10 FAH-1 H-060
SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT
(CT:ASH-8; 12-19-2018)
(Office of Origin: R/PPR)
10 FAH-1 H-061 MISSIONS' DIGITAL ENGAGEMENT STRATEGIES
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
An overarching strategic plan for social media engagement is essential to ensure that a mission's or bureau's resource commitment aligns with Department priorities. To develop social media strategies, missions and bureaus should set goals, determine the objectives that will advance those goals, define a mechanism for creating a common narrative and voice, establish measurements of success, and ensure proper management and oversight structures are in place. The mission's Public Affairs Section (PAS) provides primary leadership in using social media and other digital engagement for official external communications. The PAS should coordinate amongst and include contributions from all sections and agencies to ensure the mission or bureau effectively uses its social media and digital engagement to communicate its diplomatic and development work as well as issues of U.S. national interest.
10 FAH-1 H-062 Planning
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Missions must submit a short annual summary of planned social media activities to advance mission goals to the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy Office of Policy, Planning, and Resources (R/PPR) and the appropriate regional public diplomacy (PD) office as part of the Public Diplomacy Implementation Plan, often referred to as the "PDIP".
b. Missions that decide to develop optional detailed social media strategies are strongly encouraged to follow the strategy framework presented in this section and submit the social media strategy, approved by the front office, to the appropriate regional bureau PD office. Regional PD offices in Washington may use these strategies to prioritize resource allocations and to help shape Washington-driven content creation and distribution to better support policy priorities in the field. Missions should consider their regional PD offices - and these offices' designated digital coordinators - to be their primary points of contact in Washington when developing mission-wide strategies.
10 FAH-1 H-063 STRATEGY FRAMEWORK
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a Missions and bureaus should use social media and other digital engagement technologies to reach target audiences and achieve specific outcomes relevant to their mission goals. A strategy should define the role social media will play in accomplishing the mission's overall outreach goals.
b Factors to consider in evaluating the quality of the engagement include:
(1) Success or failure in reaching the target audience;
(2) Other audiences that were reached, either in addition to or instead of the target audience; and
(3) The perceived attitudes and sentiment of the audience before and after the engagement.
c. Numbers, such as numbers of retweets and likes, are secondary to the above indicators in evaluating the quality and success of outreach efforts.
10 FAH-1 H-063.1 Strategy Development
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. The mission's Public Diplomacy Section (PD Section) or bureau public affairs or public diplomacy office should develop a macro strategy, or general strategic plan for the overall use of social media and digital engagement, after consulting with all sections and agencies or offices, and once there is a clear understanding of how social media can support and advance specific strategic objectives. This plan should be considered a foundational guidance document and should be updated regularly as needed.
b. Individual sections and agencies or offices may highlight their work, but such content should always relate to the macro message for the mission or bureau.
c. Along with the macro strategy, which may remain in place for a year or longer, the mission PD section or bureau public affairs or public diplomacy office should also continually develop "micro" strategies as needed to advance specific mission goals or to support public diplomacy campaigns carried out over discrete time periods.
d. Missions and bureaus may find additional resources and templates for social media strategies on the Social Media Hub, operated by the Bureau of International Information Programs (IIP).
10 FAH-1 H-063.2 Elements of a Strategy
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
Both macro and micro strategies should consider the "ABCDEF" elements below: Audience, Behaviors, Content, Delivery, Engagement, and Follow-up/evaluation. Detailed guidance is available in 13 State 144456.
a. Audiences: Identify which target audience segments you must reach in order to accomplish your goals. Conduct audience research to identify specific audience segments that are accessible via social media.
b. Behaviors: What actions or attitudes do you want each segmented audience to adopt as a result of your digital and social media outreach?
c. Content: Consider how you will curate and use official content produced by Department sources or non-official content from public sources in order to impart messages to audiences and set up opportunities for two-way engagement with them.
d. Delivery: How will you deliver content to the identified audience segments? What kinds of platforms - and which platforms specifically - do the identified audience segments use to communicate with one another and exchange information?
e. Engagement: How will you deliver content in a way that sparks conversations with and amongst your audiences? How can you use digital and social media to strengthen relationships and outreach with important organizations, individuals and networks of individuals?
f. Follow-up/Evaluation: Establish a plan to gauge progress and adjust strategies and tactics over time in order to meet your specific objectives and goals.
