“Use your nouse” – South Northants councillors given new guidelines for social media use

The district council will dish out new guidelines to councillors on how to use mediums such as Facebook and Twitter as they can ‘pose risks to your own and the council’s reputations’ if not used in the right way.

The council’s Conservative cabinet agreed to the new guidelines when they met on Monday (October 12), with the advice also applicable for LinkedIn, Wikipedia, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube and all other social networking sites and blogs.

The new guidance states: “You must make sure that your personal use of social media does not involve unprofessional or inappropriate conduct and does not interfere with your responsibilities, duties and productivity as a member.

“Although there are advantages in members having separate social media accounts for personal use and member work, this may not be practical or desirable for everyone. Also, separate accounts may give the false impression that contentious or immoderate statements on a personal account are acceptable. These statements would be likely to be picked up by the media regardless of which account was being used. It is more important to ensure that caution and common sense is always used on social media rather than focus on which account and capacity you are using at the time.”

Members have been given 12 rules they need to obey when using social media, including not making ‘false or misleading’ statements, and engaging in harassment, bullying or unlawfully discriminating against anyone.

Councillor Dermot Bambridge said: “It needs to be made clear to members who are using social media to study this most carefully. There are so many traps you can fall into in all innocence that it really is something we should take most seriously.

“Blood rises a little bit and it’s only too easy to say something and when said it can’t be taken back again, and we need to really tread along the line. When you’re sitting on the computer at 10pm, you’ve had two large glasses of red wine and somebody has just said something that upsets you, need I say more?”

And assistant chief executive Peter Holt added: “The best way to avoid trouble is to use your nouse in the first place.”