IWBF Social Media Guidelines

These are the official guidelines for social media for the IWBF. If you’re an employee, member or volunteer creating or contributing to blogs, social networks, Linkedin, or any other kind of social media both behalf of or on one of the IWBF social media channels (blog, twitter, Linkedin group or other social medial or internet site) and can easily be identified as a being affiliated with the IWBF  — these guidelines can apply to you.

We request that all who participate in social media on behalf of the IWBF receive training to understand and to follow these guidelines. These guidelines will continue to evolve as new technologies and social networking tools emerge—so check back regularly to ensure your knowledge is up to date.

If You Engage Online

Emerging platforms for online collaboration are changing the way we work, offering new ways to engage with partners, fans, sponsors, members, volunteers, colleagues, and the general public. This new model for interaction can enable a new level of engagement and information gathering and sharing.

If you participate in social media in any way which identifies you as a member of the iWBF team (staff, volunteer, member), please follow these guiding principles:

1. Stick to your area of expertise and provide unique, individual perspectives on what is going on with wheelchair basketball and the IWBF
2. Post meaningful, informative and respectful comments— no spam and no remarks that are off-topic or offensive.
3. Always pause and think before posting. That said, reply to comments in a timely manner (within 24 hours is a good guideline), when a response is appropriate.
4. Respect confidential information and content.
5. When disagreeing with others’ opinions, keep it appropriate and polite.

Our Rules for Online Engagement

Be transparent. Your sincerity and genuineness, honesty—or dishonesty—will be quickly noticed in the social media environment. If you are blogging about your involvement with the IWBF, use your real name, identify that you are affiliated for the IWBF, and be clear about your role. If you have a vested interest in something you are discussing, be the first to point it out. Transparency is about your identity and relationship to the IWBF. You still need to remember to keep and maintain confidential information and content. If you are blogging about something unrelated to your relationship with the IWBF then be aware that others may connect you to the IWBF if you are using your real name and/or job title or affiliation.

Be Smart. Make sure your efforts to be transparent don’t violate any IWBF privacy, confidentiality, and legal guidelines for external communications. All statements must be true and not misleading.  All commercial statements about programs and services offered must be accurate and not misleading and all claims must be substantiated and approved. Please never comment on anything related to legal matters, litigation without the appropriate approval.

If you want to write about other organizations, teams, members, funders, sponsors, providers of other services, make sure you know what you are talking about and that you have the appropriate permission. Also be smart about protecting yourself, your privacy, and confidential information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so consider the content carefully.

Focus on your area of Expertise:  Make sure you write and post about your areas of expertise. If you are writing about a topic that is relevant to the the IWBF but you are not the expert on the topic, you should make this clear to your readers. And write in the first person. If you publish to a website outside of the IWBF, please use a disclaimer something like this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent the IWBF’s positions, strategies, or opinions.”

Also, please respect brand, trademark, copyright, fair use and confidentiality. Remember, you may be personally responsible for your content.

Perception is reality. In online social networks, the lines between public and private, personal and professional are blurred. Just by identifying yourself as a IWBF member, you are creating perceptions about your expertise and about the IWBF, our partners, funders, sponsors, executive, members, players, referees, classifiers, and the general public and perceptions about you by your colleagues and organization. Be sure that all content associated with you is consistent with your experience and position and with the IWBF’s values and standards.

Engage in dialogue and conversation. Talk to your readers like you would talk to real people in professional situations. In other words, avoid overly pedantic or “composed” language. Don’t be afraid to bring in your own personality and say what’s on your mind. Consider content that’s open-ended and invites response. Encourage comments. You can also broaden the conversation by citing others who are blogging about the same topic and allowing your content to be shared or syndicated.

Add Value to the Conversation: There are many ‘Experts’ out there commenting on information related to Wheelchair sports, the IWBF, officiating, classifying, basketball, and other topics related to the field of wheelchair sports. Focus on writing things that people will value. Social communication from the IWBF should help our members, players, officials, classifiers, partners, fans and co-workers. It should be thought-provoking and build a sense of community. Consider if it helps people improve knowledge or skills, build their teams and associations, do their jobs, solve problems, or understand the IWBF and wheelchair basketball better. Focus on adding value to the conversation.

Be Responsible for what you Write: What you write is ultimately your responsibility. Participation in social engagement on behalf of the IWBF is not a right but an opportunity, so please treat it with respect.

The posts, comments and opinions of the bloggers and those who comment on our blogs are their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the IWBF. We encourage responsible and open dialogue but if inappropriate posts or comments are brought to our attention we do retain the right to remove them from our blogs.

Maintain our Professional Standard and Vision. As an international sporting organization we make important contributions to the field. Our activities and statements hold weight in the community and can help set the standard for what is innovative and relevant within the field. Ensure that when you are communicating you are presenting well founded ideas and discussions. Be careful and considerate. Once the words are out there, you can’t really get them back. Do not disparage the work or ideas of others. If you disagree with the ideas or advice of others you may present alternative ideas without overtly criticizing the work of others. And once an inflammatory discussion gets going, it’s hard to stop.

If you make a mistake or change your opinion: If you make a mistake, admit it. Be upfront and be quick with your correction. If you’re posting to a blog, you may choose to modify an earlier post—just make it clear that you have done so.

Before hitting ‘send’, pause: If you’re about to publish something and you are not certain it is the best information or advice, perhaps you are concerned it is dated, not comprehensive or questionable then before you send the comment or publish the blog ask a colleague for his/her opinion.

Moderation Guidelines

Moderation is the act of reviewing and approving content before it’s published on the site (This applies to social media content written on behalf of the IWBF, whether the site is on or off the official IWBF Websites). The IWBF does not endorse or take responsibility for content posted by third parties. This includes text input and uploaded files (video, images, audio, executables, and documents).

While we strongly encourage user participation, there are some guidelines we ask you to follow to keep it safe for everyone. Please note that social media content originating inside the IWBF and our internal groups (Linkedin and Facebook) is not moderated. This means we allow our contributors to post directly without approval, as long as they have reviewed our guidelines and agree to follow any posted rules.

Pre-moderation. Even when a site requires the user to register before posting, simple user name and email entry doesn’t necessarily validate the person. So to ensure least risk/most security, we require moderation of all posts and comments before they are published (pre-moderation) to our blog and website.

Community moderation. For established communities (such as s Linkedin Group or facebook), group moderation by regular users can work well. This will sometimes be allowed to take the place of pre-moderation.

Balanced online dialogue. Whether content is pre-moderated or community moderated, follow these three principles: the Good, the Bad, but not the Ugly. If the content is positive or negative and in context to the conversation, then we approve the content, regardless of whether it’s favourable or unfavourable to the IWBF. But if the content is ugly, offensive, denigrating and completely out of context, then we reject the content.

Last updated: April 2011

These guidelines are borrowed from the spirit and structure of the guidelines created and shared by Intel

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