Additional best practices and resources for developing a written social media strategy are available on the Social Media Hub.
10 FAH-1 H-064 clearance procedures
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
Embassies are empowered under Chief of Mission authority to establish their own internal clearance procedures within parameters found in 3 FAM 4170. Missions should establish chains of accountability, set expectations and redlines, and train and trust their staff to advance the mission's best interests. A small group of qualified staff should act as gatekeepers for the mission's social media and other digital engagement properties and only use content that advances the overall strategy and that befits the voice the mission seeks to establish for itself online.
10 FAH-1 H-065 Reporting
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Mission Activity Tracker (MAT) Reporting: Missions should report social media and other digital engagement efforts and results to Washington via MAT. Do not report individual social media postings as stand-alone entries, unless such a posting constitutes a substantial effort, such as an original YouTube video. Report social media support for “real-world” events as part of the main MAT entry submitted for each event. Report online campaigns with no offline components as stand-alone entries.
b. Additional reporting: Missions are encouraged to send front channel cables to Washington (attention regional bureau, R/PPR, and other relevant bureaus such as International Information Programs (IIP), Public Affairs (PA), and Education and Cultural Affairs (ECA)) reporting on significant developments in their country's digital media landscape or their own social media work. Missions are also encouraged to share "lessons learned" that can be applied to other missions.
10 FAH-1 H-065.1 Process for using NMR-Listed or Nominated Platforms
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Report on Assessment of Official Presences on Platforms on the Notorious Markets List: When determining whether to use or continue using a particular social media or digital engagement platform, a Mission or bureau must consider that platform's treatment of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), including by consulting the Notorious Markets Report (NMR) produced by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR). Missions and bureaus must consider the benefits and risks of their presence on the platform to the Mission, the Department of State, and U.S. foreign policy. Mere inclusion, on or nomination for inclusion, on the NMR of a particular social media platform does not preclude Missions or bureaus from using the platform. The assessment must be submitted to the Chief of Mission, bureau Assistant Secretary, or designee for final decision as to whether to begin or continue use of the platform.
10 FAH-1 H-065.2 Content Requirements for Use of Nominated or Listed Platforms
(CT:ASH-8; 12-19-2018)
a. Missions or bureaus that choose to use platforms that are listed or nominated for listing in the NMR must explicitly disclaim any U.S. Government endorsement of the platform on their official presence on the chosen platform, and must link to the most recent annual Notorious Markets Report.
b. Links to listed or nominated platforms from official mission web sites must also disclaim endorsement and link to the most recent NMR. Affected missions should contact IIP's Embassy website helpdesk at embassy@america.gov to create a custom exit page disclaimer. Affected bureaus should contact PA's Office of Website Management at wmmailbox@state.gov.
c. Missions or bureaus choosing to continue use of listed and nominated platforms must also devote a reasonable portion of their overall engagement on those platforms to the furtherance of U.S. IPR policy.
d. Missions or bureaus continuing to use of listed and nominated platforms must report regularly to the Bureau of Economics and Business (EB) and, if applicable, the relevant Regional Bureau Public Diplomacy Office about their use of the platform and the performance of IPR-related content.
e. Missions and bureaus should avoid purchases from listed platforms. If a mission or bureau, after careful consideration of risks and benefits, determines it is in the USG interest to purchase advertising or paid promotions from a platform listed in the NMR, missions or bureaus may only make that purchase with explicit Chief of Mission or Assistant Secretary authorization. Before concluding that an expenditure on a listed platform is justified, missions or bureaus should explore other methods of publicizing official presences.
