Crafting Social Media Policy: DoD Followed Web Governance Best Practices

The Department of Defense (DoD) is set to release a final version of their much anticipated social network policy this year. They deserve kudos for soliciting input in an open, online forum and keeping the public informed of considerations and progress.

DoD utilized several Web Governance best practices in crafting their social media policy. Here’s a few that could be helpful to your organization:

Involve Senior Management

Social media policy, as with any Web policy, must be set a senior level of the organization as it affects the entire organization. This means that a working group can’t just be off in a corner crafting a policy that won’t have senior-level backing. Rather, a Web policy team comprised of senior management must craft policy and call in subject matter experts to provide guidance on key topics. In DoD’s case, the fact that a draft of the social networking directive was released by Defense Deputy Secretary William Lynn III indicates the policy is championed at the senior level. And, the DoD team includes a senior strategist for emerging media—no doubt a subject matter expert on social media channels.

Seek Input from Subject Matter Experts and/or Stakeholders

Policy teams should seek the input of subject matter experts for a given topic. For example, when crafting a Web policy related to HIPAA, policy team discussions should involve a member of the compliance department. Some topics are not as straightforward and might be particularly sensitive as the use of social media was for DoD. In such cases, it makes sense to solicit input from various stakeholders and constituencies in an open format to provide transparency and secure stakeholder buy in. DoD established the Web 2.0 Guidance Forum, a blog to solicit feedback from the public and dispel misinformation. DoD has acknowledged that the comments received have been helpful and have kept the blog up past its anticipated closure date.

Tame Transparency

Allow for transparency in the policy creation process and not policy creation itself. Keep stakeholders informed of how policy will be researched, drafted and codified and communicate at each step of the process as needed. Working drafts, on the other hand, should be confined to the policy team and subject matter experts so that stakeholders are not alarmed (and therefore reactive) or distracted by a version that is incomplete or not fully vetted internally. The Department of Defense did not release iterative versions of the policy on their Web 2.0 Guidance Forum. They did, however, release a draft version —anticipated to be released as the final version— to a member of the media to share. It was not posted on their guidance forum which suggests that they are at the end of their process and not seeking comments on their draft. It’s likely that the input they received from their forum during the drafting stage provided input enough and their draft is ready for imminent release.