier for citizen to post audio, videos etc., directly to government sites if they decide.
Here are some strategies to guide government in developing social media policy:
-Determine aims of using a social media tool.
-Bring together a multifunctional team that includes all stakeholders from communication, legal, technology, Human Resource & programme.
-Identify existing policies that apply to the use of social media tool and;
-Discuss conflicts and interest between existing & proposed policies.
Creating a social media policy for government is not that simple a task. Not only do you have to contend with the ever changing landscape of social media environment but also with how government employees use these platforms. Overwhelming task but yet an imperative one in order to safeguard information, promote transparency and professionalism to enhance development and curb social media image malpractice in Nigeria.