The City of Medicine Hat has updated its social media policy. (City of Medicine Hat)

By Eli J. Ridder | @EliRidder

City of Medicine Hat updates social media policy to address security, employee use of personal accounts

Mar 18, 2024 | 8:51 PM

The City of Medicine Hat has updated its social media policy for the first time since 2011 with a focus on updating language, improving security and setting employee guidelines, changes that bring it up to speed with similar organizations.

The new policy —  approved unanimously by council on Monday — aligns the city with best practices around security and how employees use their personal social media, according to communications, engagement and marketing director Colleen Graham.

“What we really wanted to do is make some improvements to ensure that all accounts that are managed by City of Medicine Hat employees are set up in a secure way,” Graham said.

“Cybersecurity is obviously a growing issue and we want to try to safeguard against potential hacks to our accounts that could pose a reputational risk,” she added.

Colleen Graham, the city’s communications director, says the new social media policy puts in place guidelines for employee use of personal social media. (Kevin Kyle/CHAT News)

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The added security measures include setting up procedures for when staff end their employment with the city so that access is restricted to just current employees.

The policy also puts in place guidelines for the personal social media accounts of employees.

“What we’ve tried to do is strike a balance between an employee’s personal right to use social media on their off-work time with just employee expectations that they should be considering,” Graham said.

“We’re not trying to impose any big restrictions on employees, we just do want them to all be mindful that even when they’re on their own personal social media platforms that they’re still representing the city.”

Council on Monday also passed new procurement rules that gives the city manager the ability to sign off on major items instead of the mayor in a move that aims to reduce wait times for city vendors.