Cities Don't Need to Shy Away From Social Media, They Just Need To Consider Legal Issues Upfront

I was disappointed to read that a city in California plans to abandon its Facebook page due to legal concerns. While it's true that a municipal attorney's job is to spot potential problems and help head them off before they strike, it's unfortunate when that advice hampers a very useful communication tool for citizens.

None of the legal issues raised in the above-linked story are insurmountable, they just take some careful planning and consideration to ensure they're handled in a way that limits liability while maximizing the value to residents and city staff. In many cases, the tradeoffs involved in, for instance, a municipal Facebook page, will tip the balance towards keeping the page active.

On questions of censorship and First Amendment rights, cities can:

• Limit users' ability to post comments.
• Post explicit, carefully-crafted policy on how the Facebook forum is to be used if comments are allowed.
• Address borderline comments openly and respectfully in the same forum.
• Lead by example in keeping the conversation clean and productive.

For records retention concerns:

• Third-party services can help governments cheaply and easily incorporate Facebook and other social media content into records retention activities
• Archived social media posts can help city officials follow important issues of citizen concern

Regarding open meetings violations:

• A quorum of officials commenting on any online platform can be a violation, so why not use the opportunity to educate officials and benefit from social media?

On concerns of employee use:

• Cities need to have policies on official and personal social media use by employees. Eliminating an official Facebook page is not going to keep employees off of Facebook, nor will it keep them from discussing their jobs while online. Careful policy creation, training, and enforcement can enable employees to use social media in ways beneficial to the city and to themselves.

It's sad to see cities turn away from social media. Their citizens, employees, contractors, and current and potential businesses are leveraging social media. Cities should be, too.