Amaze Social Media Policy

Policy statement
The Amaze Social Media Policy works in conjunction with the Social Media Strategy to help all employees and volunteers of Amaze make appropriate decisions, and to know how to conduct themselves,when communicating using Social Media.

This policy is designed to safeguardindividual staff, volunteers and trustees, parent carers and young people using Amaze services, and the organisation as a whole. The intention of the policy is to avoid the publication of content that could damage the reputation of Amaze, its staff, volunteers or trustees, and to avoid the possibility of legal action.

The policy outlines the standards we require staff and volunteers to observe when using social media, the circumstances under which use may be monitored, and the action we will take in respect of breaches of this policy.

Scope of the policy

This policy covers all employees, volunteers and trustees of Amaze using social media both to communicate on behalf of the organisation, and during their private use.

All employees, volunteers and trustees are expected to comply with this policy at all times, to protect the privacy, confidentiality, reputation and interests of Amaze and its service users, staff, funding bodies and partners.

Breach of this policy could lead to individual members of staff being disallowed from using official Amaze accounts, could lead to application of the Amaze Disciplinary Procedure or in more serious cases, could be treated as gross misconduct leading to dismissal.

The Disciplinary procedure defines the standards required for the conduct of employees as:

  • Every employee is expected to maintain certain standards of professional behaviour and conduct.
  • Conduct outside business hours may be treated as a reason for action under this procedure. The main consideration is whether the offence impinges in any way upon employment with Amaze or could adversely affect Amaze’s interests, its employees or clients

Examples of misconduct cited within the Disciplinary Procedure include:

  • Failure to follow Amaze’s policy and procedures.
  • Activities or impropriety in relation to the employee’s tasks for Amaze, whether or not within working hours, which Amaze reasonably considers to be detrimental to or conflicting with the interests of Amaze, or likely to affect the employee’s standard of work;
  • Bullying and harassment
  • Discriminatory behaviour on the grounds of age, sex, race, colour or ethnic origin, disability, religion or beliefs or sexual orientation;
  • Any breach of confidence relating to Amaze or its affairs.

All of these standards could potentially be breached through the misuse of social media.

Responsibility for implementation of the policy

The Chief Executive Officer has overall responsibility for the effective operation of this policy.

The Business Support Manager and Operations Director are jointly responsible for monitoring and reviewing the operation of this policy and making recommendations for changes to minimise risks to our operations.

All employees, volunteers and trustees of Amaze are responsible for their own compliance with this policy and for ensuring that it is consistently applied. Any breach of this policy should be reported to the Business Support Manager.

Use of Social Media
All official communications on behalf of Amaze as an organisation should be made through official Amaze accounts. Use of Amaze account details to post on social media platforms are limited to those approved by the Business Support Manager or Operations Director. Those using these account details must have read and understood this policy, and the terms of use of the platform they will be using. Any official use of these accounts must be undertaken with reference to the Amaze Social Media Strategy. Amaze currently approves use of FaceBook, Twitter and YouTube, with plans within the Strategy to expand into use of Instagram.

Moderation

Amaze Trustees have overall responsibility for the governance and reputation of Amaze, but responsibility for the monitoring of social media platforms is carried out on behalf of the Trustees by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The moderation of individual platforms, or elements of these platforms such as groups or pages, may be further delegated to members of staff within the organisation. This delegated responsibility includes responding to inappropriate communications, and reporting those that breach the terms of this policy and the published code of conduct below.

Individual members of staff should report any communications or other activity which are inappropriate or appear to breach the Social Media Policy in any way. If in doubt, or you feel uncomfortable about something you have observed on social media, speak to the moderator for that platform, or to your line manager.

It is not currently practical to review all content before it is published, so particular care should be taken with the wording of any communications. If unsure whether the content might breach this policy, arrange for this to be checked by the moderator of that platform, or speak to your line manager.

Through moderation, any content found to breach the code of conduct, as outlined below, will be removed immediately. Uploading, posting or forwarding any links to prohibited materialthrough Amaze accounts or by Amaze employees, volunteers or trustees on a social media website, in a professional or personal capacity, will be investigated under the Disciplinary policy and may amount to gross misconduct.

Personal use

Amaze employees, volunteers and trustees are permitted to use social media platforms using a personal profile. It is recognised that some employees, volunteers and Trustees are, or have been, users of Amaze services, may wish to retain personal contact with other current service users, and may therefore wish to personally accept ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ invitations from them. However, it must be clear that communications are not made in the name of or on behalf of Amaze.It is also an individual choice whether to ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ Amaze accounts, work colleagues or related organisations. Please note that these communications may still be identified as relating to Amaze, and therefore the terms of this policy, including the rules and code of conduct laid out below, still apply.

Individual personal profiles must not contain the Amaze name or logo, and,where possible, a standard disclaimer should be included as follows:

“All opinions and beliefs stated on this account are my own and do not represent the opinions, values or beliefs of my employer.”

If any paid employee of Amaze uses social media using their personal profile within work hours, this use must follow these additional conditions:

  • It must relate directly to Amaze business or related issues
  • It must complement or support the employee’s role
  • It must be used in moderation
  • It must not interfere with other work commitments
  • It must not breach the terms set out within this policy
  • It must not breach the terms of other Amaze policies, such as the Equalities Policy, Data Protection and Confidentiality Policy or the Disciplinary Policy
  • Personal information must not be accessible from their profile, for example, home address or password information, and all privacy settings must be in place and checked regularly

Failure to meet these conditions may result in the withdrawal of permission to use social media during work hours, or, if serious,may lead to disciplinary action.

