The issues of who is allowed to post content on official agency social media pages and who is responsible for ensuring its accuracy came up frequently in our interviews and fourteen of the reviewed documents address content management in some way. Content management strategies range from some agencies exerting minimal editorial controls over content by allowing their employees to write freely in agency blogs on various mission related topics (e.g., US EPA), to other agencies that keep responsibility for content creation and management solely with the public information officer (e.g., City of Seattle, Washington).

In many cases, such as Fairfax County, VA, the responsibility for creating content is given to the department or individual who created the account, with the agency’s public information officer being responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the posted information and adherence to existing social media policies.

The question of content management with respect to an employees’ professional and personal use is left largely unexplored in policy and guideline documents. However, it was a concern for many of the professionals we interviewed. Outside of official agency social media pages, these professionals are more and more engaging in work-related group discussions on sites such as GovLoop or Linkedin and leaving online comments in response to work-related topics on external blogs. Ten of the 26 policies reviewed simply instruct their employees to always use a standard disclaimer that distances the employee’s opinions and content from the official agency position.

For example, the social media policy and guidelines for the US Air Force instructs employees to specify, through a disclaimer, that any comments provided by an employee on external social media sites are personal in nature and do not represent the views of the US Air Force. In addition, while not included in their guidelines or policy documents, the US Air Force developed a flowchart designed to help airmen decide how to respond to comments from the public when they come across discussions about the Air Force on social media sites.³