Using social media safely

Social media allows conversations to happen between your club and the people important to your club, whether that's your members, volunteers, players, supporters, parents or sponsors.

Social media can add a more informal and personal touch to your marketing and by creating a strong online community, you will strengthen your organisation in the 'real' world.

Social media and social networking sites are accessible, quick, cost-effective and user-friendly once you get going.

Before you get started you should think about what social media platform is right for your organisation. Consider:

• How you want to use social media and what you want to achieve. 
• Which social media sites are the most popular with your target audience (e.g. members, parents, players, sponsors etc). 
• The resources you need, including who has the skills to manage your group's social media presence.

While social media provides excellent tools for helping you engage with members and the public, it can also present a number of risks such as: 

• Cyber bullying  through posts which are upsetting and often inaccurate 
• Causing offence to individuals, or other clubs and organisations 
• Exposure to inappropriate content, or nasty comments and pictures 

Developing a Social Media Policy and nominating a Social Media Officer are great first steps to being safe on social media.

Develop a social media policy 

Developing a social media policy that sets out how it should be used and managed to protect your group and your members is a good place to start.

You don’t need to start from scratch, many of the behaviours and actions you would consider to be unacceptable in the 'real' world, are also unacceptable online. So make your social media policy an extension of your code of conduct and use our guidance to give you a helping hand. 

Nominate a social media officer 

Decide who will have responsibility for the set-up, management and moderation of your social media. 

Ensure they are suitably trained and aware of online safeguarding issues, and support them by making sure the rest of your club are aware of your social media policy and their responsibilities online. 

Child protection online 

The Child Protection Support Unit (CPSU) has a wealth of resources available, including an online webinar, to help you and your sports club understand and prevent the safeguarding risks posed to children and young people from online media.

Remember: protect your members and your organisation from being accused of not managing your social media responsibly. This could ultimately damage the reputation of your club.