Australian Greens Social Media Guidelines

Transcription

1 Australian Greens Social Media Guidelines Introduction Social Media is now as important and effective as a means of communication as traditional media (newspapers, television, radio). It is vital that The Australian Greens and all its branches embrace Social Media as a communication tool to reach that segment of our community that extensively uses social media for their news and current affairs discussions. However by its very nature, social media is more flexible and less structured, available to a wider and undetermined audience and is virtually instantaneous in its delivery methods. Therefore a more flexible approach than that given to traditional media is required to ensure the Australian Greens maximises the use of this communication medium but at the same time ensures that a consistent Greens message is conveyed at all times. Our party has robust internal discussion about every issue, and the diversity of experiences and backgrounds within the Greens membership across the country is one of our greatest assets. In keeping with the pillar of Participatory Democracy, the growth of online discussion is a development that the Greens welcome and embrace, but this new media environment is not without its hazards. About this Guide This is a user guide for Australian Greens personnel (defined below) to understand how best to use existing social media channels. For setting up social media channels, please contact the Digital Communications Coordinator. The purpose of the guidelines is to: Provide guidance as to what is appropriate to publish on Social Media Outline best practice when interacting with the community. Provide advice on how to clearly and consistently promote the messages. Social Media includes but is not limited to: Twitter Facebook You Tube Google+ Pinterest LinkedIn Blogs Websites Wikis The Australian Greens actively encourages the use of Social Media to engage with members, interest groups and the wider community to promote support for the party, its policies and practices and to bring about positive social change. Who the Guidelines apply to Elected Office Bearers of the Australian Greens and all State and Territory Greens Social Media Protocol 1 Version 4.0

2 Members of elected Greens standing committees Employees of the Australian Greens and all State and Territory Greens State Members of Parliament and Senators Federal Members of Parliament and Senators Staff and advisors of State & Federal MPs Local Councillors Candidates for Pre- selection for State & Federal Upper Houses. Greens Endorsed candidates for Federal and State elections. Local group endorsed candidates for Local Council elections Volunteers working in the Greens State or Federal offices or Offices of Senators or MPs. Local groups establishing an online presence. Any other social media account that identifies a link with the Greens in Australia This protocol applies only when the user name identifies the person as a person in one of the above categories e.g. Adam Bandt Greens MP. It does not apply to a purely personal account that the person may also use. However, it is expected that the person will exercise due diligence in any posts on their personal accounts since it cannot be assumed that it will remain private. Many people will either make the connection or will be following both the personal and the Greens accounts and there is the potential for any comments to be widely distributed. Who is allowed to speak on social media? Authorised staff and digital coordinators may post on State and National Greens sites. Elected representatives and candidates and their staff may post to official MP/Senator or candidate accounts (see below). If you plan to update a social media service, you must have read and agreed to the Information Security Protocol. States may additionally establish protocols for who may speak for the Party within their State. If you wish to place a post on a State or National Greens account targeted at a particular State or electorate, please speak to the relevant digital coordinator. Similarly if you wish for a State or National account to share a status or post you have made on a candidate or representative account. Such posts/sharing will be at the discretion of the State or National admins of those accounts. All staff/members/candidates who will be updating a social media service must complete a Social Media pro forma and must read this guide. The staff will then be entered into a social media register. This document may be updated periodically and will be sent to all those listed on the register. Guidelines on setting up Social Media accounts When an election campaign is underway, States may establish their own guidelines on who can set up Social Media accounts on any or all of the main Social Media sites to promote their campaigns and engage with the community. It is strongly recommended that campaign accounts be in addition to any personal accounts already being used to ensure the account can target and be reached by interested segments of the community. Where a platform makes it possible, the campaign account should be set up as a professional rather than a personal account, for example with Facebook and Google Plus pages rather than profiles. Social Media Protocol 2 Version 4.0