Rules for the use of social media

General

It is important that staff, volunteers and trustees keep a personal distance when communicating with people on behalf of Amaze. The boundaries between the business and social profile must be clear.

All communications should be appropriate, and staff, volunteers and trustees must be aware that things that are said may be taken out of context, misinterpreted or forwarded to others. Once something ispostedin the public domain it is there forever and can be accessed, changed and shared, even if it is a private message.Always bear in mind the potential impact on the reputation of Amaze when engaging in any communication on social media platforms, whether public or private.Individuals should be mindful of how such personal use could reflect on the charity’s image and act responsibly to avoid any damage to the charity’s reputation

As a general rule, don’t post anything, no matter how private your settings, that you wouldn’t want to be made public.

It is helpful to remember to conduct oneself as one would face to face, not saying anything that wouldn’t be said in person. Communications should always be positive, objective, truthful and respectfulof other users.

Amaze accounts and specific use of platforms

As stated above, use of Amaze accounts should be made in reference to the Social Media Strategy, but the following rules also apply:

  • Only the CEO is authorised to set up an account, profile, group, page, or any other formal representation of Amaze on any social media platform. Management of these accounts may then be delegated to other staff in the organisation.
  • Passwords for Amaze accounts should never be passed to anyone who is unauthorised to use them
  • All official communications from Amaze must be made through the Amaze accounts, not through any personal profile
  • When using FaceBook or Twitterusing the official Amaze accounts, never ‘friend’ or ‘follow’ service users or other members of staff, or ‘like’ any other Amaze posts, and never make any equivalent links in other platforms
  • Do not engage in contentious or potentially inflammatory discussions, for example, politics or religion. Comments on the individual policies,actions or communications of local or national government, or other related organisations, should never be made from Amaze accounts or profiles.
  • Never undertake activity which might create a security risk within the account, such as installing Apps, following links that automatically ‘like’ the Amaze page, or opening documents or links from unfamiliar sources. If in doubt, seek advice before undertaking any activity other than creating posts or similar routine communications.

General rules of use

  • Always comply with the terms of use of the platform being used
  • Do not divulge any information that is not already in the public domain. If in doubt, speak to your line manager.
  • Do not upload or forward any content belonging to a third party unless you have the third party’s consent, including photographs, videos and written material. Any material you are allowed to use should be appropriately credited or attributed. Particular consent should be obtained from parent carers for any images of children or young people
  • If you wish to comment on an article, website content or other written material, provide a hyperlink by preference, otherwise ensure that any quotation is limited and accurate, and references are provided
  • Do not post, upload, forward or post a link to cartoons, jokes, gossip or any other frivolous material, unless there is a very clear and appropriate link with the business of Amaze
  • Ensure that any facts, data or references you make are accurate and current. If you make an error, be prompt and open in admitting to and correcting it
  • Do not make any communications or use any social media platform for your own personal gain or to endorse commercial products of any kind

Communicatingwith Young People

All of the rules above apply when communicating with a young person through social media, but the following additional factors should be taken into account.

  • If you are communicating with a young person through Social Media they must be 13 or older, the minimum age upheld by Social Media providers. Where a young person is underage an alternative means of communications must be used.
  • If you have any communication with a young person using chat, instant messaging or text facilities, and you have any concern about the interaction, ensure that the content of the communication is copied and saved into a Word document as evidence and report it immediately to your line-manager
  • If you feel that a young person is at risk from harm then consider if the Amaze Safeguarding andChild Protection policy needs to be actioned.

Responding to comments or conversations

  • If you observe negative comments being made, don’t delete these, but do not respond immediately. If left for a while,the community may deal with these. If not, deal with them in a non-personal, professional way, refer to the code of conduct and report to the person responsible for moderation on that platform if necessary.
  • Don’t escalate a heated discussion, be calm, objective, conciliatory and respectful, and tactfully correct any inaccuracy or misrepresentation
  • Be clear that you will not respond to personal messages, that is, those that are not ‘service’ related.

Code of conduct

The following code of conduct appearsunder General Information on the ‘Page Info’ section when you click on ‘About’ onthe Amaze FaceBook page, and is included as a File under each of the Facebook groups. Although written for other users of the social media platforms, all employees, volunteers and Trustees must also follow this code of conduct with regard to any activity undertaken through social media.

“Code of conduct

Whilst we want this to be an open and honest space we also want posts to be courteous and to not cause offence. Therefore we reserve the right to delete any of the following posts:

-violent, pornographic, sexually explicit, hateful, or discriminatory posts, links or images

-comments that threaten or defame any named person, professional or organisation

-Solicitations, advertisements, or endorsements of any financial, commercial or not-for-profit organisations.

-Comments that suggest or encourage illegal activity

-False or derogatory statements about any person or organisation

-Multiple successive off-topic posts by a single user

-Repetitive posts copied and pasted or duplicated by single or multiple users

-Comments which amount to bullying or harassment of any user of social media

-Material in breach of copyright or other intellectual property rights

-Links or material relating to chain letters, junk mail, online gambling or extremist groups

-Any other content which is likely to create any liability, criminal or civil, for the individual or the organisation

“Please remember:

-Do not shareconfidential or personal information about people

-If you want to talk off topic with someone please message them privately

-Please respect that some people may not want to be your friend, do not be offended if they do not accept your friend request.

-Don’t be offended if Amaze staff don’t have time to chat to you

-You can leave this group or unlike this page at any time.

-As a member, you are responsible for what you write in your own group, don’t be offended if the moderator contacts you regarding your conduct if you breach this code

“Complaintsprocedure:
If you have a complaint about anything on this page please contact the Amaze CEOat or phone 01273 234020”

1

Social Media Policy v 1

Approved at Management Committee June 2015