Social media policy

How we use social media

We use social media to promote the work of SYSRP and to share key road safety messages with the people of South Yorkshire. We principally use our Facebook and Twitter accounts to communicate with members of the public, staff and our partners. We post and share content about our work that we think our followers will find interesting or useful. We encourage people and organisations to follow us and to share our messages on their own social media accounts. Our social media content will include:

• information about our services, initiatives, events and campaigns

• advice for all road user groups about using the road safely

• news articles and press releases that are published on our website

• shared posts from other public sector/community organisations and individuals that are relevant to our followers

Moderation and third-party content

We welcome feedback, opinion and challenge via social media, but we ask that it is kept civil, tasteful and relevant. We will not block users or remove their content simply because they disagree with us. We do, however, reserve the right to delete any information from our page/profile/twitter feed that we feel is inappropriate. We will moderate:

• messages that are unlawful, libellous, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented or racially offensive, or contain bad language or swearing

• vexatious requests or comments

• repetitive content or so-called ‘spamming’

• content copied from elsewhere, for which you do not own the copyright

• content that publicises your, or anyone else's, personal information, such as contact details

• advertising products or services

• impersonation of another individual or organisation

We have to be selective about the information we share, as it could be seen as endorsement of a particular view, individual or organisation, and it’s important that we protect our impartiality. The following list gives an indication of the type of organisation that we will share content from (this is not an exhaustive list)

• Other safer roads/road safety partnerships

• Local authorities (including Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield Councils)

• Police forces (including South Yorkshire Police)

• Fire services (including South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue)

• Highways England

• Nationally-recognised road safety organisations (eg Brake, Road Safety GB, IAM Roadsmart, Child Accident Prevention Trust)

• Government departments (eg Department for Transport, DVSA, DVLA)

• Schools, colleges and universities

Liking, following and blocking

If you follow us on Twitter or 'like' us on Facebook we will not automatically 'follow you/like you' back – this would make the numbers too high for us to manage. We will sometimes follow or like people who provide information that is relevant to our work as a Partnership (for example central government accounts, local media, and our partners) or those whose information we can pass on for the benefit of the public. Occasionally we will lend our support to local and national campaigns that are connected to our services. We may follow or like an account in order to take part in conversations.Liking, following and sharing content does not mean endorsement.

Likes versus repost/retweet

We will generally only retweet organisations or members of the public that have specifically tagged us in their tweet or post.

We have fewer restrictions on what we can like, but will only do so if it is consistent with our overall key messages, aims and objectives.

Monitoring accounts, responding and replying

Our main social media accounts are monitored on weekdays during office hours, and by exception at other times. We use scheduling software to post messages outside of normal hours, so just because we have shared something it does not mean that our accounts are being actively monitored. If you ask us a question on social media we will aim to respond within five working days, but please be aware that:

• we can give a fuller response if you email us on enquiries@sysrp.co.uk (due to the confines of tweet character lengths etc)

• we may ask that a conversation be continued off social media. If you wish, and with your consent, we are happy to publish a summary of the conversation as a matter of public record

• our social media pages are run by a limited number of staff who will send your questions to service areas to find out information for you, meaning our response may not be immediate

• we will not engage in endless debate or respond to vexatious requests or comments or so-called ‘trolling’

If your query is serious, urgent, or involves personal information, please see our main contacts page.

Pre-election periods

Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield councils are constituent Partners in SYSRP. In the six-week run up to an election – local, mayoral, national, general or European – councils have to very careful not to do or say anything that could be seen in any way to support any political party or candidate. We will continue to publish important service announcements using social media but may have to remove responses if they are overtly party political.

Cases involving the Police

South Yorkshire Police is a constituent Partner in SYSRP, so we will refer all enquiries regarding traffic law enforcement to them for comment.
We are not able to comment on individual cases, both current and previous. Nor are we able to comment on police procedures or policies.

Your social media accounts

It is your responsibility to make sure that you have the appropriate privacy restrictions set up on your social media profile/page/feed to restrict what you want other people, including SYSRP, to see. There are many online resources to help you manage your personal information on social media; do a quick internet search for ‘privacy settings on social networking sites’ to find them.

Complaints or concerns

Please email enquiries@sysrp.co.uk if you believe that we have acted outside the scope of this policy, including:

• if you feel that you have been unfairly blocked or muted

• if you think that we have shared information that is misleading or inaccurate