10 FAH-1 H-066 USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Missions and bureaus that engage with the public via social media, domestically or internationally, in the regular course of business should continue to do so during a crisis. Missions must establish procedures to ensure that they are able to communicate accurate, timely and official information via social media in the event of an emergency.
b. When deciding how best to use social media during a crisis, missions should honestly assess available personnel, resources, and capacity, as well as local infrastructure. In developing a plan for sending, receiving, and responding to information via social media during a crisis, Public Diplomacy (PD) and Consular Affairs sections must work together with other key stakeholders such as the Regional Security Officer. Plans will vary by mission and depend on factors including prevalence of social media use in-country, mission staffing levels, the mission's regular social media audience demographics, and whether the Public Diplomacy and Consular Affairs sections use shared or separate social media accounts.
c. Make contingency plans. Several staff members, including those who may not work primarily on social media, should know the login and password information, or know how to access it, for each online platform the mission uses, and be cross-trained in use of those platforms and/or have user accounts in the Hootsuite Enterprise, a social media management tool used by the PD Section (see 16 STATE 42750 para 13 for contact info) as per cybersecurity requirements. Staff should follow the requirements for creating, changing, and managing these passwords as described in 10 FAM 180. In the event that a post draws down, remaining staff must have this information and expertise. Ensure that employees who manage post's social media platforms know what to do if they cannot make it into the office or cannot contact their supervisors. Staff members should consider what they would do if internet service, cellular connectivity, or electricity is interrupted by the crisis and how these tasks would be carried out from alternate work locations.
d. Request assistance from Washington before and during a crisis. Missions should ask Washington for support through their regional bureaus and CA before and during a crisis. The Regional Digital Coordinator is responsible for coordinating these efforts. PA can assist with ensuring access to guidance as well as direction provided by a task force, and IIP can grant access to Hootsuite Enterprise, to CA’s Policy Coordination and Public Affairs Office (CA/P) and to Regional Digital Coordinators who can post on behalf of a mission. Keeping updated emergency content in your Hootsuite content library is key to accurate information sharing.
e. A fill-in-the-blank template is available at CA's Consular Affairs Outreach Hub to guide posts’ planning for the use of social media in crisis situations: PA is the designated lead on crisis communications.
10 FAH-1 H-066.1 Crisis Messaging
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
In most cases, the following best practices will apply for the use of social media in a crisis:
a. Consider your platform options: Because not all messages work on all platforms, the mission should clearly articulate how it will use social media for different types of messaging, including consular, U.S. policy issues, ambassador or embassy statements, etc., as per the mission-wide social media strategy template available on the Social Media Hub.
b. Suspend all routine social media activities: At the onset of a crisis, immediately review all pre-scheduled or automated content and disable it as appropriate. Those accessing the social media sites will assume that everything on the sites was intentionally posted and has taken the current crisis into account. During a crisis, social media content is scrutinized both in host countries and in the United States; the media will consider anything released online as an official, on-the-record comment by the USG. This is true of both official accounts and unofficial accounts of mission personnel. While mission personnel may continue to post on their personal accounts, personal content as well as personal posting of crisis-related content may be scrutinized by the public or media during a crisis.
c. Immediately post an acknowledgement of the situation: Post "holding language" on social media as soon as possible following the onset of an acute crisis, and reference the platform on which additional information will be disseminated. For example, post the following message on an official Twitter account: "Confirm explosion at the U.S. Embassy. Appropriate measures were taken. Thanks to (responding local authority) for quick action." The embassy or consulate can also tell the audience to follow its account for ongoing and changing situations, such as, "Updates to follow on (platform) when we have more information."
d. Alert the public to any disruption of normal business: Messages should convey information about the security situation at hand, instructions regarding the disruption of normal business (such as rescheduling visa appointments), and notices regarding the availability of emergency consular services. However, be careful to use appropriate language in public messaging. For instance, do not announce post is “closed” unless that is truly the case; if your embassy or consulate is operating with reduced staff, state post is open with limited operations, or emergency services only. For more information, refer to the Temporary Closure/Reduced Operations guidance and resources on the CMS intranet site: crisis.state.gov/Pages/Temporary.aspx.
e. Find the right balance: Plan for a realistic social media messaging and monitoring schedule that conveys necessary information but does not divert staff from other, more critical tasks. To the extent possible, update social media content during a crisis when information is new, timely, and relevant to the events at hand. Posting outdated or unrelated information often leads to confusion and decreased confidence, and can compromise security. However, if there continues to be no new information, repost the current information. Suddenly ceasing information flows can cause public panic. It is acceptable to post that "no new information is available at this time" when appropriate to reassure followers that the mission is still open and actively engaged.
