There are currently no access restrictions for employees to any of our social media sites in the SSAFA office, and all employees must also be aware of and adhere to our IT Policy. Reasonable and appropriate use of personal social media activity during breaks is permitted, but usage should not be excessive and should not interfere with your work duties. Employees working on MOD devices should adhere to any associated policy.

Our Digital Marketing Team is responsible for the day-to-day publishing, monitoring and management of SSAFA's official social media channels. If you have specific questions about any aspect of these channels, contact our team by emailing [email protected]. No other employee should post on SSAFA's official channels without the permission of the Digital Marketing Team.

Social media is used to engage, interact, communicate, build community, and develop long-term relationships with supporters and encourage people to become involved in our work. We use different social media channels to interact with different target segments.

• Facebook  Over 270,000 people follow SSAFA's main Facebook channel.
• Instagram  Over 26,000 people follow SSAFA's main Instagram channel.
• X (Twitter)  Over 74,000 people follow SSAFA's main X channel.
• LinkedIn  Over 32,000 people follow SSAFA's account on LinkedIn.
• TikTok  Over 2,000 people follow SSAFA’s account on TikTok.

• Our Digital Marketing team is responsible for the oversight and management of SSAFA's social media channels. Only those authorised to do so by the Head of Marketing will have access to these SSAFA social media accounts. If any SSAFA employee or volunteer outside of the Digital Marketing Team wish to contribute content intended for social media, they should contact [email protected] to find out more.
• Employees and volunteers should not set up other SSAFA branded Facebook groups or pages, X (Twitter) or Instagram accounts or any other social media channels on behalf of SSAFA. This could confuse messaging and brand awareness, as well as having a reputational risk associated with this. By having official social media accounts in place, the Digital Marketing Team can ensure the consistency of the brand and focus on building a strong following. If a local branch is intending to set up any new social media account (including a Facebook Group), they must notify the Digital Marketing Team in advance.
• All brand social media content should have a communication purpose and a direct benefit for SSAFA, which also accurately reflects our agreed position. It should bring value to our audience(s), answer their questions, offer help, and engage with them.
• Take care with the presentation of content. Be politically neutral. Avoid the use of swear words, including in the context of military banter. Make sure that there are no typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors. Also, check the quality of images used and ensure correct consent has been obtained for any case studies.
• Always check the facts. Employees and volunteers should always take reasonable steps where necessary to seek verification and fact check before posting, specifically for data or statistics and to be wary of photo manipulation. Be honest. Say what you know to be accurate or have a good source for. If you've made a mistake, don't be afraid to admit it.
• If you want to use an image that isn't yours, you must obtain permission to use it  whether through a licence or the creator directly. Only images that are specially labelled as being in the public domain, i.e. without copyright restrictions, can be used without restriction for any purpose.
• Employees should not post content about our supporters, events, and beneficiaries without their express permission. If employees are sharing information about supporters, service users, or third-party organisations, this content should be clearly labelled, so our audiences know it has not come directly from SSAFA. If using interviews, videos, or photos, all relevant consents must be obtained in advance, and if a child or young person is clearly identifiable, the consent of a parent or guardian must be obtained before using them on any social media channel.
• All our employees and volunteers should ensure they reflect SSAFA's values in what they post, use our tone of voice, and be model ambassadors for our brand. Our brand guidelines, available on SSAFANet, set out the language, tone of voice and images all SSAFA employees and volunteers should use when posting content on SSAFA social media channels.
• It is vital that SSAFA does not encourage others to risk their personal safety or that of others to gather materials. For example, a video of a stunt. Employees and volunteers should not encourage people to break the law to supply material for social media, such as using unauthorised video footage. All relevant rights for usage must be obtained before publishing material.
• Employees and volunteers should refrain from offering personal opinions via SSAFA's social media accounts, either directly by commenting or indirectly by liking, sharing or retweeting. If you are in doubt about SSAFA's position on a particular issue, please speak to our Public Relations Team. Volunteers should avoid using the first person ‘I’ when posting on SSAFA branch accounts and instead use ‘SSAFA’ or ‘we’. Always pause and think before posting. Do reply to comments promptly when a response is appropriate.
• Sometimes issues can arise on social media which can escalate into a crisis because they are sensitive or risk severe damage to the charity's reputation. Examples might include an incident involving SSAFA that is attracting a lot of sustained negative comments and shares on X (Twitter), resulting in the issue becoming amplified to a broader audience. The nature of social media means that complaints are visible and can escalate quickly. Not acting can be detrimental to the charity.

This policy does not intend to inhibit personal use of social media but instead flags up those areas of concern where conflicts may arise. SSAFA employees and volunteers are expected to behave appropriately, and in ways that are consistent with SSAFA's values and policies, both online and in real life.

Be aware that any information you make public could affect how people perceive SSAFA. You must make it clear when you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of SSAFA. Suppose you are using your personal social media accounts to promote and talk about SSAFA's work. In that case, you must use a disclaimer such as: ‘The views expressed on this site are my own and don't necessarily represent SSAFA's positions, policies or opinions.’

