Social media can be a powerful tool for motorcycle groups to connect with each other and share information within the group and the wider community.
The term social media incorporates the social channels like, FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, TikToK , Whatsapp , Telegram and many more.
Objectives
Social media is a useful tool to share information with our membership and the public alike
- promote awareness of our group
- promote awareness of our objectives
- improving motorcycling knowledge, attitudes, skills and standards
- Support implementation of RoSPA’s overall mission to save lives and reduce injuries.
- For Tutors to create a group chat for Associates
Guidelines
However, it is important that all group members use social media in a responsible and respectful manner. To ensure this, we have developed the following social media policy for our motorcycle group:
- Tone of Voice: The written content of posts should be natural and casual but always professional. Slang, vulgarity and profanity is strictly prohibited.
- Content should be strictly limited to the subject of road and vehicle safety. Subjects such as politics or social issues are not to be posted.
- The promotion of product types is allowed, but never specific brands of products and this should always be limited to products that help improve the safety of the rider, for instance, the use of high-viz clothing and proper rider wear.
- Be respectful: Members must always be respectful towards each other, other groups, and the wider community when using social media. Offensive language or behaviour will not be tolerated.
- Keep group business private: Members should not share confidential or sensitive group information on social media, such as meeting minutes or personal information about other members. This includes information about group rides and events that have not yet occurred.
- Do not post anything that could harm the group’s reputation: Members should avoid posting anything that could harm the reputation of the group or other members. This includes photos or videos that depict illegal or dangerous activities. All posts should adhere to the groups code of conduct: (https://www.rospaiart.ie/About/Constitution) Avoid negative comments: Members should avoid making negative comments about other members or groups on social media. If a member has a concern or complaint, they should address it privately with the appropriate committee member.
- Follow copyright laws: Members should not post copyrighted material without permission, such as images or music. This is particularly challenging on social platforms like Facebook, so the following are options when images are required:
- a. Use copyright free image libraries like Pexels.com to source free-to-use imagery
- b. Use Generative AI tools to create unique images from text prompts. Examples are Microsoft Co-Pilot and Adobe Firefly
- c. Where an image from another site or social page must be used, all efforts must be made to try to gain permission to use the image and as a last resort a citation should be added to the post referencing the image credit to the original creator/copyright owner.
- d. Where the image has a watermark, this should never be removed/cropped from the image
- Where videos are required, these must always be shared using the original link to the video, such as YouTube, and credits included in the post.
- It may be necessary to share videos that show examples of poor riding to educate where riders could avoid similar situations. In these cases, these videos should never show any serious accidents or be of a graphic nature, i.e. blood or injuries, and especially never show dead bodies, violence, road rage, etc.
- On occasion, somebody may post a negative comment, either about the content or the group. Replies to these comments should always be respectful and never aggressive or offensive.
Disciplinary action
Any member who breaches this social media policy may face disciplinary action, which could include:
- Verbal or written warning
- Suspension from group activities
- Expulsion from the group
The disciplinary action will depend on the severity of the breach and will be determined by the group’s committee.
Where a member of the public posts an unacceptable comment the steps to remediate this would be as follows:
- The comment will be removed from the post in question
- The individual will be informed that their comment was removed as it goes against our policies
- If the individual escalated or continued to post unacceptable comments the committee, on a majority decision, will agree to block the individual in question from our page.
Who can post
The RoSPA-IART Committee are ultimately responsible for all content posted on the RoSPA-IART social media pages and website. However, only the Group’s Social Media Manager will post content to Facebook and other Social Media accounts that might be utilised in future. If a committee member is found to be in breach of this policy, they will be asked to remove the content from the relevant social media account/s.
This policy also extends to Committee Members’ personal social accounts where the content being posted contravenes any aspects covered in this policy and could damage the reputation of ROSPA IART.
Tutors may create chat groups on Social media for communication with their assigned associates. Any such group chats are subject to this policy.
Current Channels
Current RoSPA-IART official social media channels are:
| Website |
https://www.rospaiart.ie/ |
| Facebook |
https://www.facebook.com/rospaiart |
| Whatsapp |
Closed groups used for member specific communication and for Tutors to communicate with their associates |
| Instagram |
N/A - No Presence |
| X |
N/A - No Presence |
| Telegram |
N/A - No Presence |
| Linkedin |
N/A - No Presence |
| Tiktok |
N/A - No Presence |
We hope that all members will follow this social media policy to ensure that our motorcycle group maintains a positive and respectful online presence.
For more information, queries, comments or suggestions please contact any member of the current committee.