Developing a Personalized Social Media Policy for Social Work Practice
Editor’s Note: This blog post is adapted from the Second Edition of the Social Media Toolkit for Social Work Field Educators.
There are many reasons for social workers to have a personalized social media policy – to maintain boundaries, protect privacy and confidentiality, and model professional behavior. To be clear, I am not referring to the policy that your organization or institution might have, directing the faculty, staff, and students on when it is okay to use social media, but one that you develop and follow as an individual practitioner, student, and/or educator. The purpose of a social media policy is to inform clients, students, colleagues, and others about when, how, and why you use social media in a professional capacity. From an ethical lens, this is a recommended practice per National Association of Social Worker’s (NASW) Technology in Social Work Practice Standard 2.10 – Social Media Policy and fits with the NASW Code of Ethics standards of informed consent with clients (1.3e-i), respect with colleagues (2.1), and when conducting supervision and consultation (3.1).
The following steps provide a guide for developing a social media policy that can be used as an assignment in a classroom with students or adapted for practitioners:
Step 1: Conduct an internet search for examples of social media policies for other professions such as nursing, medicine, occupational therapy, etc., and select two or three that you like and one that you do not like. Compare and contrast the policies and identify points that you would like to include in your own policy. Alternatively, you could ask students to review and assess one or two policies that you have already selected. One example is Sean Erreger’s social media policy available on his blog Stuck on Social Work, and another is My Private Practice Social Media Policy by Dr. Keely Kolmes.
Because there are no set standards for what should be included in a social media policy or how it should be communicated with clients, colleagues, or constituents, this step will help students identify common issues addressed in social media policies and the overall tone of the policy (i.e. does the policy view social media as harmful or beneficial?). I always encourage students, educators, and practitioners to include the benefits of social media as well as potential challenges in their policies because these apps are communication tools that afford opportunities for connection as well as potential conflicts.
Step 2: Ask students to complete the Develop your Professional Social Media Policy Worksheet, which includes a series of questions and a short self-assessment to better understand one’s current use of social media in professional settings. Here are some of the questions from the worksheet:
- What sources or standards do you need to consider?
- Whom are you informing with your policy?
- What ethical concerns does your policy need to address?
- How do you want to engage in common online activities?
Here are some additional resources that may help students articulate their ideas:
- Netiquette Guidelines
- Social Worker’s Guide to Social Media from the University of Buffalo’s School of Social Work
- Social Media Ethics (part 2): Developing Your Social Media Policy by Dr. Julia Hanks
- Karpman, H. E., & Drisko, J. (2016). Social Media Policy in Social Work Education: A Review and Recommendations. Journal of Social Work Education, 52(4), 398-408.
- Social Media: What is the policy where you work? by Dr. Ellen Belluomini
Step 3: After completing the worksheet, students should have the information they need to write their own social media policy. We encourage incorporating peer and supervisor reviews as part of the process.
Step 4: The next step includes implementing the policy following one’s guidelines and by sharing the policies with others, either verbally or in written format. Students can role-play discussing their policy with a classmate. Additionally, students should periodically review their social media policy, and update as needed because of the rapidly changing nature of digital and social technologies.
Along with helping social work students set boundaries with social media, social work educators should model this practice by writing their own social media policies for engaging with students. Having a social media policy for one’s syllabus can help students manage the use of technology for communication and work in the classroom. This is also considered a best practice per NASW Technology in Social Work Practice – Standard 4.04. Here are two examples:
- Modeling Practice: Social Media Guidelines in Social Work Field Education
- My Guidelines for using Digital and Social Tech in the Classroom and Beyond
One final resource that I will share is the crowd-sourced response that I worked on with my good colleagues, Melanie Sage, Nancy J. Smyth, and numerous other social work educators who were looking for more guidance to NASW’s Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice. The booklet focuses on the standards related to social work education and supervision. You can download a free here:
Do you have your own personalized social media policy? If so, share it with me in the comments below.
How to cite: Hitchcock, L.I (2021, June 23). Developing a Personalized Social Media Policy for Social Work Practice. Teaching & Learning in Social Work Blog. https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2021/06/22/developing-a-personalized-social-media-policy-for-social-work-practice/
