Strategies for managing social media records
Learn how to effectively manage social media records in public offices.
Use of social media in the NSW government
NSW Government offices have a strong and growing social media presence and use social media for a wide range of official activities. Social media data resulting from or demonstrating an official action is a State record and must be managed accordingly.
These guidelines clarify how public offices can meet their recordkeeping obligations when using social media.
Types of social media
There are many forms of social media applications. Types of applications used in NSW government include:
- micro-blogging sites (examples: X, formerly Twitter)
- weblogs, or 'blogs' – online diaries for pictures and updates (examples: Tumblr, Blogger)
- social and professional networking sites (examples: Facebook, LinkedIn, Yammer)
- video and photo sharing websites (examples: Instagram, YouTube, Flikr, Pinterest)
- wikis and online collaboration tools (examples: Wikipedia, Sharepoint)
- forums and discussion boards (examples: Google Groups, Ning, Whirlpool)
- video on demand and podcasting (examples: SoundCloud)
Information in social media applications needs to be managed
If this information is needed by your organisation to help conduct its business, then you will need to apply information management strategies to your social media data.
Only manage the social media information that meets your business needs
Not all social media posts have continuing value for your business – you only need manage those that provide evidence of official positions, activities or decisions. The information in social systems that you need to manage is governed by your organisation's specific requirements. Business requirements could include the need to:
- integrate information received through social media with business-as-usual processes, or business improvement strategies
- keep social media information of long-term business value
- allow the standard rules and accountabilities operating in the organisation to apply to social systems.
A basic rule of thumb to apply to information in social systems is: If you need it, manage it. If you don't need it, leave it.
Social media information strategies must be planned and proactive
Social media information strategies need to be proactive, not reactive. This is necessary because, in general, social media applications are:
- third party owned
- located in the cloud
- subject to regular change
- unable to be relied upon to maintain business information for as long as it may need to be kept.
The providers of social media systems take no responsibility for the retention of information on their systems. Therefore, if your organisation is likely to need the business information you are generating through these social systems, you need to plan for this information to be kept.
Management strategies for social media information
There are a range of information management strategies you can apply to your social systems, based on your specific business needs and risks.
The strategy you choose needs to be based on an analysis and understanding of business needs and risks. You may need to choose different information management strategies for each of the different social media channels used. This can depend on the different levels of traffic, risk and discussion within these channels.
Any information management strategy you choose should be regularly reviewed. Your organisation’s use of social media may move from a fairly passive use to active and engaged.
As social media channels become more widely accepted for business communication and engagement in your organisation, it is likely there will be a greater need for effective management of the information generated.
What this means
You choose not to capture and keep information of your social media business operations in internal systems. Choosing instead to leave your business information in its native social media application.
For example: You do not export any tweets out of X/Twitter. Instead you choose to leave all tweets, retweets, mentions etc in your X/Twitter account.
It is important to note that you cannot choose a default ‘leave the information where it is’ strategy, it must be a specific risk-based decision.
Why would I choose this?
You would employ this strategy if there is no information in your social media application that will be required in the future, either as evidence of actions your organisation performed, or official advice it gave. If this strategy is employed, all staff who require access to this information must be able to gain access to it through the social media system.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Does not guarantee ongoing accessibility of business information | Many social media service contracts give providers the right to permanently remove content at any time, without recourse. There are no guarantees that social media-based information will remain accessible. |
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Could result in unacceptable risks | If business reporting or legal requirements mean that you will need to access your social media information for 2 or more years, it may be an unacceptable risk to rely on social media applications to maintain this information for you. |
Needs to be deployed following specific risk-based decisions | Leaving information in social systems should not be a default strategy – you need to actively assess and accept all associated risks before making this choice. |
What this means
You capture regular, scheduled downloads of your social media information using freely available online tools.
Why would I choose this?