3 The name used on the account should indicate the candidate s personal identity don t hide behind pseudonyms but let people know who they are communicating with. Generally people are more likely to trust people that they can identify and appreciate knowing with whom they are communicating. Once the page is set up, the candidate should invite the National Digital Communications Coordinator to be an insights admin for the page and should add their State s Digital Communications Coordinator to be a manager of the page. It is imperative the page is moderated. It is best for the moderator to be a different person to the candidate as they tend to keep a more balanced approach with their umpire hat on. The Australian Greens will provide digital assets (social media skins and profile templates) that can be customised to provide a coherent but personalised look and feel across the Greens brand. Ensure that you post a link to the Australian Greens Community Guidelines somewhere on the social media account so that you can moderate the space appropriately as necessary. Learn how to use the privacy settings that are available on some platforms. Be aware that even private or friends only posts can still be seen by a variety of people and may be shared in ways you have not foreseen. Linking different Social Media accounts and/or using Social Media integrators or dashboards (such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck) can be efficient in allowing messages to be posted simultaneously on multiple platforms however careful judgement is needed to assess if the same message (length, tone, links etc) is appropriate to all platforms. Campaign websites should also be set up for each election campaign the Australian Greens can make a template available which enables speedy deployment and gives a consistent look and feel which is important for public recognition. Guidelines for appropriate use Social media, even more than , is a public forum. Everything that you say is immediately visible to the world. In particular, journalists follow official social media spaces of political parties in the hope of catching someone s slip- up. Plan everything you will write. Even when you are in a conversation with a member of the public in a private space (such as direct messages), try to imagine that you are standing on a stage with a microphone answering that person s question in a crowded forum. You should also be aware that what you write or say in your own time in a social media space can impact on your role as a public spokesperson for the Party and its reputation. The objectives of using Social Media are to Build a strong community of Greens core supporters who will share Greens information Persuade soft Greens voters to vote Green Enhance community understanding of current issues Promote campaign events Promote the individual candidate Review other party policies where appropriate Social Media Protocol 3 Version 4.0

4 Following are some general guidelines to meet those objectives. Always be aware that any post has the potential to be viewed or perceived as representative of the Australian Greens Party. Do the Front Page test for every post. If content would be harmful to yourself, your candidate/mp or the Greens if it was repeated on the front page of the paper, do not post it. The aim, regardless of channel, is to drive the reader to take two actions: first, to act themselves and secondly, to pass the information on to their networks and invite them to act. Therefore content should be eminently shareable and make sense out of the context of other information in that channel. DO: Accurately express or link to Greens policy, principles and practice Clearly identify yourself and your association with The Greens. Be respectful to everyone including those who hold opposing views. Be authentic. Write in the first person so that you can directly engage with your audience and allow your personality to come to the fore. Post regularly (whether high or low frequency) and provide content that is likely to be of interest to people reading/viewing your posts. Monitor and respond to feedback in a timely manner to enable interactive conversations. Respond courteously to comments including negative comments. Do not respond to trolls and do hide, delete or block material when it contravenes community guidelines. Present a consistent message. Pay attention to spelling, grammar and semantics to retain credibility (within the writing conventions of the platform). Provide links back to relevant policy or content on Greens websites to provide additional information and to drive people to those sites. Bring value to your followers, readers etc so they will continue to read/view your posts. Do not use bad language be mindful of the safe meeting procedures and where appropriate apply these to your posts. Ensure your message stands by itself and doesn t rely on a previous message chain when shared, it will not be quoted in context. Ensure you follow people who will add value to your profile and of interest to your followers. Be prepared for intense scrutiny and ensure your argument or facts can stand up to it. Always re- read what you have written before you actually post it. DON T: Publish anything that would bring the Greens into disrepute. Disclose, without authorisation, any confidential information. Contribute content that may bring the Greens MPs, candidates or party into disrepute. Undermine your effectiveness at work, or make your position untenable. Criticise Greens policy or make statements that are at variance with current policy. Criticise other people within the Greens. Undermine the integrity of the Greens by making comments that could be considered defamatory in nature or potentially libellous. Imply Greens endorsement of personal opinions. Social Media Protocol 4 Version 4.0

