Social Media and Records Management LRC meeting 5

Social Media and Records Management LRC meeting 5 th September 2012 Adapted from a presentation given with Kirsten Wright, Victoria University

What is social media? Social media is: Participatory Engaging Two-way (Potentially) context independent Intimate (possibly falsely? ) Accessible. Device independent Overwhelming Decentralised Enthusiastic High maintenance Innovative

Why use social media? • Because you can • Image of organisation • Increased faculty of business • Interaction • Dynamic • Trackable and targeted

Issues to consider General issues RM and organisational issues • Privacy • Identity • Accountability • Lowest common denominator • Depersonalised • Overwhelming • High maintenance • Immersive • Requires certain skills • How do you choose which to use? • Tone • Authenticity • Context • Currency of information • Use of personal vs. corporate technology • Cloud computing • Portions of the community were excluded • Capture • Who owns your data? • Retention

So - how do you deal with social media? Twitter The CEO of your organisation has decided to set up a twitter account as she is keen to directly communicate with the clients of your organisation. She will be tweeting with a bit of help from her assistants but wishes all tweets to look like they are coming from her. She will mostly be tweeting about events and activities happening in your organisation but is hoping to interact with clients directly. She’s also keen to get a general understanding of twitter so may find some personal friends and celebrities she’s interested in following too. What would you recommend to her regarding her plans for establishing her twitter account? What general issues would you advise her to be aware of in terms of using twitter? Are there any recordkeeping implications that need to be considered?

So – how do you deal with social media? Flickr Your Marketing Department is keen to use new technologies and is also interested in having more space available to store their digital photos. They have a variety of photos from different events, some taken by your organisation’s photographer, and others taken by external photographers and then given to the Marketing Department. They have set up a flickr account to allow them to upload as many photos as they wish. As part of their aim was to free up network space, once the photos are uploaded to flickr, they are deleted off the network. What would you advise them about their practice of uploading to flickr and deleting the network version? Are there any copyright or intellectual property issues to consider? How would you advise them to make use of tags, categories or classification on flickr?

So – how do you deal with social media? Blogs Usually in your organisation, the status of current projects is not widely reported to staff within the organisation. However, a new project team has been set up, and they are interested in using a blog to report on the project’s progress and provide useful information about the project to the rest of the organisation. While they are keen to utilise this new technology, none of the project members have used a blog before and have come to you for advice. What would you advise them in relation to blog hosting? Would you advise them to place all project-related material on the blog? Why / why not? How could they encourage your organisation’s staff to visit the blog and provide comments and feedback?

So – how do you deal with social media? Facebook Your sports and recreation area has a facebook page, devoted to upcoming events, including information about the event, arrangements and logistical information. After an event has finished, they upload photos and other information about each event to the facebook page. They also run special competitions and give-aways relating to the events from the facebook page. Each sports and recreation team member use their personal facebook accounts to contribute to the page. What would you advise them regarding the administration of the page? Are there any issues around running competitions and give-aways on the page? Are there any recordkeeping implications that need to be considered?

So – how do you deal with social media? Wikis A unit in your organisation is looking to revise its procedures manual. The procedures are unique to the unit and have not been updated for many years. They are interested in using a wiki format to ensure updates to the procedures can be discussed, links between related procedures can be provided and, in the future, keeping the procedures up to date. Would you recommend they host the wiki externally or internally on the organisation’s servers? Do they need to think about limiting who has access to the wiki? How will the wiki format help them keep their procedures up to date?

So – how do you deal with social media? Podcasting Your CEO is keen to use the medium of podcasting to communicate with staff to update them about current events and issues affecting the organisation. He intends to replace a current email newsletter with these podcasts. He is unsure whether he broadcast these podcasts using i. Tunes (or equivalent) or whether they will be hosted internally. What steps should be taken to ensure staff are receiving the information? What would you recommend in terms of hosting the podcast? Are there any recordkeeping implications that need to be considered?

So – how do you deal with social media? Youtube An area in your organisation has produced a short promotional film that they are thinking of uploading to Youtube. It uses music from a variety of sources, and contains footage of current and past staff members. They have come to you to find out if it is possible to upload this video to Youtube. Would you tell them to place the video on Youtube? Are there any copyright or intellectual property issues to consider? Do they have any obligation to the staff members in the video?

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