You would choose this strategy if you wanted to keep simple yet comprehensive information about of your social media transactions. Available tools are also online, easy to use and frequently free or available at a very low cost.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Requires scheduling | This strategy requires someone to perform regular downloads of social media content and to capture this information into an appropriate storage location. If this is not performed, the risk is irregular, non-systematic information management. |
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Generates standard data dumps | This strategy creates data dumps in standard formats which may require additional processing in order to be reused for or incorporated in other business purposes |
Results in data duplication
| Online tools that can generate these downloads are often designed as data backup tools. They will generally download all data in your social media account and will not necessarily enable you to specify that you only want data from a specific time period. This can lead to duplication in your social media information, particularly for active accounts. |
What tools can be used to do this?
- Cloud-based backup systems like Backupify
- Social media monitoring or dashboard tools
- Reporting tools that come with social media applications, such as Facebook Activity Logs
- Analytic tools, such as Google Analytics or blog software analytics
What this means
You use a social media monitoring tool to capture information about your social media conversations as well as reactions to this engagement.
Why would I choose this?
Monitoring tools can capture both social conversations and also reactions to your conversations and operations. As such they can provide information and business intelligence about your social engagement.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
May be hampered by a lack of export capacity in some tools | Risks may arise if the monitoring tool you are using is unable to fully export data into your corporate business systems. |
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May be hampered because some tools export data in limited formats | Some systems may only export information in formats designed to support machine processing, such as CSV, rather than formats that support information dissemination or business use and reference. |
Can be costly | Some monitoring tools can require a more significant financial investment than other, simpler strategies. |
Case study: A number of NSW government organisations use monitoring tools
Government organisations are using monitoring tools and exporting information out of these tools to use for business and information management purposes.
For example, some organisations are using monitoring tools to:
- identify all tweets that mention the organisation or its products and services, in order to monitor public opinion of the organisation or reaction to its services
- track the organisation's own tweets and any responses to these
- track the rise and fall in followers, likes or retweets
- compile broad metrics to assess the impact of their social engagement.
The benefit of using these systems for information management purposes is that they overlay social media information with business intelligence. They are valuable for business reporting and can therefore serve multiple business purpose rather than just a specific information management objective.
What tools can be used to do this?
- Social media monitoring or dashboard tools
- Reporting tools that come with social media applications, such as Facebook Activity Logs
- Analytic tools, such as Google Analytics or blog software analytics
What this means
You deploy information management strategies as specific needs arise.
Why would I choose this?
You would deploy a needs-based strategy if most of your social media traffic was very low risk conversations. However, if a specific issue arose or if you wished to consult on a particular project, you could deploy an information management strategy to capture these specific conversations.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Requires ownership and management | If no one takes ownership of information management when it is required, the risk is a strategy will not be deployed to support higher risk conversations. |
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Requires active awareness and engagement | This strategy requires an active understanding of your social systems and an awareness of when more high- risk transactions and conversations are taking place, and an understanding of what information management strategy should be deployed to support these. |
Case study: Using needs-based information management as a strategy when things go wrong
On its Facebook page, an organisation posted details of a community event it was running in a regional area. For the next several days there was a large negative reaction to this event and many negative comments were made on the Facebook page. The organisation ultimately managed to diffuse and deal with this reaction but they used screenshots to capture their initial post and all subsequent responses to it.
This strategy allowed the information management team to:
- compile reports to management on the significant public reaction
- provide intelligence and lessons learned for future event planning and communications
- protect the organisation against any defamation or legal action that could possibly have resulted
What tools can be used to do this?
- Cloud-based back up systems like Backupify
- Cloud-based information services such as Social Safe and Archive Social
- Social media monitoring or dashboard tools
- General third party, cloud-based reporting tools like Storify
- RSS feed
- Screenshots
What this means
Documents compiled to report on social media campaigns and strategies are maintained as information about these campaigns and strategies.
Why would I choose this?
If you need to compile regular reports to assess the performance of your social media strategy against identified benchmarks, then good information that summarises social media operations is already being created. Managing this can provide good ongoing information about your strategy.