5 Presume that your context, sarcasm, or joke will translate Post anything if you are under the influence of anything which might reduce your critical faculties. Immediately respond to inflammatory comments that have infuriated, outraged or upset you. If in doubt regarding the appropriateness of a particular post, seek advice before publishing. It is hard to withdraw a post later and even when deleted, a post could go to a wider audience than anticipated through sharing, retweeting and screen capture. The golden rule is If in doubt leave it out. Sharing content Content from supporters and prospects must satisfy most if not all of the following criteria to be shared through official campaign social media channels. The material should: be positive reinforce key messages be from voters, supporters and members in the appropriate electorate/state include images of Greens &/or the candidate or MP at work reinforce Greens policies &/or work of the Greens in parliament highlight problems with Labor and/or Liberal policies/positions Ensure that any material you share is accurate and is not a hoax. Responding to blog comments on other sites To really engage we always encourage you to join in the conversations sparked by your contributions. We offer the following tips to help guide how you should interact with commenters. 1. Participate in conversations about our content, and take responsibility for the conversations you start. 2. Focus on the constructive by recognising and rewarding intelligent contributions. 3. Don't reward disruptive behaviour with attention, but remove it or ignore it when you find it. 4. Link to appropriate Greens websites for facts or statements you reference, and encourage others to do likewise. 5. Declare personal interest when applicable. Be transparent about your affiliations, perspectives or previous coverage of a particular topic or individual. 6. Be careful about blurring fact and opinion and consider carefully how your words could be (mis)interpreted or (mis)represented. 7. Encourage readers to contribute perspective, additional knowledge and expertise. Acknowledge their additions. It also helps identify the trolls from the genuine commenters. 8. Exemplify our community standards in your contributions above and below the line. Be aware that s can be forwarded. Make sure you apply common sense and follow the Information Security Protocols when dealing with confidential information. Follow all the guidelines above relating to tone of voice and writing with a public audience in mind. If you forward an yourself, please check that you are not inadvertently forwarding sensitive material (in other words, delete any material at the bottom of the forwarded s that are not relevant to the current conversation). Social Media Protocol 5 Version 4.0

6 Analysis We will gather evaluation data using a range of methods. We will use Google Web analytics to track how many people viewed pages on our own sites. In order to track which social media campaigns were the most successful, please create campaign URLs using the Google URL builder: We will use HootSuite for cross- platform analytics and monitoring. Please contact the Digital Communications Coordinator to discuss being added to the Australian Greens team if you wish to use this tool yourself. We may measure various Twitter analytics with third party tools, for example for retweets (Tweetreach; Retweet Radar; Twist); online reputation (Monitter, Twitter Grader); impact and influence (Twinfluence, Twittersheep); unfollowers (Qwitter); analysis of our followers using We may monitor blog mentions using Technorati ( The digital communications team will perform analysis at the end of specific campaigns and monthly during an ongoing election campaign. Contravention of the protocol This protocol is intended to provide guidance and assistance to all members in the effective use of Social Media to promote The Greens at all levels in the community. Members are actively encouraged to use this form of media as it has the potential to reach more people, more quickly and more dynamically than traditional media. This protocol therefore focuses primarily on what members can do rather than what they cannot, to ensure the Greens maximises leverage on Social Media. It is not intended to be a restrictive document and members are encouraged to follow the guidelines for appropriate use. States may choose to establish more restrictive guidelines under this protocol with enforceable consequences. Technicalities Twitter Beginner s guides Facebook Beginner s guide The social media guide AGIMO s guide to social media use by the Finance department media- 101.pdf Short URLs To save space in short messages, unwieldy web addresses can be reduced to tidy short addresses using a URL shortener. The easiest to use is and measuring your impact is easy too: simply enter your bit.ly address into a browser with a plus (+) on the end of it to see click statistics. Social Media Protocol 6 Version 4.0

7 Professional update management One of the ways we use social media in a large organisation context is HootSuite which allows us to update a number of social media spaces from within one web site. Hoot Suite also has built- in URL shortening tools, and monitoring tools. In addition, you can monitor multiple information streams simultaneously. It also allows for update scheduling. Further information Contact the digital communications coordinator on digital@greens.org.au. Prepared by Rosanne Bersten with contributions from the Social Media Working Group for NSW Greens, WA Greens, SA Greens, David Paris and Alex Schlotzer. Updated: 2nd April 2013 Social Media Protocol 7 Version 4.0