Social media governance

Official agency accounts using social media tools represent the public face of the government in those environments. Consequently, it is recommended that the selection, establishment and use of social media accounts have strategic, tactical or operational intent and follow the relevant agency governance and approval processes which should include:

• the suitability of specific social media tools for the circumstances and their capability to deliver the outcome required (refer to Appendix B - Choosing the right tool)
• adoption of appropriate security precautions
• management of the creation of, access to, and closure of official social media accounts
• commitment to ongoing relationship management
• monitoring of social media activities
• transparency when managing social media accounts
• alignment with QGEA information principles
• approval by the agency CIO (or their delegate)
• listing of the account access details in the agency register.

Governance structures and processes will vary across agencies and across activities social media may be used to support. Ideally, social media governance would be embedded within or build upon existing governance structures and not require the development of separate processes that separate social media from the activities they support.

For example, when using social media to support a communication activity, existing agency governance processes requiring a formal communication plan or strategy would be applied. Social media would be incorporated as a channel for the delivery of messages in the same way as print media, radio or television. Similarly, the community engagement and recordkeeping procedures of the agency would guide appropriate conduct in that regard.

When it comes to the publishing of messages to a social media account, governance processes relating to web publishing may be relevant, requiring the same governance to be applied to publishing to Facebook as would be applied to content on an official agency website.

Within each agency governance structures, policies and processes relevant to the governance of activities that use social media might include:

• risk management planning
• right to information
• information security
• information licensing
• communication strategies
• policy development frameworks
• community engagement guidelines
• applicable code of conduct
• web publishing policies
• records and information management policies.

Success measures

As with other organisational activities, social media accounts should be subjected to measurement to assess whether or not they are achieving business objectives.

Those who are carrying out social media activities on behalf of the organisation are responsible for gathering those metrics which have been agreed for their specific channel and providing that data on a regular basis.

For guidance on potential success measures, refer to Appendix F – Social media success measures.