“Can social media content be a government record? Yes. The State Records Act 2000 (WA) defines a record as ‘information however recorded’, therefore any business-related content created by a government organisation using social media is subject to the same recordkeeping requirements as information created by other means. ”
Records Management Advice – Social Media Content as Government Records,
State Records Office of Western Australia
Your council’s role is more vital than ever, during floods, fires, pandemics or other emergencies.
Social media is an effective and increasingly popular way to reach out to your community with news, and important information about how to stay safe.
Connect your social media accounts to Brolly and within minutes you’re archiving seamlessly while your social media team gets on with the task of keeping your ratepayers and visitors informed.
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If you have councillors using public social media in their roles, archiving should be business as usual. There are also times during an election cycle when you need to think more about social media.
During the caretaker period in the lead up to elections, Western Australian councils need to follow many strict guidelines, especially when it comes to social media. During the election, councils must be careful not to publish any content that could impact the outcome or influence electors. For social media teams, this can feel a bit like walking on eggshells.
Brolly’s alerts and tagging make it easy to monitor and manage your social media and maintain a compliant archive of each published post and conversation. Your council’s election policies will include Find out more about council obligations for the caretaker period in your council’s caretaker policy or check the Local Government Act 1995 (WA).
Councillors often use a Facebook page as an engagement tool during elections. Onboarding after elected councillors have been sworn in, is a great time to get your councillors added into Brolly. Add each councillor in their own private ‘group’, so that while they’re doing official business online, their social media records are securely archived in a compliant record.
Councils can now empower their elected councillors to comply with recordkeeping laws, using Brolly groups. Each councillor becomes the administrator of their own Brolly sub account (group).
Meanwhile, you retain oversight of the overall Brolly account and can generate exports for all groups. Talk to us about whether Brolly groups is right for you.
The WA local government association provides a sample social media policy template on their website.
Official communications undertaken on behalf of the council, including on the council’s Social Media accounts and third party social media accounts must be created and retained as local government records in accordance with the council’s Record Keeping Plan and the State Records Act 2000. These records are also subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1992.
Download the Communications and Social Media Template Policy from the Governance and Organisational Services page on the Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA) website
Your social media posts are public records and need to be managed and retained to comply with legislation. The State Records Act 2000 (WA) includes electronic records such as social media.
If you’re using social media to conduct council business, you should be archiving those conversations. It’s the law. Connect Brolly to be compliant in minutes.
Say goodbye to hours of copying and pasting posts that constantly change. You’ll be fully compliant – and your customer service team will thank you.
Book a 20 minute call to learn how Brolly provides social media archiving that protects your records, ensures you’re compliant with recordkeeping and data privacy laws and can save your social media and record management teams hours of effort each week.
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