1. Community Websites and Social Media James Macfarlane October 2015

2. Community Websites: Why? To share local information/news To promote your area to the world CCs are required by law to make minutes and agenda available for inspection by local people CC scheme requires CCs to take proactive steps to engage with all members of the community fairly SBC no longer publishes CC minutes online

9. Community Websites: How? Community-Council www.community-council.org.uk Google Sites sites.google.com Online Borders www.onlineborders.org.uk/community

10. Technical details / Ingredients Domain name: nameofcc.org.uk /.org /.scot – Around £6 a year Web hosting: £20 a year for custom site or use a one of the free site providers Webmaster – someone to set up the site and continually maintain/update it

11. You want your website to… Look good Be easy to use Be up to date Allow different people to edit

12. Possible areas Community council – What it does – Who is on it – Minutes/agenda – Contact details – Glossary of commonly used terms in minutes History News Local groups/organisations Upcoming events

16. Photo albums

17. Create a page www.facebook.com/pages/create

18. Defamation Communicating false statements about a person to harm their honour, character or reputation Responsibility for a defamatory comment initially lies with the person who communicates it Any person who repeats/shares it also becomes liable except where they do not know the statement is defamatory and this lack of knowledge is not due to a want of care on their part CCs are not in the first instance responsible for what one individual posts about another, but there is the potential for them to become responsible if they do anything which constitutes further communication of that post

19. Good practice Monitor Facebook comments Remove comments when obviously defamatory or asked to do so Don’t be too hasty - preserve free speech and fair comment Have a social media policy in place

20. Copyright Automatic protection for literary, artistic, etc. works (no need to ‘register’) Number one rule: don’t use photos/text without permission. Exceptions apply including criticism, review and reporting current events Sheldon v Daybrook House Promotions Limited (2013): Daybrook found a photo online and used it in its advertising without permission. Sheldon awarded damages of over £5,000 plus legal fees