This strategy is particularly effective for campaign-based social media use as it provides regular information that can help focus messages, respond to feedback and improve performance, while also providing an ongoing record of social media operations.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Needs to be reassessed if social media becomes normalised | Regular reporting on social media strategies may only take place for a specific period of time. If social strategies become business as usual processes and continue to operate beyond identified reporting periods, new strategies may be required to capture any required business information |
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Creates high level, not operational information | Reports generally capture high level information about communications and metrics. If more detailed information about specific social media transactions is required by operational staff, other forms of information may be required to support these business needs |
What this means
You capture information from your social systems in order to reuse this information for future business purposes.
Why would I choose this?
You would adopt this strategy if you are performing many transactions on your social sites and there is the potential for cost, time and performance efficiencies through the effective reuse of the information generated through these transactions. The information for reuse strategy involves capturing information about advice provided on social systems in a spreadsheet, database or other searchable and accessible environment.
When similar advice is required in the future it does not have to be redeveloped but can be copied and reposted as required. This provides benefits through the provision of consistent advice and can also assist if many different staff across your organisation are providing customer service through your social channels.
This strategy is particularly effective for campaign-based social media use as it provides regular information that can help focus messages, respond to feedback and improve performance, while also providing an ongoing record of social media operations.
You would not choose this strategy if you require specific evidence of each instance of advice provided.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Must be fit for purpose | If reuse strategies are not well designed and fit for purpose, there is the potential that information reuse may not be efficient or result in time or cost savings. Appropriate assessments need to be made to identify what information should be captured to enable easy and effective search and retrieval. |
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Does not provide evidential or accountability | This strategy creates reusable information, not evidence and accountabilities for high risk business areas. If evidence and accountabilities are required, use the ‘information management for accountability’ strategy below. |
Must be supported by all relevant staff
| If all necessary staff are not engaged in capturing relevant information, comprehensive information will not be available for reuse. Tools used for harvesting need to be accessible to and updatable by all relevant staff. |
Must be supported by clear guidelines | Staff need clear advice about what information they need to capture into these tools and how they can reuse the data in the tools. Advice about common keywords or terms used to aid information retrieval can help to ensure information is accessible. |
What this means
You deploy a rigorous management approach to certain of your social media activities. You capture full and accurate records of these social media posts.
Why would I choose this?
You would choose this approach if:
- high risk business operations are moving to social systems
- you have long term business and community accountabilities in these business areas
- you need clear accountability and evidence of advice provided via social media and of your social media transactions
- your organisation has a high risk profile and needs to be able to fully account for its public statements and operations
In all of these scenarios, a rigorous information management strategy will ensure strong evidence of your social media operations is accessible, accountable and useable for as long as you require it.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Can be expensive to implement effectively | Purpose built software tools can be expensive to design, configure and deploy but this cost could be justified in certain circumstances |
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Is a maximalist This approach could capture unnecessary information | This is a comprehensive strategy that will capture a lot of transactional information, some of which may be unnecessary to capture and retain. |
Requires good configuration and management | Because of the volume of information that potentially will be captured, systems used for this strategy need to be well designed and configured. |
Case study: Accountabilities don’t change in social environments and so rigorous information management may be required
A large government department operates in a high risk, complex, litigious business environment with lots of stakeholders and lots of necessary community consultation.
To broaden the reach of their communications, they have moved most of this consultation to social media. As a business and communication strategy, this is a sensible approach but as part of this approach, information governance and information management needs must also be considered.
Given the contentious and long term implications of their business processes and decisions, the legal rules that apply to their business mean that they have to keep the records of their public consultation for many years. These legislative requirements do not change because business processes have moved to social systems.
What tools can be used to do this?
- Purpose built social media information management systems, available from a variety of vendors have the capacity for this management
Another advantage of comprehensive and purpose built systems is their capacity to capture, manage and leverage much of the native metadata attached to social media communications. Leveraging this metadata in these systems allows social media content to be navigated, authenticated, managed and used.
What this means
Some large organisations, such as those involved in emergency management, need to be able to communicate mass broadcasts in emergency situations and communicate these messages through multiple delivery channels.
Why would I choose this?
