Guides & templates for records teams.
Plain-English references for the people who keep the public record straight — free to download, written to be used.
Social media archiving buyer’s guide
Understand capture methods, compare vendor capabilities and plan your evaluation.
Read the buyer’s guideRequirements checklist and RFP template
Define your scope, ask twelve evidence-based questions and compare vendor responses. Includes a PDF workbook and browser worksheet.
Build your requirementsTest an archive before buying
Run twelve checks from capture to export, document limitations and keep an editable evaluation scorecard.
Plan your evaluationChange providers with a documented plan
Preserve access to legacy records, verify new capture and manage renewal deadlines. Includes an editable transition checklist.
Plan your transitionCompare archiving costs and pricing
Quote the same scope, model a busy month and account for transition costs.
Compare costsCheck an exported archive
Review records, media, metadata and integrity evidence outside the vendor application.
Review an exportTransfer account responsibilities
Verify access, connection ownership and capture when staff or suppliers change.
Plan a handoverBrolly vs ArchiveSocial / CivicPlus
Compare archiving scope, public-access requirements, pricing questions and the practical limits of switching.
Compare ArchiveSocial / CivicPlusBrolly vs Pagefreezer
Compare social media scope, account and record pricing, workflow evidence and historical access.
Compare PagefreezerPublic records law, all 50 states
Statute, response deadline, oversight body and FAQs for every state — a starting point for checking requirements with your records officer.
Find your stateTennessee Recordkeeping Guide
Federal and Tennessee legislation side by side, public-records obligations in plain English, and a bonus compliance checklist. Updated July 2026.
Get the guidePlan official-account responsibilities
Agree account purpose, records responsibilities and the local review process with your city clerk or records officer.
Open the starter packWhat do social media trends mean for education institutions?
The legal and community case for education archiving — how social platforms became records, and what districts and campuses should do about it.
Read the white paper9 social media trends for financial institutions
Where social media is taking regulated finance — engagement, risk and recordkeeping.
Read the white paperPrepare an end-of-term handover
Review account access, record locations and unresolved work before responsibilities change.
Open the handover packArticles & analysis
Compliance explainers, platform how-tos and product news from the Brolly team.
Read the blogPractical archiving workflows
Choose the task your team needs to complete. Each guide includes a worked example, evidence checks and a next step.
Records workflows
Scope, retain, find and protect your records.
7 guides
Records workflows
Scope, retain, find and protect your records.
How to archive social media posts for your organization
Build a repeatable capture process, preserve useful context and check that a colleague can retrieve the records later.
Build a social media records inventory
Identify official accounts, assign owners and record what belongs in your archiving scope before asking for quotes or changing providers.
Plan retention for social media records
Turn approved records decisions into a practical retention matrix, with clear owners, exceptions and disposal checks.
A practical social media compliance checklist
Map requirements to owners, evidence and review dates so a compliance discussion becomes a testable operating plan.
Search social media archives for a records request
Turn a request into a documented search, check the results and prepare an export for the authorized disclosure review.
Review chain-of-custody evidence in a social media archive
Inspect capture history, export handling and integrity checks without treating a checksum as proof of every part of the record.
Test access controls in a social media archive
Check who can view, export and administer records, including what happens when access is removed or an account owner changes.
Government and education
Put archiving into practice across public-sector teams.
2 guides
Government and education
Put archiving into practice across public-sector teams.
Implement a government social media archive
Move from an approved archiving requirement to an owned, tested operating service across departments and official accounts.
A school district social media records checklist
Bring district, school and activity accounts into a clear records workflow without confusing public posts with student information systems.
Capture and platforms
Check what each platform preserves and where the limits are.
8 guides
Capture and platforms
Check what each platform preserves and where the limits are.
Preserve and review edited social media posts
Test whether a supported edit can be traced from its earlier wording to the changed version and understood in context.
Handle deleted social media posts in your records workflow
Distinguish previously captured content from deletion signals and unavailable history, then record the limits of the evidence.
Archive an official Facebook Page: a buyer’s test plan
Compare a Page download with an ongoing records workflow, then test posts, conversations, media and account ownership.
Instagram archiving for organizational records
Separate Instagram’s account-management features from the job of preserving and retrieving official organizational records.
X and Twitter archiving for official accounts
Evaluate native account downloads and ongoing archive capture against the conversations and retrieval tasks your team needs.
Plan archiving for a LinkedIn Company Page
Define the boundary between Company Page records, member-account data and the content your archive can actually capture.
Evaluate TikTok archiving for an official account
Test video, captions and supported conversation context separately, and document what remains available outside TikTok.
Review YouTube video and comment archiving
Check the video, its description and supported comments as separate record components before accepting an archive workflow.
Buying decisions
Compare approaches and prepare your shortlist.
3 guides
Buying decisions
Compare approaches and prepare your shortlist.
Social media archive vs backup: compare the retrieval task
Choose between a one-time copy, a backup process and an archive by testing the record you will need to find later.
Compare manual and automated social media archiving
Use the same sample to compare staff effort, coverage checks, retrieval quality and failure handling.
Choose a social media archiving service: operating checklist
Clarify who operates the service, handles failures and supplies usable records throughout the contract and at exit.
Elected-official guides and working packs
Practical support for induction, moderation records and end-of-term handover.
Social media starter pack
Agree which accounts you use, who supports you and how official business reaches the records team. A working induction pack with examples and an action checklist.
Explore the resourceComments and moderation records pack
Work through criticism, complaints and sensitive comments with an agreed escalation route. Record the reason, authority and follow-up for each action without copying private case details into the pack.
Explore the resourceEnd-of-term social media handover pack
Plan account decisions, preserve required records and pass on outstanding matters before access changes. Includes a practical sequence, an account register and a handover sign-off.
Explore the resourceMake the case. Test the fit.
Working packs to prepare an internal proposal and evaluate an archive with evidence.
Social media archiving business case
A decision brief, an editable cost comparison and a worked example in one downloadable pack.
Explore the resourceSocial media archive acceptance test
Eight practical test scenarios, a results register, an issue log and a sign-off record. Includes a completed fictional example.
Explore the resourceResources for school teams
Practical help with account handovers, Facebook records and comment decisions.
School social media account handover checklist
Keep school Facebook and Instagram accounts accessible when staff change. Use a practical handover checklist and an editable account register.
Explore the resourceHow to download and check school Facebook Page records
Plan a school Facebook Page download, check what the files contain and record the gaps before relying on them as an archive.
Explore the resourceSchool social media comment moderation log
Give school staff a clear way to record comment decisions, preserve relevant context and pass unresolved issues to the right person.
Explore the resourceWant a walkthrough instead of a PDF?
Book a 20-minute recordkeeping review — we'll walk through your capture, search and export requirements.