f. Link to official, detailed content: When possible, release short-form content on social media with a hyperlink that refers to more detailed content on an official USG or local government authority’s website. Postings should include essential information, rather than a generic title. "U.S. citizens: avoid downtown. More info: {Link}" provides users who may not click on a link with important details they would miss if it only said: "Embassy issues emergency message to U.S. citizens." When it is not possible to fit into one message, and more detailed information must be shared as quickly as possible, use multiple postings to convey vital information. For instance, to tweet a message with more than 140 characters, simply break the message up into a numbered series of tweets, i.e. (1/3), (2/3), (3/3).
g. Correct, don't delete (or, "what to do if you goof"): Events, information, and public emotions move rapidly during a crisis. If the information you put out on social media is misinterpreted or is inadvertently incorrect, do not delete it; correct it. Provide updated information and, when possible, visually strike through any incorrect information. People understand that errors are made on social media, but attempts to hide postings generally are viewed as suspect. Correct the posting as quickly as possible, move forward, and inform Washington about the correction.
h. The rules on content deletion remain the same during a crisis as during normal operations: i.e., when moderating comments during a crisis situation, you may only hide or delete content that violates the policy laid out in your posted Terms of Use. You must record all deleted comments. If moderating directly from Facebook, you may "hide" the offending comment, which retains the record within Facebook. If moderating using Hootsuite, you can only delete the comment. In this instance, you should take a screenshot of the comment prior to deleting it and keep the screenshot as a record.
10 FAH-1 H-066.2 Crisis Listening
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
Missions and bureaus should monitor the internet, including social media sites and other digital engagement platforms, for relevant information from eyewitnesses and media. This information should be corroborated before it can be considered valid.
10 FAH-1 H-066.3 Interacting In a Crisis
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. During a crisis, members of the public may attempt to contact USG officials via mission- or bureau-managed social media accounts. Do not ignore such attempts, especially where the mission or bureau has reason to believe the individual is a U.S. citizen or the individual has identified themselves as such. If you are contacted by a U.S. citizen in distress:
(1) Notify the Consular section and provide the U.S. citizen with official contact information so that s/he may establish direct, private communication with the Embassy offline.
(2) When social media is the only possible mode of communication with the individual, attempt to communicate privately with the individual on the platform.
(3) You should only communicate via social media with an individual seeking assistance from the post in truly exigent circumstances.
b. Requirements of the Privacy Act must still be observed in crisis situations. The Privacy Act prohibits the Department from maintaining records of the social media activity of individual U.S. citizens or permanent residents without those individuals' consent. A decision by a U.S. citizen to share information with others does not create an exception to or an exemption from the requirements of the Privacy Act. Questions about the Privacy Act, both generally and case specific, are to be directed to ASK-OCS-L@state.gov.
c. If a mission does not feel it has the capacity to monitor and engage effectively on social media during a crisis, personnel may
(1) Reach back to regional social media coordinators in Washington or Consular Affairs' Policy Coordination and Public Affairs Office (CA/P) for support; or
(2) Temporarily disable commenting functionality. When disabling comments or discontinuing engagement, mission personnel should repeatedly post, via all social media platforms, that they are unable to maintain consistent contact via social media, and offer alternative means of contacting the mission.
d. Outside of business hours, contact the Operations Center’s 24/7 Watch (202-647-1512), which will work in conjunction with Public Affairs, CA and the Regional bureaus as necessary.
10 FAH-1 H-068 Social media training
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Social media and digital engagement are core functions of public diplomacy, public affairs, and consular information services. They provide important tools for advancing the Department's strategic goals, tools that, to be effective, require careful planning and allocation of resources. Competency with social media and other digital engagement technologies is increasingly necessary for American and local staff in all Embassy sections, as well as at the Department--in order to understand local political and economic developments and participate in official U.S. Government social media activities, even for those not directly responsible for communicating via social media. Comprehensive training of personnel engaged in these activities is necessary to ensure effective and timely use of social media tools and other digital engagement platforms for engaging with critical audiences while complying with statutory requirements and U.S. Government and Department policies and guidelines.