These systems would be adopted by your organisation if it has business needs for large-scale or pre-programmed communication.
What are the risks of this approach from an information management perspective?
This strategy:
Does not guarantee ongoing information accessibility | In terms of information management, there are no guarantees that the information maintained in the broadcast system will remain accessible for long periods of time. |
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Requires a strategic understanding of information needs | The majority of information in these systems will generally be secure for the life of the system, but if the system is upgraded, replaced or decommissioned, you will need to determine if any information in the system needs to be kept for ongoing business or legal purposes. |
May require export capacity to ensure ongoing accessibility of information of long-term value | If communications generated by the system need to be kept for long periods of time, or if they need to be presented in court cases, these may need to be exported out of the broadcast system and managed elsewhere for as long as they are required. For high value information, it may be easier to export this regularly after an emergency event out of the system and store it in a central business system, rather than determine at system decommissioning what information requires export for ongoing support and management. If there is a chance that this information will be needed in legal cases, governance around any information export and system decommissioning processes should be rigorous and clearly demonstrate the comprehensiveness and accuracy of these processes. |
Use the right information management strategy
You need to base your information management strategies on what your specific business needs are.
If these communications are routine and you have no business needs to maintain information about them:
- consider the leave the information where it is strategy and leave all information in the social media application/s you are using.
If you need basic information about these communications for reporting or monitoring purposes:
- consider a monthly or half yearly export of your messages using the low level information management strategy.
If these conversations are routine, self contained or provide standard advice and you have no business needs to maintain information about them:
- consider the leave the information where it is strategy and leave all information in the social media application/s you are using.
If advice provided by staff is not routine in nature, if it is complex or involves vulnerable clients or relates to ongoing matters or needs to be referred to by other staff members for advice:
- these conversations require much more rigorous management. Processes need to be in place to export these conversations for case management, business continuity and/or accountability purposes.
- consider deploying a needs-based information management strategy or an information management for accountability strategy, depending on which best meets your business needs.
If there is a business need to use the public feedback received through social media:
- consider deploying a needs-based information management strategy or an information management for accountability strategy, depending on which best meets your specific business needs.
If these videos provide routine advice to your community and you have no specific business or accountability needs to maintain them:
- consider the leave the information where it is strategy and leave your videos on YouTube until you no longer have a corporate need for them, then delete.
If these videos are significant, explain an important policy or mark a significant public statement or new public direction for your organisation:
- develop an appropriate management plan for your corporate video before it is uploaded to YouTube.
Content exported out of YouTube and back into corporate systems can be of lesser quality than the original uploaded content. Organisations frequently do not maintain copies of video content on internal servers when it is accessible via sharing mechanisms like YouTube. For high value or significant videos, however, it can be important to maintain a copy in internal systems.
If this monitoring is routine and informative and does not result in significant changes to your business and you have no ongoing business needs to reference this data into the future:
- consider the leave the information where it is strategy and leave all information in your social media monitoring tool.
If the monitoring data informs planning and decision making in your organisation and is needed as justification for changes in policy direction:
- consider a monitoring-based information management strategy or a needs-based information management strategy.
Organisations can be responsible under defamation legislation for defamatory content that others post on corporate social media accounts.
If you have concerns about defamatory or obscene content that is posted on your social media channels:
- use a needs-based information management strategy to capture a record of inappropriate content in case legal or other business needs arise to explain your actions and then remove the offensive content from your social channel.
- use internal information management processes to manage the offensive content removed from your site.
Tools for capturing social media information
As social media is an evolving technology, there are no defined, best practice ways for making and keeping social media information as a business asset.
Organisations also use different social media channels, in a variety of different ways and for various different types of business operations.
Given there are no easy answers for how you should capture and manage your social media information, you should choose the strategies that best meet your business needs and technological environment, while making a full assessment of the potential risks involved.
Records and information management staff can deploy social media monitoring tools
Rather than rely on business areas to make and keep business information of their social media activities, records staff can deploy social media dashboards and monitoring tools to monitor all internal social media accounts and to export the information from these accounts as required.
