Social Media Guidance

Reply and responding to messages

Our social media accounts are generally monitored during working hours, Monday to Friday, except on public holidays.

We aim to respond to as many replies or comments as we can. This isn't always possible, and we may miss posts, particularly during periods of heavy social media traffic.

Our web, communications, and customer services teams run the social media accounts. We may forward your questions to other colleagues to find information for you, which means it may take a while before we can get back to you.

If your query is urgent, serious, or involves personal details, please use the Contact Us page. You will also find links to our Feedback and Complaints pages there.

Moderation

We follow the rules and guidelines of the relevant online communities where possible. We also rely on the protection measures already in place on the social networking site (e.g., against illegal or offensive content), for example by flagging comments or alerting the site to any breaches of its terms and conditions.

We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break the rules of the relevant community or any of the following guidelines:

Do not post messages that are unlawful, defamatory, or libellous. This includes content that is abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, or racially offensive.
Do not bully, harass, or intimidate any individual or organisation.
Do not impersonate someone else.
Do not swear.
Be civil, tasteful, and relevant.
Do not post content copied from elsewhere for which you do not own the copyright.
Do not post the same or very similar messages repeatedly (spamming).
Do not publicise personal information, such as your own or anyone else's contact details.
Do not advertise products or services.
Do not post any political comments.
Use your personal account to interact with us. We may block and mute anonymous accounts.

Defamatory Comments

Please do not make defamatory statements when posting on our pages. By publishing such a statement, both you and the Council could face serious consequences. We will remove any statement we consider could be deemed to be defamatory.

Blocking and Unfollowing

We will block your account if you contravene the rules outlined in the Moderation section, or if you follow or like the Council purely to promote a product or service.

If we unfollow your account, it may be due to a review of accounts or simply cutting down on the overall number of accounts we follow. This is not a personal rejection.

Liking and Following

We cannot like or follow everyone due to the high number of accounts. Please do not be offended if we do not follow you; it doesn't mean we are not interested in what you have to say.

We usually follow or like accounts that provide information pertinent to our work as a Scottish local authority (e.g., government agencies, local media, and public sector partners) or information that benefits local citizens. We may also follow an account temporarily to take part in a conversation or lend support to local and national campaigns.

Sharing and Retweeting

We share or retweet information that we think will be of interest or use to West Dunbartonshire citizens and businesses. We cannot retweet everything requested, as the volume is too high to manage.

As a trusted organisation, any sharing of information could be seen as an endorsement of a particular view, individual, or organisation. Therefore, we must remain impartial and protect the Council's reputation.