• Employees who have a personal blog or website which indicates in any way that they work at SSAFA should discuss any potential conflicts of interest with their line manager and the Digital Marketing Team. Similarly, employees who want to start blogging and wish to say that they work for SSAFA should discuss any potential conflicts of interest with their line manager and the Digital Marketing Team. Those in senior management, and specialist roles where they are well known in their field of expertise, must take particular care as personal views published may be misunderstood as expressing SSAFA's view.
• SSAFA works with several high-profile people, including celebrities, journalists, politicians, and major donors. Please do not approach high-profile people via your personal social media accounts to ask them to support the charity, as this could hinder any potential relationships that are being managed or nurtured by other SSAFA teams. This includes asking for retweets about the charity. If you have any information about high-profile people that have a connection to our cause, or if there is someone who you would like to support the charity, please speak to the PR team or the Major Donor Fundraising teams to share these details.
• Please use common sense and good judgement. Be aware of your association with SSAFA and ensure your profile and related content is consistent with how you wish to present yourself to the public, colleagues, partners and funders. Think about your personal reputation as well as the charity. Please express your opinions and deal with differences of opinion respectfully, always be respectful of others and their opinions. Be polite and be first to correct your own mistakes. If the press contacts an employee or volunteer about their social media posts that relate to SSAFA, they should talk to the PR Team immediately and under no circumstances respond directly.
• Employees and volunteers working with service users or beneficiaries should not be friends on their personal social media accounts, to ensure that they maintain professional boundaries and that SSAFA’s reputation is safeguarded, in line with the charity’s Safeguarding Policy and Standards of Behaviour Policy.
• We encourage our employees and volunteers to share our SSAFA tweets and social media posts. When online in a personal capacity, you might also see opportunities to comment on or support SSAFA and the work we do. Where appropriate and using the guidelines within this policy, we encourage staff to do this as it provides a human voice and raises our profile. However, if the content is controversial or misrepresented, please highlight this to the Digital Marketing Team who will respond as appropriate.
• SSAFA is not a campaigning organisation, and it does not hold a view on party politics. When representing SSAFA, employees are expected to hold SSAFA's position of neutrality. Employees who are politically active in their spare time need to be clear in separating their personal political identity from SSAFA and understand and avoid potential conflicts of interest.
• Never use SSAFA's logos or trademarks unless approved to do so. Any permission to use SSAFA trademark or logos should be requested via [email protected].
• Always protect yourself and the charity. Be careful with your privacy online and be cautious when sharing personal information. What you publish is widely accessible and will be around for a long time, so do consider the content carefully. When you are using social media sites at work, you must do so safely. You can find more information on your responsibilities when using our computer systems in our IT Policy.

WhatsApp may be used for volunteer coordination, but not as the primary repository for casework, beneficiary records or official organisational records.

Volunteers may use WhatsApp and similar messaging applications for legitimate SSAFA branch, service committee and volunteer coordination purposes, provided that:

• Communication remains professional, respectful, and consistent with SSAFA's values and policies.
• Personal information about beneficiaries, service users, volunteers, or staff is not shared unless there is a lawful and authorised reason to do so.
• Sensitive, confidential or safeguarding-related information must not be discussed in informal group chats unless specifically authorised and appropriate safeguards are in place.
• Volunteers should use established branch or service committee groups where possible rather than creating multiple unofficial groups.
• Branch Chairs (or nominated volunteers) should maintain oversight of official SSAFA WhatsApp groups used for branch business.
• Volunteers must not add individuals to a WhatsApp group without their consent.
• Where appropriate, important decisions, approvals, casework actions or records should be transferred to SSAFA's approved systems and not rely solely on WhatsApp messages.
• Volunteers working directly with beneficiaries should maintain appropriate professional boundaries and follow SSAFA safeguarding requirements.

SSAFA reserves the right to require communications relating to charity business to be moved to approved systems where necessary for governance, safeguarding, data protection or operational reasons.

Employees and volunteers must comply with SSAFA's Artificial Intelligence (AI) Policy and Guidance at all times. Where there is any conflict between this policy and the AI Policy, the AI Policy shall take precedence.

SSAFA recognises that Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can assist employees and volunteers in creating, editing, researching and optimising social media content.

AI may be used to support social media activity, provided that:

• All use complies with SSAFA's AI guidance, IT policies, data protection requirements and safeguarding responsibilities.
• Employees and volunteers must not upload, copy or paste confidential, personal, sensitive or case-related information into public AI tools. This includes information relating to beneficiaries, supporters, volunteers, employees, or partner organisations.
• AI-generated content must always be reviewed, checked and approved by a human before publication.
• Individuals remain personally responsible for the accuracy, legality, tone and appropriateness of anything published on behalf of SSAFA, regardless of whether AI was used to assist in its creation.
• Facts, statistics, quotations, and images produced by AI must be verified before publication.
• AI must not be used to generate misleading, deceptive, defamatory, discriminatory, or politically partisan content.
• AI-generated images, video or audio that depict beneficiaries, volunteers, employees or members of the public must be clearly authorised and used responsibly.
• Where an AI-generated image could reasonably be mistaken for a real beneficiary, supporter or serving member of the Armed Forces, consideration should be given to clearly identifying it as AI-generated.

Employees and volunteers must comply with SSAFA's Safeguarding Policy and procedures when using social media. Any safeguarding concerns identified through social media must be reported immediately in accordance with those procedures.

Employees and volunteers must never disclose operational information, personal circumstances, service history, locations or other details relating to beneficiaries, serving personnel or veterans, where doing so could compromise privacy, personal security or wellbeing.

Employees and volunteers should engage respectfully and professionally online. Formal complaints should be directed to SSAFA's complaints process, and any issue presenting a potential reputational, legal, operational or safeguarding risk should be escalated promptly for advice.

Libel is when a false written statement that is damaging to a person's reputation is published online or in print. Whether employees or volunteers are posting content on social media as part of their job or in a personal capacity, they should not bring SSAFA into disrepute by making defamatory comments about individuals or other organisations or groups.

All employees and volunteers must abide by the laws governing copyright, under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Never use or adapt someone else's images or written content without permission. Failing to acknowledge the source/author/resource citation, where consent has been given to reproduce content, is also considered a breach of copyright. If in doubt, please contact the digital or PR teams who will help guide you.