St John’s Church Social Media Policy
We use our social media channels to connect with our community of volunteers, congregation and the public. They exist to provide an online space for us to share our activities, projects and news and to interact with the church community and allow them to connect with each other. We want our social media channels to reflect the values we uphold as an organisatio
n and support our mission to “promote in the ecclesiastical parish of St John the Evangelist, Hook, Hampshire, the whole mission of the Church”. To make this possible, we ask that you follow the guidelines below when interacting on our social media channels:
• Be respectful of others and their opinions at all times.
• Stay on topic. Your comments should be related to the topics on our social channels. Consider carefully whether your comments are being posted in the right channel and are relevant to the majority of those who will see it – if not, please message the relevant people directly.
• Only post content that belongs to you, or where you have the proper permission from its rightful owner. This includes photos and videos.
• Be fair. Do not discriminate or promote discrimination based on race, s*x, religion, nationality, disability, s*xual orientation, gender reassignment, age or other protected characteristics.
• Be courteous. Do not make personal attacks in your comments.
• Be polite. Do not post content that could be seen to be defamatory, libellous, obscene, inflammatory, offensive, harassing, abusive, hateful, threatening, profane or personally abusive.
• No adverts. Do not post adverts or promote commercial products or services which are unrelated to the church.
• Be legal. Do not breach any of the terms of the social media platforms themselves.
• Be safe. If you are a volunteer or member of staff, ensure you are aware of and follow our safeguarding policy. In the event of a difference between this policy and the safeguarding policy, you must follow the safeguarding policy. We’ll use our own discretion to determine whether posts to our social media channels breach our guidelines. We reserve the right to hide or delete comments made on our channels, as well as block users who persistently go against these guidelines. We’ll always offer alternative ways of contacting us. Should you have any concerns related to the conduct of those within, or associated with St John’s Church, please email [email protected] and/or [email protected] with details.
