As I suggested some time ago, in a post on blogging as a public servant:

If people within your organization are blogging (and you really should know who they are), talk to them about their blogs, the scope of their involvement in other social media and try to get a feeling for how they see the boundaries to their self-expression.

The other critical point that I should have added, is that if they do touch –even only occasionally– on work-related issues, then subscribe to their feed and read their blogs. For god’s sake, make sure you are aware of what they are posting…

Mind you, this is not an invitation to crack down on what public servants are doing in their own time (and with their own bandwidth). A good counter example is the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which has recently issued a blogging policy that is, frankly, a little draconian. The key point to note:

Any CBC employee who wants to start a personal blog which “clearly associates them with CBC/Radio-Canada” now requires their supervisor’s permission.
Inside CBC: the official blog

Should we expect that public servants should get their managers permission before they start blogging if they intend identifying themselves as an employee of a government department? In a word, no. From a blogger’s perspective, I would always disclose to my manager that I blog, and that from time to time I blog about my agency’s business. That is just common courtesy.

Would I expect that someone that reports to me would seek my permission before launching a personal blog that overlaps with their professional interest? Again, no. I would expect that they would discuss the matter with me and, if at any time they felt that they were ‘close to the line’ with a particular post, seek advice about the wisdom of posting it. That is both courteous and smart.

The Code

The principles that guide the behaviour of public servants are laid out in the Code of Conduct. The relevant principle is trustworthiness, specifically:

avoid any activities, work or non-work, that may harm the reputation of our organization or of the State Services.

[...] We must use judgement when exercising our personal democratic rights or voicing professional concerns. We must be careful that we act lawfully, and that we do not misuse official or personal information we have acquired through our work. We must always be careful that our actions do not compromise our organization or our Minister.

It’s the bit about using our judgement that is of particular relevance when you consider the intersection of blogging and your corporate media policy. Public servants are paid to exercise their judgement. To suggest that we are incapable of doing it when we are blogging is as ludicrous as suggesting that we should not be allowed to give presentations in public.

Spokesperson vs Blogger

For those of you that are blogging about work, this does not put you in the position of being an official spokesperson. Yes, it is conceivable that a journalist could cut and paste part of one of your posts into an article — just as they could misquote you when you front your powerpoint deck at a conference. But they won’t be able to introduce your view with the words ‘a spokesperson for the agency said…’

Does that matter? Yes and no. Blogging about something that your agency is involved in is fraught anyway. You had better assume that, at some point, you will be misinterpreted and quoted out of context, because to blithely ignore that possibility is poor judgement.

One point worth noting: publishing a disclaimer on your about page should be seen more as a convention than any sort of iron clad protection against dropping yourself and your agency into the proverbial.

Conclusion

Social media are part of the reality of our professional lives. The best way to ‘manage’ it in your organization is to understand it. Read your colleagues’ blogs, join their networks and start to participate in their conversations. Above all, encourage them to exercise their judgement and help build a culture of engagement rather than one of fear and distrust.

It is only a matter of time before a couple of paragraphs on blogging start to make their way into agency policies (media or some other). It would be a good idea if that policy was written from a position of understanding, rather than a scrambled rush to deal with some new perceived threat to the integrity of your external relations.

As a guide, you can always refer to some private sector corporate blogging guidelines, IBM’s are good; but the bottom line for New Zealand public servants should always be the Code of Conduct.

Photo: nib.ipernity.com