Creating a Social Media Policy for Legislative Visits: 12 Questions to Ask
Every nonprofit should have a social media policy. Period. A clear policy keeps your message consistent, protects your reputation, and gives your staff and volunteers clear rules for posting and responding online. It will reduce legal, privacy, and crisis risks while making social media more effective for fundraising and community engagement.
But does your social media policy specifically address what you can and cannot post when a legislator visits your organization? Or what legislators can or cannot post about their visit? What about other potentially political content?
Imagine that a legislator visits your organization. A staff member posts a smiling group photo with language supporting a pending bill. A volunteer reposts it with partisan commentary. Meanwhile, the legislator’s office shares the image publicly as campaign-style content. Suddenly, your nonprofit must navigate questions about endorsement, lobbying, and organizational neutrality, all while appearing to support a position contrary to your mission. What a nightmare!
Having a specific policy can help clearly draw the line between advocating and lobbying by ensuring everyone knows what they can share, who approves it, and how to avoid accidentally misrepresenting the visit, supporting legislation, or endorsing a candidate.
The following 12 questions will help you develop your own social media policy specifically for legislative visits or other potentially political content.
What social media activity does this policy cover? Think about posts, reposts, comments, likes, stories, direct messages, photos, and event content.
Which accounts does the policy cover: e.g., official organizational accounts, program accounts, staff accounts used for work purposes?
Who has the authority to create, approve, publish, and delete content about legislative visits or policy issues? How will you document that approval? What boundaries exist on what staff can share on their personal accounts about politically charged issues?
What content can posts about legislators, legislative visits, bills, or policy discussions include? What can they not include because it could look partisan, promotional, misleading, disrespectful, or like a candidate endorsement? What language should staff avoid when discussing legislation, elected officials, or public policy online?
When must staff get approval before posting? Who must review and approve the content? How will you document that approval?
What permissions must staff or volunteers secure before naming, tagging, quoting, or photographing legislators, staff, volunteers, or clients? How will you document that approval? Think both internal permissions and from the legislative staff.
What permission must legislative staff get from you before sharing content about your organization or visit or using your organization as a backdrop for their content? How and who will communicate this policy to them, enforce it, and document that approval?
How will you handle confidentiality, privacy, and sensitive or off-limits information? Think if you have certain spaces, programs, meetings, or client interactions that must remain off limits for photographs or sharing publicly during a visit. How do you communicate that with the legislator and his or her staff?
Who monitors comments and messages on social media posts and other public communication? How should the organization respond to partisan, hostile, or controversial reactions?
What happens if the legislator’s office objects to one of your organization’s posts, or if someone from their office violates the policy?
How will your organization handle requests from media outlets related to politically sensitive posts, politically charged topics, or legislative visits? Do you have a designated PR representative or spokesperson? (NOTE: Having a designated spokesperson who knows these policies will help you with any type of crisis communication or PR request in addition to those related to legislative visits.)
Does your organization have different rules for communicating about legislator visits or politically charged content during election seasons or around campaign periods? Document those differences and communicate them clearly including what constitutes “election season” or “campaign periods” since they can feel continuous these days.
With the answers to these questions in hand, you should draft and widely share your policy, including with your board of directors (who should approve them). The time invested now can spare you weeks or months of heartache, cleaning up a mistake or misstep.
