The Cariboo Regional District has created a new policy to govern its use of social media.
The local government recently logged onto Facebook to communicate its special projects and the facts about emergency situations in the community.
“There is an increasing desire to use social media mainly because that’s where more and more of the mainstream of communication is going to,” said Steve Mazur, Area E director and communications chair.
“At the same time there are potential glitches in using social media to disseminate policy so we (CRD board) felt it was timely to put out guidelines for staff and elected officials with how best to maximize the use of social media in a structured framework.”
Mazur points to last year when the regional district used Facebook to pass on information about the wildfires in the region; the site will also be used to update community members about the district’s solid waste management plan.
“We want to encourage a public dialogue online about specific issues as opposed to general communication issues,” Mazur said, adding Facebook wouldn’t be used for “general” communication issues” that might be reserved for other mediums.
For now the use of social media by the CRD will be limited to Facebook.
“It appears more and more of the general population is using things like Facebook to keep themselves informed so we just want to make sure we’re taking advantage of those types of media.”
The CRD’s Facebook page can be accessed through its website or by searching Cariboo Regional District on Facebook.