7 guidelines for social media guidelines
After all the recent hubbub over social media policies at the Washington Post and National Public Radio, one of my bosses forwarded me a link to a database of guidelines at SocialMediaGovernance.com. My own organization is in the midst of drafting guidelines. The editor has my draft; I await the results.
The resource at Social Media Governance includes links to policies from a range of organizations — media companies, governments, universities, PR firms, non-profits, public companies and more. Some focus on how the organizations use social media for their own ends. Others seek to govern how employees use social media on their own time.
I read a bunch of them. Some were very long. Others concise. Drawing on the common themes I saw, here my seven guidelines for drafting social media guidelines. Read more
Interesting stuff I saw online, Aug. 22 to Aug. 25
Here’s some of the stuff I thought was interesting while stomping through the Internet from Aug. 22 through Aug. 25:
- Is It O.K. to Blog About This Woman Anonymously? – The Moral of the Story Blog – Interesting take on the idea of anonymous comment. The writer comes down against it.
- The Risks, and Rewards, of Social Media for Newspapers – Nice rundown on policies and pitfalls in newsrooms over the use of social media — professionally and personally.
- Teaching Online Journalism Updated tutorials for Audacity (audio editing) – "I finally revised and updated the three tutorials I use to teach journalism students and professionals how to edit audio using Audacity, a free program that runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux."
- Out of the Frying Pan and into the Mildly Uncomfortable Sauna: The Not-So-Bad-But-Still-Unconstitutional Social Networking Ban – Wow. "A week ago, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed a bill, HB 1314, making it illegal for convicted sex offenders to access a 'social networking website.'"
Word clouds on 7 story comment guidelines
I “acquired” this idea from TechCrunch, which tossed up word clouds from the terms of service on a variety of sites following the flap over Facebook’s recent policy change and reversal.
A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted reader commenting guidelines that I thought were worth looking at from several news sites. Thanks for the idea, TechCrunch. Here’s Wordle word clouds from those sites. They actually do show a different focus. For example, I was struck by USA Today’s emphasis on “community.” And the Washington Post’s reflects a much more legalistic approach.
Eric Zorn’s guidelines from his Chicago Tribune blog. Read more
7 news story comment guidelines worth looking at
Eric Zorn
I came across a tweet by Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn in which he mentioned revising the commenting guidelines for his blog. So I wanted to find how what he changed, how, and why.
Back in October, I quit comments altogether (the guidelines were short: “Comments are not posted immediately. We review them first in an effort to remove foul language, commercial messages, irrelevancies and unfair attacks. Thank you for your patience.” (That is) still found on many other Trib Blogs).
I reinstated with the New Year an open comments policy, no pre-review, but here are my rules.
I think it’s in-part a software problem. If I were to be designing a comment area, it would have a somewhat elaborate registration/verification/authentication policy that would create a community of established commenters. I’m not all that interested in the drive-by anonymous pot-shooters and snark-masters. But I am quite interested in what a fair number of our smart, thoughful readers have to say.
His guidelines are conversational, yet frank. They’re specific, but leave room for interpretation — because there are always gray areas. There’s a link below to his revised guidelines.
The exchange got me hunting about for other examples of good guidelines. I’ve linked to a few that I’ve referred to in my own research. You might also look at the guidelines on the New York Daily News site (which come up in a letterbox link with all the story pages). I find their guidelines to be straightforward and useful, as well as conversational. Read more
Kurt's Tweets- Realizing how woefully out of touch I have been with this part of the county. (@ Saint Louis Bread Company) http://4sq.com/5z5Bfh
- Just had my first Gmail phone call -- with my parents -- and the quality was fantastic. Wow. http://tcrn.ch/a8GndI
- Another day, another interview. Fingers crossed. (@ Saint Louis Bread Co) http://4sq.com/avGImL
- Helping my son learn the first 20 elements on the periodic table. Disturbed by how many more elements there are since I studied this stuff.
- Giving blood. (@ St. Martin's Episcopal Church) http://4sq.com/aiWuEk