Guidelines for setting up Facebook Pages and Groups
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Guidelines for setting up Facebook Pages and Groups
SMART Recovery is all for utilizing social media as a method of attracting individuals to
your meeting or region and communicating recovery-related information. Please keep in
mind that when you have SMART Recovery’s name on Facebook (FB), SMART’s
reputation is at stake. Always take time to think before you post. Avoid information that’s
not relevant to recovery within SMART (e.g., politics, religion, debate about other
recovery programs work, etc.) Use your Facebook presence as a positive way to get the
SMART Recovery message shared for your meeting/area.
Before setting up a Facebook page, ask yourself if you have the time to commit to
keeping the page updated. If not, or if in doubt, hold off. It’s not helpful for people to
visit a Facebook page where the most recent post is months old! If you have the energy
to invest, here are some guidelines for setting up your Facebook page or group.
Share your FB page info with the National Office
When you’ve gotten your Facebook page setup, provide the National Office with your
Facebook page information at socialmedia@smartrecovery.org. We want to include
you on our list of Facebook admins so we can easily reach you with important
organization-wide info we’d like for you to share via your page (e.g., annual conference
info, webinar announcements, etc.). We’d also like to follow and like your FB page and
perhaps share your content on the SMART Recovery USA Facebook page.
Choose a name for your FB page
When you’re ready to get underway, you need to choose a name
for your Page or Group. You want to be easily found by people in
your area, so we suggest choosing a name that includes your city
and state (e.g., SMART Recovery Charleston SC). Many states have cities with the
same name so it’s a good idea to include a state abbreviation along with the city or
regional name to avoid confusion. For example, someone searching Facebook for
SMART in Charleston, SC would find a FB page titled SMART Recovery Charleston
and not know if the page is for Charleston, WV or Charleston, SC.
Do you want a FB “page” or a FB “group”? How to decide
Next, you want to consider how much ongoing time you want to spend and your level of
expertise, which includes moderating skills and experience administrating a Facebook
page or group. Are you going to be the sole admin or do you have other help? Are your
priorities promotional or to provide a community for people to communicate between
meetings?
FB pages are better for promotion. They are easier to control, require less moderating
skill, and take less time. The easiest way to go, is under page settings, go to visitor
posts, and click “disable posts by other people on the Page”. This will give complete
control over what posts you want on your page and you will then only need to deal with
participants’ comments.
Last Updated 2/18/2021FB groups are a good choice for community discussions. Closed and secret settings
are less open to the public. A caution is that even in secret groups, there still is a small
privacy concern as Facebook requires people to use their real names. Note that groups
are not good for promotion.
Updating your FB page or group
Ideally, pages and groups should be updated at least once a week. Social media
experts have advised us to limit postings to an average of 7-10 posts per week.
Moderating participant posts or comments should be done as soon as possible after
received.
Content for your FB page or group
SMART Recovery pages and groups are only for SMART Recovery activities –
promoting, educating, communicating, community support. If you have a secondary
interest, please post to your own page or set up a page of your own. You can post a link
to or share these secondary interests from time to time if they are relevant to SMART
Recovery in your local area. You are always free to share SMART Recovery USA posts
on your local/regional page as well as content of interest to those in your geographic
area.
Considerations for selecting content to share via your FB page or group:
• There is a seemingly endless supply of online content related to addiction and
recovery that is available for sharing with your audience. SMART is a “recovery
program” the preferred focus of your FB page should be recovery oriented (vs
the horrors of addiction).
• Content that is positive, includes encouraging information, possibilities, and
outcomes are all good choices.
• Photos of drug paraphernalia (sometimes included in a news article you may
want to share) may be a trigger for some in your audience. Please use discretion
in selecting what you share.
• Emphasize the benefits and positives of the SMART Recovery Program. Be
encouraging.
• Use our brand values including “Power of Choice”, science-based methods and
principle, 4-Point Program, etc.
• Don’t bash other programs.
• Be professional – use professional language, check spelling and punctuation
before posting.
• Post SMART Recovery material and things related to our program.
• Read and understand the content you are posting; check the source of the
content; beware of false or “fake” information if applicable.
• Avoid posts of political or religious issues. Occasionally addiction news items that
have some mention of politics are suitable, but use caution if there is apt to be a
lot of confrontational discussion.