Services in this area are subject to change
While many free online services offer useful functionality, these technologies are evolving rapidly and may become unavailable with little warning.
Many free services are experimenting with formats, functionalities and services and the capacities they offer may change quite regularly
The table below lists a range of strategies for capturing and keeping your social media information, and the pros and cons associated with each approach.
This does not constitute an endorsement or provide an exhaustive list of vendors or products offering tools or services for social media information management, instead it provides details of products and services we are aware of.
We welcome suggestions for new content on this list, please contact State Records NSW to suggest new tools or services. We will update this list periodically but cannot guarantee the currency of this advice. We welcome vendors providing us with updates to the descriptions of their products and services.
Tool/approach | Pros | Cons |
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Leaving data in its native social media application | No separate information management effort required No additional software or applications required Staff using the application will know how to access and use the information it contains Short term value information is not likely to be at risk | Long term value or high accountability information will be at risk due to projected frequency of system change Risks to ongoing information accessibility exist because information remains under the control of an external third party Limited corporate information accessibility if a log-in is required to view or use data |
Using available APIs to regularly export your information from social media applications | Information is regularly exported into corporate system Corporate information is brought back into corporate control Exported information can be fed into all relevant business systems and processes | Technical knowledge is required APIs can change and so API-based export strategies may require ongoing update Different APIs will be required for each social media channel |
Cloud-based social media archiving services | These types of social media archiving services can capture content from a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube. These services captures the context or full native record of social medial information in JSON/XML formats and directly from the social media platform. | |
Cloud-based back up systems like Backupify | Free, basic online services Support a wide variety of social media applications Information can be regularly exported Corporate information can be brought back into corporate control Some information is exported in open, non-proprietary formats (For example, Backupify generated Twitter reports are in PDF) These services work with a range of social media channels, including Google apps | These tools are back up tools, not information management tools. Their interfaces and data exports are designed to satisfy IT and backup requirements, not business or information management needs. For example, Facebook data is exported by Backupify in JSON which meets backup needs but which is not readable or accessible for standard business environments. With these tools, export of information out of social media applications is automated but downloading of this information out of the cloud is not. Downloading and capturing into corporate systems must still be performed as a manual, scheduled process. As they provide backup services, these tools generally download all your social media information, not information from a specific time period. The same legacy data will generally be downloaded each time you do a backup, resulting in significant amounts of duplication for high transaction accounts. These services also change. For example, in late 2012 Backupify announced that it would no longer provide backup services for LinkedIn accounts. |
Local backup systems such as Digi.me | Support a wide variety of social media applications Snapshot copies of your data onto local servers | Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose Free basic online services, scaling to fees for full service options |
Application specific export tools like Instaport | Application specific tools (like Instaport which exports images in Instagram) are available for information export. Generally free, online services Generally export to widely open, accessible formats | Dependent on log-in access to social media account where content is housed Instaport exports in .zip file which may not be the most efficient for reuse purposes May be limits on the number of images or other forms of social media content that can be downloaded For images, you may need to assess whether full metadata attached to each image, such as location coding is maintained through export process. For images, export format may be limited (for example, Instaport exports images as 612 x 612 pixels) and may be smaller with lesser image quality than the original image. |
Social media monitoring or dashboard tools | Many third-party, cloud-based tools are available for free, such as HootSuite Can aggregate information from several social media channels Can piggyback information management needs on the back of existing reporting or monitoring arrangements Provide reporting and listening services to monitor the effectiveness and impact of your social media presence
| Limited information accessibility if a log-in is required to view or use data There may be limits on the reporting and analysis information that is available for export Key business intelligence and reporting information is contained in reports and analysis so exportability of this information needs may vary Some organisations use licensed applications such as Radian6 and Alterion. While offering good functionality, these systems can be expensive to deploy and maintain and the exportability of their information needs to be verified |
