Managing social media within the disability space

The use of social media has become ubiquitous across a variety of industries, and the disability space is no exception.

Throughout the course of your professional life, you may have noticed that social media use has had both benefits and risks. This article discusses these and provides tips for creating social media policies that strike a balance between being social and being safe.

Benefits of social media use

Social media is a convenient tool for raising awareness of your organisation and its values. By maintaining an active online presence you can harness the power of social media to:

• increase the visibility of your services

• share your organisation’s key milestones

• undertake fundraising and crowdfunding

• connect with other organisations and expand your professional network.

In addition, social media can be a helpful educational tool. It can be used to:

• keep up-to-date with the latest developments within the disability space

• join relevant online communities

• share your experiences and findings with other professionals

• learn about and attend virtual professional development events.

Risks of social media use

However, despite the benefits mentioned above, irresponsible use of social media can lead to severe personal and professional consequences.

These consequences can extend across your organisation. Some of the key risks associated with social media include:

• breach of participant privacy and confidentiality

• breach of participant consent

• the sharing of poor quality, unverified information

• the compromising of professional boundaries between participants and workers

• defamation of participants and/or workers

• unintended exposure of personal information

• the posting of content that does not accurately reflect your organisation or its values.

Practical guidelines for the disability space

To prevent harmful use of social media within your organisation, it is important to have appropriate policy structures in place. Your social media policy must acknowledge the usefulness of social media while having the guidelines in place to manage key risks.

Helpful guidelines you may want to consider implementing are outlined below.

Areas of implementation	Social media usage tips
Personal social media use	Have strict privacy settings on all social media profiles. Ensure public comments are always respectful and professional. Only post, share and discuss information that comes from trusted sources. Be aware that personal information, once shared, can stay online indefinitely and be shared by others. Avoid posting any information about participants on private social media channels. Ensure personal and professional social media profiles are kept separate.
Participant and worker boundaries	Avoid accepting participants as friends on any social media sites. Avoid sending participants friend requests or asking participants to join your personal online network. Ensure any online communications with participants are professional and respectful. If required, direct participants to suitable means of online communication (e.g. work email or professional website). Avoid giving support provision advice to other providers or people that are not your participants.
Mantaining participant privacy and confidentiality	Obtain participant consent before sharing any information related to them on social media (including audio-visual material). Be transparent with participants about what information will be posted and where it will be posted. Always comply with the organisation’s privacy, confidentiality and consent policies. Always comply with all applicable privacy legislation, including Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), NDIS Act 2013 (Cth) and The Australian Privacy Principles (APP). Check the backgrounds of all photos (to ensure participants’ photos are not shared inadvertently). Avoid giving support provision advice to other providers or people that are not your participants.
Worker relations	Communicate with colleagues professionally and respectfully at all times. Never engage in gossip or any other cyber-bullying behaviour.
Social media in the workplace	Set reasonable limitations on social media use in the workplace. If using social media for work purposes, know how it is to be used and by whom. Have clear and compliant guidelines for social media regarding tone and messaging. Outline responsibilities relating inappropriate social media activity (i.e. how this behaviour should be reported and to whom). Define processes for obtaining informed consent from participants. Manage any conflicts of interest related to social media use.

Although having a social media policy is not a core part of the NDIS Quality and Safeguarding Framework, any organisation utilising social media must implement a safe and structured approach. This approach should include policy documents that comply with ethical and legislative standards around employee responsibilities, privacy, confidentiality, consent and professional boundaries.

The scope of social media usage within the disability space is vast. In some clinical settings, there has been an outright ban. By contrast, some community-focused organisations have harnessed the power of social media to increase the visibility of their services. You may find yourself at either one of these extremes or somewhere in the middle. When it comes to your organisation, you have the power to make this decision.

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