The Alliance for CME (Alliance) recently decided to establish a formal presence in a variety of social media channels as part of its expanding communication strategy. The Best-Practice Guidelines provide a resource for CME providers to follow when considering and using social media in continuing medical education (CME).
The Alliance noted that providers should comply with the organization’s policies and bylaws and keep its core values of embracing innovation, collaboration, respect and integrity in mind at all times. This includes knowing and following the Alliance’s Code of Ethical Conduct.
One obvious ruled to follow was that CME providers using social media should not post any material that is obscene, defamatory, profane, libelous, threatening, harassing, abusive, hateful, or embarrassing to another person or entity.
As such, the Alliance stated that it reserves the right to moderate, discontinue/delete a disruptive post, insist upon adherence to this policy’s guidelines, determine what constitutes disruptive behavior, and unsubscribe/block repeat offenders.
The Alliance also noted that messages posted on external sites represent the views and opinions of the individual posting the information and do not reflect Alliance policies or positions unless clearly labeled as such.
In addition, the best-practices asked CME providers using social media to respect copyright, fair use and financial disclosure laws and not to provide confidential or other proprietary information. The best-practices also tells social media users to ask permission to publish or report on conversations that are meant to be private or internal to any organization.
The best-practices expressly forbid on Alliance sites the rebroadcast of petitions, chain letters, “get-rich-quick” schemes, political rants, hoaxes, and other spam messages. Additionally, the use of sites to solicit business or distribute a commercial message is strictly prohibited.
The Alliance recommended that discussions on the sites should stimulate conversation and present a variety of perspectives, not to create contention. Avoid challenging or attacking others. Try to add value. If it provides worthwhile information and perspective; if it helps you, your coworkers, and/or our members to do their jobs, solve problems, and improve knowledge or skills; if it builds a sense of community; or if it advocates for the CME/CE/CPD professional or the profession, then it is adding value.