ISWM Social Media Policy Approved, 12-4-2020
The ISWM (International Society of Weighing & Measurement) encourages its members to be champions on behalf of our society. As the online landscape continues to mature, the opportunities for ISWM members to communicate with each other and the world are evolving. While social media creates new opportunities for personal expression, it also creates new responsibilities. As an ISWM member, you are viewed by your peers, your customers, manufacturing and service provider partners, and other outside parties as a representative of the ISWM. Whether or not you specifically reference or discuss your work, your participation on social media platforms is a reflection of the ISWM. This policy is the first step, not the last, on our social media journey. If you're interested in social media, whether personally or professionally, you should look into our Code of Ethics to ensure you know where we are coming from. Since the term social media is used in several different ways, we want to make sure you understand what we mean when we say social media. Social media is any tool or service that facilitates conversations over the internet. Social media applies not only to traditional big names, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and WeChat, but also applies to other platforms you may use that include user conversations, which you may not think of as social media. Platforms such as YouTube, Flickr, blogs and wikis are all part of social media. Finally, even though this policy is written so it’s easy to understand and conversational in tone, it's an actual policy. If you don't follow the principles laid out below when engaging in social media, you could face serious consequences up to termination under the laws of the country where you are employed. Nobody wants that to happen though, so read over this policy and make sure you understand it. ISWM has five social media principles that you should know before engaging in any type of online conversation that might impact the ISWM. If you have any questions about these principles, this policy, or social media in general, please email [email protected]. Be Nice, Have Fun, and Connect Social media is a place to have conversations and build connections, whether you're doing it for the ISWM or yourself. The connections you will make on social media will be much more rewarding if you remember to have conversations rather than push agendas. Social media is a tool you can use to build our brand and your brand, just be sure you do it the right way. Protect Information Social media encourages you to share information and connect with people. When you use social media, you should try and build relationships, but you should also be aware that through your relationship with the ISWM, you have access to confidential information that shouldn't be made public. So, you should not share our confidential information or any of our members' personally identifiable information. If you mistakenly post confidential information on a social media platform, it will be hard to take down that information completely. Be Transparent and Disclose When you talk about ISWM on social media, you should disclose that you are a member of the ISWM. Your friends may know you are a member, but their network of friends and colleagues may not and you don't want to accidentally mislead someone. The simplest way to disclose is to use the #IamamemeberoftheISWM hashtag in any post that discusses ISWM or your association with the ISWM. Follow the Law, Follow the Code of Conduct Social media lets you communicate incredibly fast and have your message go viral in seconds. This makes it difficult to fix an inaccurate message once you have shared it. The best thing to do is double-check all content before you share it, both for accuracy and to make sure it fits into the ISWM's overall social media strategy, our Code of Conduct, and any restrictions that may apply to your content based on local law (such as the FTC Endorsement Guidelines in the US) and the platform you are using (such as terms of service for the site upon which you are sharing). One of the ISWM's core values is operating with integrity, and that applies to social media as well. The ISWM members and staff hold ourselves to high ethical standards, as our Code of Conduct spells out, and that applies to social media just like everything else you do as an ISWM member or staff person. Be Responsible Make sure you're engaging in social media conversations the right way. If you are not an authority on a subject, send someone to the expert rather than responding yourself. Don't speak on behalf of the ISWM if you aren't giving an official ISWM response and be sure your audience knows the difference. If you see something being shared related to the ISWM on a social media platform that should not be happening, immediately inform the ISWM staff. And, always remember that anything posted on social media can go viral, no matter what your privacy settings may be, so be sure you’re only posting content you would feel comfortable showing up in your boss’ inbox, your coworker’s Twitter feed, or the front page of a major news site. You should avoid posting content that might contain legal conclusions, intellectual property that belongs to other companies, and defamatory language. Everything you post online can be traced back to you, so be sure what you post is appropriate before you post it. Your post may be shared with others and archived even if you delete it later. Even if you put something in your bio about your content being just your own that may not stop someone else online from complaining about your activity and noting that you are a member of the ISWM. Social Media Account Ownership This section isn’t a social media principle, but it's still important enough to be in this policy. If you participate in social media activities as part of your membership at the ISWM on an account created for the ISWM, that account may be considered ISWM property. If that account is ISWM property, you don't get to take it with you if you leave the company — meaning you will not try to change the password or the account name or create a similar sounding account or assert any ownership of the contacts and connections you have gained through the account. This does not apply to personal accounts that you may access casually but would certainly apply to all ISWM-branded accounts. If you have any questions about an account please direct them to the ISWM staff at [email protected]. Social Media Account General Usage Guidelines |
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