Export tools associated with blog or wiki technologies | Free tools offered as part of blog or wiki services Simple to use Can export some or all of your content, depending on your specific business needs Export information in open formats which can enable reuse and repurposing
| Not all blogs or wikis have export capacities Export is often limited to specific formats. For example, Wordpress version 3.8.1 exports all content only in XML. Export is primarily designed to carry data from one blog or wiki version to another, not for business reuse or ongoing information management purposes. Information may require subsequent processing to render it in formats suitable for specific business use. |
Reporting tools that come with your social media application, such as Facebook Activity Logs | Free, online services Generally export to PDF and other widely open, accessible formats Capture all activities that occur on social media sites | Export needs to be manually performed Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose
|
Analytic tools, like Google Analytics or blog software analytics | Free, online services Useful for monitoring blog use, search engine terms, referring sites, top posts and pages Some information can be exported Some corporate information analysis can be brought back into corporate control | May not export reports May not export reports in business-ready formats May need to be supported with screenshots, written reports or other ways of capturing the business information |
General third party, cloud-based reporting tools like Storify | Free, online services Can allow you to gather a range of disparate social media information sources into one place to tell a story Particularly useful for capturing different sets of online information about events or conferences | Export functionality may not be present |
Use a purpose-built software tool | Can be designed to meet your specific business requirements Can be designed to integrate and share information with your corporate business applications Can provide a very comprehensive and accountable recordkeeping solution Information capture and management can be automated | May involve initial purchase and subsequent licensing costs Will take time and money to implement effectively Will possibly need to be upgraded as social media applications and approaches change |
RSS feed | Free Useful for a range of social media applications Useful for auto-populating Twitter and Facebook based on blog updates Can be configured to send an email containing a complete blog post, or tweet or comment etc to a designated account
| Emails will require manual intervention to capture into corporate systems for accessibility and useability |
Screenshots | Information can be kept Information can be kept in accessible formats Images provide an exact representation of the content as it appeared in the social media application and have been submitted as evidence in legal cases | Information needs to be manually updated Information will require regular staff commitment to keep up to date Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose For active accounts, there will be a significant cost in staff time |
Reports of pre-scheduled posts | Information is compiled as part of process of developing and authorising social media posts | Information is not an exact representation of what was posted on social media sites but is an approved records of what was authorised to post |
Tool/approach Leaving data in its native social media application Pros No separate information management effort required No additional software or applications required Staff using the application will know how to access and use the information it contains Short term value information is not likely to be at risk Cons Long term value or high accountability information will be at risk due to projected frequency of system change Risks to ongoing information accessibility exist because information remains under the control of an external third party Limited corporate information accessibility if a log-in is required to view or use data |
Tool/approach Using available APIs to regularly export your information from social media applications Pros Information is regularly exported into corporate system Corporate information is brought back into corporate control Exported information can be fed into all relevant business systems and processes Cons Technical knowledge is required APIs can change and so API-based export strategies may require ongoing update Different APIs will be required for each social media channel |
Tool/approach Cloud-based social media archiving services Pros These types of social media archiving services can capture content from a variety of social media platforms, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, Pinterest and YouTube. These services captures the context or full native record of social medial information in JSON/XML formats and directly from the social media platform. Cons |
Tool/approach Cloud-based back up systems like Backupify Pros Free, basic online services Support a wide variety of social media applications Information can be regularly exported Corporate information can be brought back into corporate control Some information is exported in open, non-proprietary formats (For example, Backupify generated Twitter reports are in PDF) These services work with a range of social media channels, including Google apps Cons These tools are back up tools, not information management tools. Their interfaces and data exports are designed to satisfy IT and backup requirements, not business or information management needs. For example, Facebook data is exported by Backupify in JSON which meets backup needs but which is not readable or accessible for standard business environments. With these tools, export of information out of social media applications is automated but downloading of this information out of the cloud is not. Downloading and capturing into corporate systems must still be performed as a manual, scheduled process. As they provide backup services, these tools generally download all your social media information, not information from a specific time period. The same legacy data will generally be downloaded each time you do a backup, resulting in significant amounts of duplication for high transaction accounts. These services also change. For example, in late 2012 Backupify announced that it would no longer provide backup services for LinkedIn accounts. |
