Social Media Privacy & Nonprofit PR

This past week my Social Media Strategies class sat in on a lecture by Dr. Paul Gates in his Communication Law class. The discussion-based lecture that ensued centered around the subject of nude photos- the legality of sharing, possessing, and taking and when and if the parameter of the law changes under certain circumstances.

How does this relate to nonprofit public relations? To answer this question (for my Social Media Strategies course), I thought back to an exercise that I participated in my junior year Public Relations Writing course.

{A quick background on this course: at the beginning of the semester the professor asked us to create a fictitious organization for which we would be creating public relations material for throughout the semester. My organization was Watauga County Recycling Initiative, a nonprofit focused on making recycling pickup available everywhere in the county as well as making sure that all recyclable material is collected and properly recycled.}

Dr. Gates gave us each a crisis scenario tailored to our individual organizations. We would have to answer questions from the "media" (students from his Journalism course that he had offered extra credit to) about the crisis that happened at our organization, giving us the challenge of having to talk on our feet. During this experience, I realized how many opportunities there are for a nonprofit to have a crisis.

It is important for a nonprofit to have a plan in the event of a crisis, such as a social media mistake.

Dr. Gates' lecture reminded every person in the room about the complexities of social media and the law. The legality of an action can change in the click of a button or exchange of a photo or block of text. There are times we may have violated the law ourselves by accident, and because of the instantaneity in which a mistake can be made, it is important that nonprofit PR professionals be aware of social media law, and how to handle a crisis when it arises.

Thank you for having us, Dr. Gates! Warmly, Colette

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