A workshop on Social Media Strategy was held last 19 June in Riga, Latvia, promoted by the Ad Hoc Communications Group led by Jonathan Duggan (ComReg). It was attended by ten national regulatory authorities (NRAs), among them ANACOM.
Highlights of the recommendations presented at the meeting include the following:
- The ‘traditional’ social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube) have already reached a certain maturity, permitting more professional use, and it is important for the NRAs and BEREC to be represented in and invest in those networks;
- Content to be posted should be planned beforehand, paying attention to the best time for posting, creating specific messages suitable for each platform, in storytelling format (better able to generate conversation and interactivity) and with images;
- To ensure that regulators’ presence in social networks can be a success, it is very important for one person or a team from the communication area to be responsible for management of the different accounts and not to have several teams focusing on different content or social networks. Concentrating management is the only way to guarantee proper control of what is transmitted in social networks, along with the necessary capacity to react when responses are called for. Regulators should communicate with one single voice, taking care to ensure harmonisation of what is posted on their websites and in social networks. This is because everything the regulators say in the different forums will be scrutinised, especially when there are complicated situations, so it is vital for everything to be duly coordinated;
- Caution must be exercised when posting on social networks and regulators must be especially prepared to deal with false news, criticism and mistakes. In such situations they should be ready respond quickly with real and concrete facts and reference to links on the respective websites, where the subject in question should be clearly explained in detail, preferably accompanied by frequently-asked questions. It is also essential to be transparent and not feed arguments.
