Social Media Policies

[Chimpie]

This was posted in another thread:

Do any of you have agency policies about what should and should not be posted on sites like facebook and mypage or whatever? We are looking to implement a social media policy at our service. Any advice? Not to hijack this thread of course. So please don't reply in this thread. PM me.

Better yet, why don't you start a new thread about it so others may learn.

After reading this I decided to go ahead and create the new thread myself.

What does your agency or department state as their policy on social media sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc)?

 

[lightsandsirens5]

Oh my gosh I feel so stupid now. I guess I could have done that myself if I had been thinking.

Thanks Chimpie. I'm sorry about that.

 

[Chimpie]

Oh my gosh I feel so stupid now. I guess I could have don that myself if I had been thinking.

Thanks Chimpie. I'm sorry about that.

No worries.

 

[JPINFV]

Nothing past the amorphic "act professionally" clause. Of course "professionalism" is at the whim of the administration.

 

[Shishkabob]

Whelp... if anyone has been paying attention to the news about a certain national 3-letter agency being sued for their policy... then you'll know my current employers policy.

"You can have a blog and facebook, but say nothing bad about the agency or it's contracted partners"


And now you know why as of right now my blog is anonymous to the average outsider...

 

[JPINFV]

You [generic "you"] know, I've always thought it was a bad idea to air your company's or school's dirty laundry. Whether you like it or not, your actions reflect on the company and the company's actions reflect on you. Even if you hate the company with all your heart (in which case, why not quit again?), as long as you're stepping into that work place, you need to support the company because any future employers are going to connect you with their view of that company. If a company is full on inbred idiots, then whether you are an inbred idiot or not, you will be viewed as one.

This is, also, why I took decent lengths to not openly talk about either company I worked for until well after I left. There's no reason to air dirty laundry in public if you're still there. After all, every company has dirty laundry.

 

[DrParasite]

By company policy, I am not allowed to say I work for said agency, post any pictures of said agency, nor of any buildings or property of owned by said agency (ambulances, stations, employees, etc).

Which is all BS, because the entire upper management lists that they work at said company, and the hospitals emergency management coordinator has pictures of all the vehicles on his FB page.

But the rules say you can't even say you work for said company on social network pages.

 

[gillysaurus]

I work for 3 companies.

1st company is a very large corporate private service and rhymes with AMR. From what I understand, their policy is heavy on "no smack talking" and professionalism in everything you post if you choose to associate yourself with them. I see people post pictures of themselves in uniform on facebook, though. EDIT: I see Linuss has posted the policy already

2nd company is a county-based 911 service. Their policy is zip. Zilch. Nada. Very similar to DrParasite. No posting pictures of apparatus, no pictures of yourself or others in uniform on facebook. You're not even allowed to associate yourself with the company as an "employer" on any social network. I'd like to see the incident that got that SOP put in place... It definitely makes us behave.

3rd company is a city-based large 911 service. Their policy is very similar to AMR--keep it professional. Pictures on facebook are frowned upon, but not forbidden.

 

[EMT11KDL]

Double Post!

 

[EMT11KDL]

Both my departments do not have rules or restrictions. The only thing is be professional and use good judgement when posting something about the department or a coworker.

 

[Chimpie]

It's sad to see companies prohibit you from posting pictures of your vehicles or even mentioning their name. You should be proud of where you work and want to "show off".

 

[TransportJockey]

I'm still feeling out my new departments rules on social media. It seems like at long as it's nothing horrible about the service, it's allowed. But then again it seems like every single person here is linked together on Facebook, so everyone (even the old timers) seem to be involved in social media to one part or another

 

[Foxbat]

EMS agency I volunteer for does not have such a policy, other than generic HIPAA stuff. Which does not mean your rear end would not be chewed if you post something that your bosses don't like.
The fire department I volunteer for has a policy saying that any pictures or video of incidents/apparatus/training have to be approved by one of the officers before shown to public.