I came across an interesting post on Allan Paterson’s blog (he’s the head honcho at the client I’m working for). It’s a government-related post with guidelines about how civil servants should approach social networking. Here are the points:

Be credible

• Be accurate, fair, thorough and transparent.

Be consistent

• Encourage constructive criticism and deliberation. Be cordial, honest and professional at all times.

Be responsive

• When you gain insight, share it where appropriate.

Be integrated

• Wherever possible, align online participation with other offline communications.

Be a civil servant

• Remember that you are an ambassador for your organisation. Wherever possible, disclose your position as a representative of your department or agency.

What struck me about them was how easily they can be applied to any sector trying to educate it’s members on social networking (okay, the last one would need to be reworded). At the end of the day, it’s all about credibility and transparency, if you lose those, then social networking will only cause you more pain.