The Charity Commission’s guidance on Social Media - my view

My overview of the Charity Commission’s guidance on Social Media

The Charity Commission have updated guidance for trustees on how charities should use social media and has asked the sector to respond. A number of charity sector figures have welcomed the update but also expressed some concern. The guidance is out for consultation until 14th March and you can respond here, which we advise you do to make sure your voice is heard.

We know you are bombarded with consultations and surveys so I’ve read through the guidance and my thoughts on some of the key implications are below. 

Social media policy

For me I think it is useful to emphasise the importance of a social media policy. I like that there is guidance on what we should be included or considered. They have provided ideas outlining what should be included in the policy - what we should and shouldn’t say, who does what, etc. They don’t however provide very clear guidance on what to do when things do go wrong or you believe the content is inappropriate.

Managing risk – staff and trustees accounts

The main issue a lot of people have raised regarding the guidance is the scrutiny of trustees and staff’s personal accounts. One of the main areas of guidance is:

‘2.2 What to do about problematic content posted or shared by anyone connected to the charity’
‘Sometimes there are risks that an individual’s posts are interpreted as reflecting those of a charity. For example a trustee, employee or volunteer could post inappropriate content’

Charity lawyer Rosamund McCarthy Etherington has already commented on this as you may have seen. 

There are a number of problems with this:

• How do you check everyone’s accounts? (What charity has time to do this!?)
• Should you be checking people’s accounts?
• What is the suggested process you should take if you find something?
• How does this fit with freedom of speech?
• Do trustees, employers, volunteers need to create two accounts for every platform they use..?

My worry would be could this discourage people to become trustees or volunteers? I think it could, especially for those who have been involved in local politics and campaigning – which is often the people who would be interested in becoming a trustee for a charity.

I feel if your account is private you should be able to comment what you like, within reason legally and ethically. I also think if we are employing people as staff and trustees shouldn’t we trust that we have recruited people that we feel represent the organisation and act in a responsible way when their personal and work life crosses over? We don’t follow them around monitoring their behaviour. It would make more sense to train your staff and trustees in implementing the social media policy – simple guidance on what content, tone, etc. is and isn’t appropriate when representing the organisation and invite them to ask questions if they ever want to.

Limiting reach and engagement

One of the areas of guidance states, ‘ensure you use social media only to help you achieve your charity’s purpose (what your charity was set up to do) and in a way that is in your charity’s best interests.’

What exactly do the Charity Commission mean by this? It would be impossible to purely directly relate to your purpose/objectives whilst engaging on social media. It doesn’t work like that. You need to support campaigns that may not relate directly to yours, encourage others, provide information and engage with your stakeholders sometimes in their forums/areas of interest. All of this is for the purpose of your charity but may not directly link to your objectives in a clear way.

What could be more useful for charities?

There is a lack of clarity in some of the areas and a need for clearer guidance on what is inappropriate - how it would be monitored and what would be done if something was found? I would like a specific example (real or hypothetical) from the Charity Commission and what was/could be done.

There are also grey areas depending on what social media platform your thinking about. LinkedIn by its very nature links you to your organisation – what would would be consider problematic? 

I don’t think it is useful to scaremonger in this way – To the organisation who may then avoid using channels in case they do something wrong, haven’t kept up with new laws, guidance etc. And to trustees, staff and volunteers who may already be hesitant in using channels which could be particularly beneficial to building relationships, sharing information and learning.

To be honest the advice on social media policies and ideas of what to include I do think will be useful but a lot of the other content leaves more questions than answers. This guidance needs to be clear and make the use of social media and best practice more accessible to organisations not something to fear.

What do you think? Whatever your opinion is, this is your chance to have your say and shape the guidance. Make sure it is workable for charities to implement. Charities, trustees, staff and supporters, representative bodies and the wider public can respond to the consultation, which will run for eight weeks before closing at 5pm on 14 March. Responses can be made via an online survey

The Commission’s final guidance is due to be published in the summer.