Last Updated 2/18/2021Good sources for content to post:
• SMART Recovery USA page
• SMART Recovery USA blog
• SMART Recovery Website
• SMART Recovery Tweets (Twitter)
• SMART Recovery local and international country pages
• Like minded sources (e.g., Center for Motivation & Change, Psychology Today,
Partnership for Drug Free Kids, ONDCP, Treatment Research Institute, Young
People in Recovery)
• Trusted news sources (e.g., Washington Post, New York Times)
• Book reviews from the SMART quarterly newsletter, News & Views
Consult the posting guidelines section below for detailed information on the
appropriateness of posts. These posting guidelines will also be helpful to you in
deciding on the appropriateness of participants’ comments and posts.
Posting Guidelines
SMART Recovery social media is open to participants, friends and family, volunteers,
and all who support our organization.
Differences of opinion are welcome if they are respectful. Be courteous and respect
those asking questions with friendly, informative discussions. As an admin, you may
delete posts that are inappropriate. Individuals posting on your page or in your group
may be permanently banned immediately for a serious, willful, and/or repeated violation
of any of these rules.
Comment threads between two or a small group of people are not allowed. This is
especially true in a Facebook Group where posts will go to the top every time a
comment is made.
Individual sequential posts are inappropriate; although, it is reasonable to make a
sequential post giving additional important information or to remind someone of an
upcoming event.
Posts and comments that are not allowed:
• Ones that contain, discuss, or promote:
o abusive, vulgar, offensive, threatening, or harassing language
o personal attacks or threats of any kind
o racism, bigotry, hatred or physical harm, or any negative targeting of any
kind against any group, individual, or organization
o harasses or advocates harassment of another person
o is ethnically objectionable
o exploits people in a sexual or violent manner
o contains nudity, violence, or offensive subject matter or contains a link to
an adult website
o illegal activity
Last Updated 2/18/2021o political issues
o religious issues
o issues that are supposed to be kept confidential – about the SMART
Recovery organization and individual participants
o posts with excessive drug paraphernalia or war on drug information
o posting of premium content from any website
o fake news or any content intended to mislead
• Posts that are spam, solicitations or advertisements
• Personally identifiable information (e.g. phone numbers, street addresses or
email addresses), private or sensitive details about another person
• Material or information that you don’t have the right to post or share
• Information that you know is false or misleading or promotes illegal activities
or conduct that is abusive, threatening, obscene, defamatory or libelous
• An illegal or unauthorized copy of another person's copyrighted work, such
as providing pirated computer programs or links to them, providing
information to circumvent manufacture-installed copy-protect devices, or
providing pirated music or links to pirated music files
• The transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing,
instant messaging, "spimming" or "spamming".
• Posts that further or promote any criminal activity or enterprise or provides
instructional information about illegal activities including, but not limited to
drug dealing, making or buying illegal weapons, violating someone's privacy,
or providing or creating computer viruses
• Posts that solicit passwords or personal identifying information for
commercial or unlawful purposes from other participants.
• Posts that involves commercial activities and/or sales (including links to for-
profit websites) without our prior written consent such as contests,
sweepstakes, barter, advertising, or pyramid schemes
• Posts containing material denouncing SMART Recovery, the Board of
Directors of SMART Recovery, the President or Executive Director of
SMART Recovery, or any volunteer of SMART Recovery.
• Posts containing a link to an image that is not hosted by a reputable image
service such as Photobucket, ImageShack or Flickr ("hotlinking" is not
allowed)
• Posts involving the posting of any private topics, e-mails, or posts without
the original writer's consent
• Posts that include a photograph of another person that you have posted
without that person's consent; or uses sexually suggestive imagery or any
other unfair, misleading or deceptive content
• Posts that conflict with the views of SMART Recovery
Last Updated 2/18/2021That may sound like a lot of “dos and don’ts” but it’s fair for you to have a solid
understanding of how to create a helpful, resourceful Facebook page, and to eliminate
possible conflicts and issues when doing so.
Additional Resources
All the best if you start a Facebook page! Remember to contact
socialmedia@smartrecovery.org so we can like and follow your page when it’s live on
Facebook!
Last Updated 2/18/2021You can also read
