CONvergence Social Media Policy for Convention Committee Members

CONvergence Social Media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and other social networking/media sites are a way to engage the CONvergence membership as a community throughout the year and cultivate a positive relationship between the membership and the CONvergence brand. CONvergence Social Media does not reach the entire CONvergence membership; it reaches members who have chosen to follow CONvergence Social Media and happen to be paying attention to it when something gets posted. Social media platforms should be regarded as a supplemental means of communication to emphasise messaging provided on the CONvergence website and via e-mail.

CONvergence Social Media refers to:

Although we frequently monitor them, the CONvergence Social Media Department does not have governance over:

  • Personal Facebook profiles
  • Facebook groups, pages, and events not owned by the convention
  • Twitter accounts not exclusively owned/administered by the convention
  • Tumblr blogs not exclusively owned/administered by the convention
  • Slack workspaces not exclusively owned/administered by the convention
  • The official hashtag (#CVG followed by the year, e.g. #CVG2018)
  • Unofficial hashtags

CONvergence Social Media may be used for:

  • Fun stuff designed to enhance the experience of CONvergence members
  • Supplemental communication channel for announcements and to facilitate information campaigns
  • Volunteer outreach and recruitment
  • Informal/anecdotal information gathering

You do need to go through the Social Media department to:

  • Request posts to be made on the social media profiles owned by the convention
  • Request Facebook events to be made on the CONvergence Facebook page
  • Get something problematic you see on CONvergence Social Media addressed appropriately
  • Get advice on how best to accomplish your CONvergence goals using social media

Contact the CONvergence Social Media Department by emailing [email protected].

You do not need to go through the Social Media department to:

  • Create an informal poll or ask a question about something related or unrelated to your department to the Facebook group, as long as you do not identify yourself as a representative of your department
  • Post fun stuff related or unrelated to your department to the Facebook group, as long as you do not identify yourself as a representative of your department
  • Post a call for volunteers to the Facebook group
  • Post reminders or information about things already on the CONvergence website to the Facebook group
  • Advise someone to email a CONvergence department to get an answer to their question

CONvergence Attendee Conduct Policies also apply for CONvergence Social Media…

CONvergence Social Media is considered virtual convention space. Everyone, including members of the ConCom are expected to comply with the CONvergence Member Conduct Policies when posting/commenting on or to CONvergence Social Media.

CONvergence Member Conduct Policies can be found at convergence-con.org/at-the-con/policies.

When you want to announce something on CONvergence Social Media…

If you have something you would like to communicate to the membership/public, email both [email protected] and [email protected] and we will figure out the best way to structure communication for what you are trying to accomplish.

Most announcements, information, and requests a department would want to make available to the membership and the public should first go out over the website and email list, and subsequently be posted to social media channels. Once the announcements are on the CONvergence website, they are considered official and public. The Social Media department can then publish them on CONvergence Social Media. Occasionally, a department may have a request for which it makes more sense to utilize only social media, but this is the exception.  Contact Social Media/Web Team to discuss if you feel that this may apply to your request.

When someone asks a question on or to CONvergence Social Media…

There are two acceptable ways to respond to someone asking a question about a CONvergence department, process, or policy on or to CONvergence Social Media:

  • Link them to the public information on the CONvergence website
  • Advise them to email their question to the relevant department

Anybody may answer questions in one of the two ways.

If the information is not already publicly available, do not use it to answer questions on social media. Ask the poster to email their question to the relevant department instead, even if it is your own department.

If your department is often asked the same question, please consider having the answer added to the CONvergence website by emailing a request to [email protected]. Doing so will save everyone time, including your own department, because that question will be answered with a link instead of a direction to email whenever it comes up.

Why we direct people to email…

There are several reasons we direct people on CONvergence Social Media to email departments:

  • Emails provide a permanent, easily tracked/documented digital paper trail.  Since people can delete or edit social media comments, posting volumes can be high, and searching social media is difficult, social media platforms are unreliable and inconvenient for documenting interactions with members, which can be very important for CONvergence.
  • Not all departments have the time, resources, or willingness to consistently check social media, so we do not want to set the expectation that members can get any question answered through CONvergence social media.
  • People on the social media platforms have no way to verify who is an official spokesperson for a department.
  • Unofficial answers can be confusing, might contain erroneous or outdated information, or just be rumors and speculation, so we want to minimize their presence and influence as much as possible.

Emails are an official answer from a department…

Please be aware that emails from official CONvergence Department e-mail addresses may be re-posted on social media.  If you do not want something to potentially be public information, don’t include it in an email to a CONvergence member.

Airing of grievances…

Do not post complaints about CONvergence on or to CONvergence Social Media. Attempting to address or resolve issues unofficially in public forums is counterproductive. If you have grievances, please go through official internal channels such as emailing a department directly, emailing your director, or emailing the entire board of directors.

Sharing polls and surveys…

Polls and surveys on social media platforms are allowed to be posted by anyone, but should be considered and communicated as informal, anecdotal, and unofficial. They will likely not reach a statistically significant number of CONvergence members and there will be inherent biases in the pool of respondents.  If your department would like to gather data from the CONvergence membership about a particular topic, please email [email protected] to inquire about having a question included in the annual CONvergence member survey.

Internal department Facebook groups and Slack workspaces…

Any department may make a Facebook group for internal communication and name it however they want to, provided the group meets the following requirements:

  • The group’s privacy is set to “private” so that it does not show up in public searches. This prevents members of the public confusing your internal department group with CONvergence Social Media.
  • The group must add the CONvergence Facebook Page (facebook.com/CONvergenceConMN) or their Division Director as an admin. This allows the organization to pass ownership of the group to a new department head if the department gets new leadership in the future.
  • All members of the group comply with CONvergence Member Conduct Policies. CONvergence Member Conduct Policies can be found at convergence-con.org/at-the-con/policies.

Any department may make a Slack workspace for internal communication and name it however they want to, provided the Slack meets the following requirements:

  • The Slack must add the CONvergence Social Media department ([email protected]) or their Division Director as an admin. This allows the organization to pass ownership of the Slack to a new department head if the department gets new leadership in the future.
  • All members of the Slack comply with CONvergence Member Conduct Policies. CONvergence Member Conduct Policies can be found at convergence-con.org/at-the-con/policies.