b. All employees, but especially those who routinely engage in official social media and digital communications, are strongly encouraged to complete relevant training offered by the National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC) (commonly known as the Foreign Service Institute or FSI), as coordinated by FSI/SPAS/PD. PA, IIP, CA, and other bureaus also offer workshops and ongoing, bureau-specific professional development in this area.
c. FSI's PD Training Division (FSI/SPAS/PD) is the Department's lead coordinator for tracking and publicizing all Departmental training opportunities, including formal classroom instruction, distance learning, external training, and informal professional development.
d. FSI has developed a set of core competencies for social media practitioners. The competencies are achieving strategic objectives, principles and trends, hands-on experience, tactical communication, digital identity, evaluation, and governance.
e. Public Diplomacy Section Chiefs are strongly encouraged to arrange for their American officers and LES to complete relevant social media and digital diplomacy training courses, either at FSI or at regional centers. Regular refresher classes are also recommended to ensure staffs have the latest skills and techniques available to them. Missions should consult the FSI course catalog and may contact FSI/SPAS/PD directly for additional information.
10 FAH-1 H-069 SOCIAL Media Advertising
(CT:ASH-2; 09-21-2017)
a. Selective use of social and digital media advertising to promote special events or to highlight commemorative activities or high-level visits can be a useful tool as part of a mission or bureau's overarching outreach strategy. A strategically planned, well-targeted social media advertising campaign (for example, paid advertising on Facebook, Google, or Twitter) can be an effective way to reach audiences at low cost.
b. Social and digital media advertising can bring a social media or digital engagement presence to the attention of people who otherwise would be unlikely to encounter it. Through social and digital media properties, social and digital media advertising makes it possible to establish ongoing connections with specific target demographics categorized by age, gender, education level, and other factors.
c. Social and digital media advertising should be used on a selective basis. Before beginning any advertising campaign, missions and bureaus should carefully consider the following issues:
1. Social and digital media advertising is not effective without a well-crafted, effectively run social and digital media property, populated regularly with engaging content geared toward the interests of the target audience. Many missions and bureaus have found success on Facebook by ensuring that every piece of text content is accompanied by a visual element like a photo or video. Such visual content either can be produced in-house or curated and shared from third-party sources unaffiliated with the Mission. Third party content should be used transparently, attributed correctly and posted only after ensuring that the posting conforms with intellectual property rules.
2. Advertising is only one tool and it won't work in isolation. Missions and bureaus should use advertising in conjunction with other methods of getting out the word, both on- and offline. Online promotion may include such tactics as encouraging community members to retweet or otherwise share content to their personal social networks, and including links to official social and digital media presences in the email signatures of post personnel and via the post's official .gov website. Offline promotion may include printing post "business cards" featuring links to official social and digital media presences, for distribution at Embassy events and include such links on official signage (following "Visibly American" marking guidance).
3. The goal of social and digital media advertising should be to establish new opportunities for pursuing U.S. interests by engaging a broader community of individuals and their networks than otherwise would be possible. Well-crafted advertising coupled with compelling content should increase the quality and impact of interaction with select online audiences and prime them to take part in online discussions, offline Embassy programs, or independent or group actions that benefit U.S. interests. Examples of goals for specific advertising campaigns could include increasing engagement rates with your community, promoting an event or initiative, capturing the momentum of a popular topic, or increasing community size.
4. Missions and bureaus should start by dedicating a small daily budget to an initial ad campaign, measuring the resulting "conversions" (new community members) and evaluating the "Return on Investment" by calculating the marginal cost of adding an additional audience member. Posts should repeatedly run and evaluate such small experimental campaigns to build up institutional knowledge of potential audiences, establish campaign goals, and gauge the optimal use of funds.
5. Missions and bureaus should use knowledge gained from initial advertising campaigns to set budget plans for specific social and digital media advertising campaigns.
6. Regularly assessing and modifying social and digital media advertising efforts is key to success. Any advertising campaign should include pre-set goals and should be evaluated on a regular basis throughout the lifecycle of the campaign. Digital engagement practitioners can find practical guidance and best practices on all aspects of social media and digital engagement at IIP's Social Media Hub.