WESTLOCK – Which staff can post to the Town of Westlock social media channels, what they can and cannot say, which comments are removed, as well as the platform they’ll use are some of the online dos and don’ts covered in the municipality’s first-ever social media policy.
Councillors discussed the new policy for close to 50 minutes at their May 17 committee of the whole meeting, but won’t vote on it until the first regular council meeting in June — policies and bylaws cannot be enacted at COW meetings.
“Really the intent of this is to establish the protocols and guidelines for engaging with and posting on the town’s social media accounts,” explained CAO Simone Wiley.
Crafted by town communications coordinator Debbie Mottus, the eight-page document, plus an additional six pages that cover the town’s brand standard, run the gamut from scope, to providing definitions, who’s responsible for what’s posted, what staff can say and what social media platforms are approved. Currently the town has Facebook pages for itself, the fire department and aquatic centre, which also has an Instagram account, while FCSS manages its own Facebook page. The town also has a LinkedIn page and dormant YouTube and Twitter accounts — Mottus said she hopes to activate both over the next year.
“Our online social media platforms provide an additional tool for engaging with our community, residents and stakeholders. Social media can expand our reach and support our engagement when used with intent and planning alongside our existing communications channels,” said Mottus. “So, while social media can provide great opportunity and benefits, there are real risks and potential pitfalls. Adopting a social media policy is essential to ensure our social media accounts are aligned with privacy legislation, to empower employees to engage effectively, to enable the organization to utilize the accounts in the event of an emergency and to have guidelines in place for responding to negative social media.
“Managing the social media accounts in accordance with a social media policy allows for improved levels of engagement. Initially social media platforms inform our public. With consistent activity and a well-moderated space, we can elevate to asking for input, having discussions and even real collaboration.”
Mottus said that council should expect to see the document back yearly for updates and tweaks as social media continues to evolve.
“This is going to be a living, breathing document which will require a strong and consistent eye on it,” she said.
While the first six sections cover things like scope, definitions and principles, Section 7, site administration, lays out the script that will be a part of all future town posts: “The purpose of this forum is to inform Westlock residents. Town of Westlock reserves the right to monitor and maintain all comments on this public platform, including but not limited to: delete verbal attacks, derogatory remarks, or comments unfit for the public such as content that endorses, promotes, or perpetuates discrimination based on race, creed, colour, age, religion, gender, marital status, public assistance status, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation. Please remain respectful of all people and their views to make this a positive experience for all visitors. Violations of these terms of engagement may result in limited or blocked access of the Town of Westlock social media feeds. Finally, as this is a communications platform for the Town of Westlock, published content will promote Town and community partner initiatives, and posts from external businesses and organizations will be moderated and may be removed.”
Section 8, guiding principles of appropriate use, goes on to reinforce that script and includes 11 bullet points highlighting inappropriate materials — slanderous or derogatory remarks, obscenities, profane language or sexual content are just some of the materials that will be removed.
“It further expands on what it is and is not acceptable within our social media accounts. This is important to encourage healthy conversation within our accounts, but is also a legal component. As the account owner, we are considered a content publisher and we are responsible for everything on our social media feed — the content we post and the content that others post,” said Mottus.
Council and social media
Section 1 of the draft had a bullet point on council’s use of social media, that will be dropped and added to council’s code of conduct bylaw. As well, a separate social media channel specifically for the mayor will not be pursued.
“It makes perfect sense to me and removes council right out of this policy and puts it kind of where it belongs,” said Wiley. “Council has a specific code of conduct that this would fall right into.”
The bullet stated: “Council acknowledges that it is not their role to report on Town-related business directly. They may use their social media profiles and websites as a secondary information source once the Town has officially released matters. Council will use the designated sharing tools on the various social media platforms based on this direction. Council will include an "in my opinion" disclaimer either within the banner of their individual social media site(s) or separately when making follow up posts to the Town’s social media postings and creating original posts pertaining to Town-related business.”
Councillors also talked about the difference between commenting on an operational issue, like a waterline break, versus say a political issue, like commenting on the province’s proposed police force.
“If we move this into the code of conduct then it’s a little more malleable in terms of what the expectations are for councillors in terms of how they’re supposed to act when it comes to the municipality and their responsibilities,” said Coun. Murtaza Jamaly.
“Code of conduct is certainly the way to go,” added mayor Ralph Leriger.
Photos and videos
Section 9, employee expectations and personal responsibility, states that during an emergency, employees cannot take photos or videos of incident scenes, emergency response equipment, employees engaged in the incident and civilians who may or may not be involved.
“We had quite a bit of discussion with this,” said Wiley. “It can be very sensitive when it’s an emergency and somebody is taking pictures of a body being dragged out of a building. We really want our employees to be aware of this and be sensitive to this.
“I don’t think it’s overstepping to say to a town employee that you should be cognizant of taking pictures during an emergency where there may be civilians involved who don’t want their pictures posted on social media.”
Exceptions include photos or videos for the purposes of training, investigation, or documentation that the CAO, directors, or fire chief have asked staff to take. As well, those approved photos or videos are not to be shared on personal social media or through any Town of Westlock social media platforms, unless express written approval with a valid explanation for the use has been given by the CAO, directors or fire chief. Finally, photos that do not contain any personal details or sensitive imagery may be used to promote fire department recruitment and for campaigns as determined and approved by the fire chief, CAO or directors.
