CCNI releases social media guidance for charities

Governance | Jonathan Last | 28 Jun 2012

The Charity Commission for Northern Ireland (CCNI) is providing charities with tips to ensure that their social media use does not break the law or jeopardise reputations.

The sector regulator has released its ‘five social media savvy tips’. It is advising charities to have a plan in place from the start; to remember that social media is an expression of the organisation not the individual (warning that an expression of the political views of any individual trustee or staff member may be a breach of the Charities Act (NI) 2008); and to stick to portraying the charity's individual niche values.

The final pieces of advice are to protect the organisation’s reputation by not being lulled by the more casual nature of social media correspondence into dropping a professional veneer; and the warning to choose your friends carefully, to avoid the risk of inappropriate personal content leaking in to the public output of the charity.

Undermine a charity's work

“In straitened times charities may well turn to social media to get the message across about their good work and keep in contact with service users or supporters – two examples of the many positive aspects of social media,” said CCNI chief executive Frances McCandless.

“The flip side however, is the potential for a rogue or careless post to attract adverse attention, to undermine the work of a charity and to potentially break charity law or indeed other laws. This is very possible and we think that if charities use social media they should also have some checks and balances in place.

“A simple internal policy or procedure can help charities to use social media successively and minimise risks to their reputation. We have provided five tips to help charities with this, and to be savvy about social media.”

The tips follow the CCNI's launch of its Twitter channel (@CharityCommNI). The Commission’s full guidance on lobbying and campaigning can be viewed on its website here.

Directory: Charity Commission for Northern Ireland
Who's Who: Frances McCandless

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.