New guidelines for social media

The CIPR’s annual conference recently debated to update its code of conduct to take account of new media such as blogging. Social media offers new opportunities, but also new challenges and problems which raises questions about how PRPs should engage with this. The “social media paper” outlines specific codes that shall apply to social media, for example does the paper recommend that:

“Any CIPR member running a personal blog, whether or not it deals with PR related issues, should normally state on it the nature of their employment. When posting a comment on another blog it may also be advisable to state that
you work in the public relations profession … if a blog comment results in a complaint to the CIPR alleging a breach of the Code of Conduct, the onus will be on the member to show why he did not include that information”.

The paper emphasises that employees should be aware that posting information about their company on for example, their personal blogs, may not necessarily be isolated from their working life, as any information published online can be accessed around the world and will be publicly available for all to see. The consultation also considers a range of legal issues such as intellectual property and invasion of privacy.

The fact that the CIPR is setting up separate codes for social media does in my view certainly indicate that the rise of new media has a significant effect on the PR profession, and that the industry is in the process of facing the challenges new media poses. I believe it is a positive development, although, the current CIPR’s principles should certainly apply to new media as well, it is arguably necessary with specific codes that outlines how PRPs should deal with social media. What do you think? Have a look at the "social media paper" and have your say!