What is social media archiving and other common questions

The best way to archive all your social media is to invest in a secure, compliant archiving service. The service should provide 24/7 access to your records and the ability to export records. You can also archive your social media posts using Facebook, Instagram or Twitter archive features, but these channels provide a one-off, non-integrated archive that does not allow you to tag, add explanatory notes and export in multiple formats. 

National Archives Australia (NAA) and state and territory recordkeeping regulations define social media records as public records.The recordkeeping legislation is consistent across many jurisdictions, including Europe and the USA. If your organisation is having business-related conversations with their customers and community on a social media platform such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube you are creating digital records that may be subject to government regulations, Freedom of Information (FOI) request and legal actions including royal commissions, inquiries and court cases. A social media archive like Brolly captures and preserves your social media records in a way that is compliant with recordkeeping legislation. 

Social media archiving is the creation of a secure, accessible record of your organisation’s social media record that complies with recordkeeping legislation.  Social media archiving can sometimes be done within the social media channel, but this is not always a compliant approach. Considerations when archiving social media include whether you are capturing the context of each record, along with its metadata, links and media. 

A social media archive is a complete, compliant, secure record of your interactions with customers and community on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. It’s a good idea to use a purpose-built social media archiving tool to create your social media archive as this will ensure your records are captured with context, metadata and media, keeping them compliant with recordkeeping legislation and able to be uploaded into your electronic records and document management system (eRDMS)

Not everything posted on social media is public record. Check your state recordkeeping agency for details that relate to your organisation. As a general rule, state and federal legislation requires that organisations create and maintain a compliant archive of any communication that relates to service delivery, public consultation, formal advice or guidance, or starts an internal process, such as a request for information or complaint.

More and more organisations are using social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn as communication tools. This increase in usage comes with an increase in risk. Here are our 3 top risks to consider if your organisation is using social media to communicate with your customers, constituents or community.

1. When your organisation publishes content on a third party platform, you cannot control what happens to that content.  It can be deleted or removed by the platform’s owner (e.g. Facebook)
2. Public content such as posts and comments can be edited or deleted and that can remove your ability to access the content. 
3. If you’re publishing to a social media platform, public comments and other actions can impact your brand and commercial reputation. 

The best way to manage these risks is with a purpose-built social media archiving tool like Brolly.

In Australia the national laws around social media include the Privacy Act 1988, Archives Act 1983, the Freedom of Information Act 1982 and the Evidence Act 1995, among others. Each Australian State and Territory also has its own legislation to supplement the national laws. Details of requirements are available on the website of your  relevant public records office. 

In many countries, including Australia and New Zealand it is a legal requirement to archive your social media records if you are a government organisation or work in a regulated sector such as education or financial services.The Archives Act 1983 (Cwlth) and the state-based laws and regulations apply in Australia. Other countries have their own equivalent. 

Additional reasons to archive include the protection of important commercial data that is held in social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Imagine what could happen if any of those platforms decided to block or remove your content. A secure, compliant, contextually complete archive of your records means that even if your records on Facebook or other platforms are lost or unable to be accessed, you have a copy that meets compliance standards and can be used for everything from internal reporting to legal evidence or Freedom of Information requests.

When you archive your social media data, you’re making a secure, authenticated, contextually complete copy of the records at a given point in time. Social media records can change from minute to minute with an edit, a new comment, a deletion, a change of image or any number of updates. The archive provides a secure, reliable record of these ever-changing digital-born records and interactions.