Tool/approach Local backup systems such as Digi.me Pros Support a wide variety of social media applications Snapshot copies of your data onto local servers Cons Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose Free basic online services, scaling to fees for full service options |
Tool/approach Application specific export tools like Instaport Pros Application specific tools (like Instaport which exports images in Instagram) are available for information export. Generally free, online services Generally export to widely open, accessible formats Cons Dependent on log-in access to social media account where content is housed Instaport exports in .zip file which may not be the most efficient for reuse purposes May be limits on the number of images or other forms of social media content that can be downloaded For images, you may need to assess whether full metadata attached to each image, such as location coding is maintained through export process. For images, export format may be limited (for example, Instaport exports images as 612 x 612 pixels) and may be smaller with lesser image quality than the original image. |
Tool/approach Social media monitoring or dashboard tools Pros Many third-party, cloud-based tools are available for free, such as HootSuite Can aggregate information from several social media channels Can piggyback information management needs on the back of existing reporting or monitoring arrangements Provide reporting and listening services to monitor the effectiveness and impact of your social media presence
Cons Limited information accessibility if a log-in is required to view or use data There may be limits on the reporting and analysis information that is available for export Key business intelligence and reporting information is contained in reports and analysis so exportability of this information needs may vary Some organisations use licensed applications such as Radian6 and Alterion. While offering good functionality, these systems can be expensive to deploy and maintain and the exportability of their information needs to be verified |
Tool/approach Export tools associated with blog or wiki technologies Pros Free tools offered as part of blog or wiki services Simple to use Can export some or all of your content, depending on your specific business needs Export information in open formats which can enable reuse and repurposing
Cons Not all blogs or wikis have export capacities Export is often limited to specific formats. For example, Wordpress version 3.8.1 exports all content only in XML. Export is primarily designed to carry data from one blog or wiki version to another, not for business reuse or ongoing information management purposes. Information may require subsequent processing to render it in formats suitable for specific business use. |
Tool/approach Reporting tools that come with your social media application, such as Facebook Activity Logs Pros Free, online services Generally export to PDF and other widely open, accessible formats Capture all activities that occur on social media sites Cons Export needs to be manually performed Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose
|
Tool/approach Analytic tools, like Google Analytics or blog software analytics Pros Free, online services Useful for monitoring blog use, search engine terms, referring sites, top posts and pages Some information can be exported Some corporate information analysis can be brought back into corporate control Cons May not export reports May not export reports in business-ready formats May need to be supported with screenshots, written reports or other ways of capturing the business information |
Tool/approach General third party, cloud-based reporting tools like Storify Pros Free, online services Can allow you to gather a range of disparate social media information sources into one place to tell a story Particularly useful for capturing different sets of online information about events or conferences Cons Export functionality may not be present |
Tool/approach Use a purpose-built software tool Pros Can be designed to meet your specific business requirements Can be designed to integrate and share information with your corporate business applications Can provide a very comprehensive and accountable recordkeeping solution Information capture and management can be automated Cons May involve initial purchase and subsequent licensing costs Will take time and money to implement effectively Will possibly need to be upgraded as social media applications and approaches change |
Tool/approach RSS feed Pros Free Useful for a range of social media applications Useful for auto-populating Twitter and Facebook based on blog updates Can be configured to send an email containing a complete blog post, or tweet or comment etc to a designated account
Cons Emails will require manual intervention to capture into corporate systems for accessibility and useability |
Tool/approach Screenshots Pros Information can be kept Information can be kept in accessible formats Images provide an exact representation of the content as it appeared in the social media application and have been submitted as evidence in legal cases Cons Information needs to be manually updated Information will require regular staff commitment to keep up to date Information is flat and not dynamically available to reuse or repurpose For active accounts, there will be a significant cost in staff time |
Tool/approach Reports of pre-scheduled posts Pros Information is compiled as part of process of developing and authorising social media posts Cons Information is not an exact representation of what was posted on social media sites but is an approved records of what was authorised to post |