How to Write a Social Media Policy for Board Members

Protect your organization with these 5 steps for writing an effective social media policy for board members.

1. Appoint a Social Media Committee

The social media committee will oversee all social activities of members and collaborate with the board to adopt strategic social media techniques. Members of this committee should have relevant skills, qualifications, and experience to accomplish their responsibilities efficiently. For example, marketers, legal experts, analysts, and strategists can be valuable members of a social media committee. The aim is to have people on the committee with a basic knowledge of social media dynamics and state regulations. 

Social media committee members should also be excellent communicators and creative. After all, you want a team that can think of compelling and interesting social media ideas that drive tangible results. Appoint a committee chairperson to ensure everything works seamlessly among nominated members. 

2. Outline Social Media Do’s and Don’ts

As experts in their respective fields, board members are social media influencers. They can help increase awareness of the organization’s products, activities, or services. As public figures, they need to be careful online to avoid attracting negative attention to their organizations. For this reason, it’s essential to outline social media do’s and don’ts in the policy. Here are some examples to get you started. 

Do:

• Allow board members to post relevant and non-confidential organization details on their personal social media channels—for example, thought leadership information. 

• Have rules for members posting to their personal social media channels. Unless your organization is political, board members should avoid posting polarizing political opinions online.
   
• Create brand voice guidelines for the organization’s official accounts.

• Ask the social media committee to provide content ideas for board members to  post on their personal accounts. 

Don’t:

• Allow board members to post controversial or political content on their social channels. 
• Post product endorsements on board member accounts. 
• Share social media passwords with the entire board of directors.
  
  

3. Assign a Committee Member to Enforce the Policy

For accountability purposes, you should assign a committee member to enforce the social media policies. This person will provide social media training sessions and ensure board members comply with the policies. This includes regular monitoring of accounts to spot policy violations.

4. Reward Good Board Members

Recognizing and rewarding board members who consistently abide by the social media policy encourages them to keep up the excellent work. 

The most appropriate reward of all is a simple thank-you—whether through an email or a letter from the organization. Acknowledgement in the annual report or an invitation to special events also motivates and inspires board members. 

5. Store the Document in a Central Location

After writing a social media policy, you need to store it in a secure place where all board members can easily access it when necessary. Since social media changes so rapidly, consider a living document you can update when needed.