WESFA Social Media Policy

Overview

Social media offers the opportunity for people to gather in online communities of shared interest and create, share or consume content. As a public facing organisation, the Woolwich and Eltham Sunday Football Alliance (herein referred to as WESFA) recognises the benefits of social media as an important tool of engagement, to communicate with and market promotions to our association, partners, sponsors, officials, referees or members (herein referred to as associates).

It is important that the reputation of WESFA, as well as WESFA associates, is not tarnished in any way by anyone using social media tools inappropriately, particularly in relation to any content that directly references WESFA or WESFA associates.

When someone clearly identifies their association with WESFA, or can easily be associated with WESFA in this type of open forum, they are expected to behave and express themselves appropriately and in a manner that is consistent with WESFA’s ethos.

The purpose of this social media policy is to provide some guiding principles for members of WESFA to follow when using social media. This policy does not apply to the personal use of social media platforms by these persons where no reference is made to WESFA or WESFA associates.

Scope

This policy applies to all WESFA and WESFA associates. This policy covers all forms of social media. Social media includes, but is not limited to, activities such as:

• Maintaining a profile page on social or business networking sites (such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.)

• Content sharing including using sites such as Flickr (photo sharing) and YouTube (video sharing)

• Commenting on blogs for personal or business reasons

• Leaving product or service reviews on retailer sites or customer review sites.

• Taking part in online votes and polls

• Taking part in conversations on public and private web forums (message boards)

• Editing a Wikipedia page

The intent of this policy is to include anything posted online where information is shared that might affect WESFA associates or WESFA as an organisation and the reputation of either WESFA, WESFA associates or any associated Football Association.

Guiding Principles

The web is not anonymous. WESFA and WESFA associates should assume that everything they write online, especially in open forums, can be traced back to them.

Due to the unique nature of WESFA, the boundaries between personal and professional profiles and any associated opinions and comments can often be blurred. As such, it is essential that WESFA and WESFA associates clearly acknowledge this ambiguity when posting anything online and consider at all times their connection to WESFA and, as such, their role as a representative of the Alliance.

When using the internet for professional or personal pursuits, social media users must respect the brands of WESFA and WESFA associates and our associations to which we are members, such as the Football Association, as well as other leagues and associations, following the guidelines in place to ensure that the intellectual property of both WESFA and WESFA associates are not compromised and the organisation(s) are not brought into disrepute.

Usage

For all WESFA and WESFA associates using social media, such use:

• Must not contain, or link to, libellous, defamatory or harassing content this also applies to the use of illustrations or nicknames

• Must not comment on, or publish information that is confidential in any way

• Must not bring WESFA or the sport and any affiliated governing bodies into disrepute

• Must not be directly linked with any players aged 18 or below from a personal social networking account

• Must not otherwise be in breach of the WESFA Ethos or Code of Conduct.

Branding & Intellectual Property

It is important that any trademarks belonging to WESFA, WESFA associates, affiliated competition(s) or governing body(ies), are not used in personal social media applications, except where such use can be considered incidental – (where incidents is taken to mean “happening in subordinate conjunction with something else”)

Official WESFA Blogs, Social Pages & Online Forums

When creating a new website, social networking page or forum that is in any way or can in any way be judged to be associated with WESFA, care should be taken to ensure the appropriate person is given permission to create the page or forum.

Similarly, appropriate permissions must be obtained for the use of logos or images. Images of children may not be replicated on any site without the permission of the child’s parents and/or guardian.

For official WESFA blogs, social pages and online forums:

• Posts must not contain, nor link to, pornographic or indecent content

• Some hosted sites may sell the right to advertise on their sites through “pop up” content, which may be of a questionable nature. This type of hosted site should not be used for online forum or social pages as the nature of “pop up” content cannot be controlled.

• WESFA associates members must not use official WESFA pages to promote personal projects, unless permission has been granted in advance by the WESFA Management Committee.

• All materials published or used must respect the copyright of third parties.

Consideration Towards Others

Social networking sites allow photographs, videos and comments to be shared with thousands of other users. WESFA and WESFA associates must recognise that it may not be appropriate to share photographs, videos and comments in this way. For example, there may be an expectation that photographs taken at private WESFA functions will not appear publicly or on the internet. In certain situations, WESFA associates could potentially breach the Privacy Act or inadvertently make

WESFA (or WESFA associates) liable for breach of copyright.

WESFA and WESFA associates should be considerate to others in such circumstances and should not post information when they have been asked not to or consent has not been sought and given. They must also remove information about another person or associate should they be asked to do so.

Under no circumstances should offensive comments be made about WESFA or WESFA associates or any other party.

Breach of Policy

WESFA will continually monitor online activity in relation to the alliance and the sport. Detected breaches of this policy should be reported to WESFA.

Remedial action

Over the last season we have seen numerous breaches of the above policy. As a Management Committee we have realised that these breaches have brought no consequence. This season we will be enforcing our Social Media Policy with new measures. All Clubs, Players, Officials and League Officers are bound by this policy.

Any breaches of the above policy will lead to your account being blocked by the WESFA Social Media accounts. You will then be contacted via letter by the Social Media Secretary and the Conduct Secretary explaining your breach and reminding you of our Social Media Policy.

Further sanctions could be levied against you or your club if you continue to breach our social media policy. Whilst bringing the league into disrepute would lead to consequences such as, but limited to, fines to both individual and/or teams, removal of fixtures, and ultimately could lead to your teams expulsion from the league. In what the league considers extreme cases, we would also send the content to authorities to handle outside of our governance.