Your pins on Pinterest have been repinned already. Why do you need to bother with a technicality like social media guidelines when you are already actively engaged with social media?
Actually, social media guidelines have three primary functions:
To PROMOTE the appropriate use of social media in the institute in a way that is consistent with its name, image, ministry and integrity.
To PROTECT both the institute (its members and its mission; its brand) and the People of God by ensuring that posted material is respectful of the laws (including copyright) and does not expose users to harm or the organization to litigation. (Some institutes have guidelines that are exclusively about risk/liability/protection/damage control, crafted by legal departments without a lot of input from the mission teams.... Please do not follow their example.)
To RESPOND to inquiries and other communications, as well as to occasions of infringement (misuse of the diocesan/parish/congregational name or logo, bishop's/pastors name or image, copyrighted material, etc.) whether these are found in the comment boxes of a parish blog, on a YouTube video, or on some third party's blog.
There are several broad areas for your social media team to discuss, discern and articulate:
Start by stating the place of social media in the organization's overall ministry. This context may very well determine how you use it (and what specific guidelines your members will need). Just articulating this can help get every member of your staff (or social media team) on the same page.
There's a lot of them out there (Facebook, Twitter, Pintrest, YouTube, Instagram, and Google+ are arguably the most popular), but you don't have to use each of them. Keeping your goal and your audience in mind, determine which platform helps achieve that goal and reach your target audience.
Yes, a lot of social media is about communication, interacting with others, and sharing interesting or helpful links with your network. But to really use social media effectively, you need to also be CREATING original content. Who is responsible/qualified to do that?
Social media is not just about creating content: it is also about getting to know people and the culture, but part of that process is making yourself known by the content you create, the personality you express, and the way you interact. Decide ahead of time what image you want your organization to have online (light-hearted, serious, scholarly, sarcastic, goofy, etc.) so that your team knows how to post, respond, and interact.
Determine how often the organization will post content or updates to each platform. Aim for reliability over frequency. You can always increase the frequency once you master the medium.
Don't try to cover every aspect of faith and morals (remember, Catholic means universal, and only God can keep all that together at once). The advice often given to writers holds good for other forms of media: Write (or film or sing or photograph) what you know. Determine your special focus or point of view.
No anonymous posts, or generic "Posted by St. Mary Parish" bylines. Not only is this an extremely important dimension of transparency and accountability, it can help your most insightful contributors gain increased credibility and authority.
Determine what the levels of responsibility are and who takes on that role. A more complex organization may need more than one level of administration (the USCCB recommends having at least 2 administrators regardless).
Provide for a social media ministry team, so that one person is not expected to create, run, write, respond, update and administer what is, after all, an institutional ministry. Determine:
Nothing we publish via social media is private, including the content of your team members' personal profiles/accounts. What they post and how they interact online reflects (positively or negatively) on your organization, so make sure your guidelines include rules for appropriate and inappropriate use of social media by team members.
Social media provides a great opportunity for conversation with people already talking about your organization (both fans and haters). Determine who, how, and how often you'll be searching for mentions of the organization, its members and its ministries - in the comments of your websites, on Facebook (both on your page and elsewhere), in blog posts by third parties, on Twitter, or in news articles by major providers. Consider if it's worth monitoring for topical conversations as well (ie. if your RCIA program has a Twitter account, they should proactively communicate with people who are tweeting questions about becoming Catholic).
So you can respond in a timely and consistent manner to: praise, questions/inquiries, concerns, people reaching out for your help, infringement of your name/logo/copyrighted material, accusations against the Institute and its members
Guidelines have to state what types of communication can be handled by the regular administrators, and what types need to be reported up the chain of command (the guidlines need to specify that chain of response, too). For example:
Hopefully, the guidelines stress pastoral engagement as the preferred form of response to criticism and infringement. Getting the lawyers involved is not a good first step, unless there is an accusation of some form of abuse.
The Archdiocese of Chicago, for example, has an entire set of guidelines exclusively concerning communication with minors (it's quite good). Consult your diocese for the specific guidelines that have already been established, and be sure that all social media team members are aware of them, down to the last detail.
It is a living document, and with how fast things change and evolve in the world of social media, it's important to establish (within the guidelines) a system, schedule and procedure fo review and revising the guidelines.
Have all the members of your social media team commit to these guidelines with their signature.
What does your organization's social media guidelines/policy look like?