It's Open - Social Media Strategy Consultancy

The Guardian has issued guidelines to its staff to maintain editorial standards on the web and to help create effective communities (see below).

Clearly established brands like the Guardian have an advantage on the web and it is important that they continue to be reliable and consistent so people continue to trust them amongst the myriad of voices out there.

Also interesting to see how they are encouraging the emergence of communities.

Nice to see it set out in such a simple way. Unlike many organisations, media companies are experienced at generating content and are therefore at an advantage when it comes to participating in social media.

Although not all media organisations are as forward-thinking as The Guardian and some see social media as more of a threat to their existence.

Here are The Guardian’s social media guidelines:

1. Participate in conversations about our content, and take responsibility for the conversations you start.

2. Focus on the constructive by recognising and rewarding intelligent contributions.

3. Don’t reward disruptive behaviour with attention, but report it when you find it.

4. Link to sources for facts or statements you reference, and encourage others to do likewise.

5. Declare personal interest when applicable. Be transparent about your affiliations, perspectives or previous coverage of a particular topic or individual.

6. Be careful about blurring fact and opinion and consider carefully how your words could be (mis)interpreted or (mis)represented.

7. Encourage readers to contribute perspective, additional knowledge and expertise. Acknowledge their additions.

8. Exemplify our community standards in your contributions above and below the line.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 10:26 am and is filed under Comment, Social Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.