Future-Proof Compliance With Social Media Archiving
As of 2024, there are 5.16 billion social media users around the world, accounting for almost 60% of the total global population. Over the next four years, active social media users — or those who use a social network at least once per month — are expected to grow to more than 75%. Additionally, 71% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 29 prefer to get local government updates from social media; two clear indicators of why these platforms are prime community engagement channels.
When using social media, government agencies are required to uphold compliance with public records laws. There are multiple methods agencies can use for social media archiving, enabling them to preserve historical records and maintain accountability and transparency.
As the number of platforms and channels grows, so does the volume of social media content, making the need for real-time social media archiving more important than ever.
Keep reading to learn more about the different methods for social media archiving and how CivicPlus® Social Media Archiving software is purpose-built to keep agencies compliant and protected.
What is Social Media Archiving?
Social media archiving refers to the process of capturing, storing, and preserving content from a social media profile. It ensures posts, comments, images, videos, messages, and other social engagements are accessible and retrievable without being altered in any way. Technology solutions for social media archiving are used across various platforms to maintain comprehensive records, data integrity, and authenticity.
Related Read: What is Social Media Archiving, and Why Does it Matter?
Is Social Media Considered a Public Record?
Social media content is considered a public record if it’s created and/or maintained by a government agency. In the U.S., social media is considered a public record in all 50 states. Additionally, if an official uses social media for communications and engagements directly related to the official responsibilities of their office, it is considered public record.
Examples of Social Media Content Considered a Public Record
Proper archiving and retention of social media content is critical for maintaining compliance with public records laws. Here are some examples of social media content that is considered public record:
- Public announcements and updates, such as policy changes or emergency notifications
- Interactions with the community (e.g., responses to comments and questions on government posts or profiles)
- Official statements, such as details or discussions of governmental business
Related Read: Social Media, Public Records, and FOIA
6 Methods for Social Media Archiving
Social media archiving helps maintain accountability and preserve integrity in how agencies communicate. Here are six common ways local governments approach social media archiving:
1. API-Based Archiving
A social media platform’s Application Programming Interface (API) is used to automatically capture data such as posts, metadata, comments, and images. Some social media APIs may restrict the amount or type of data available or charge for premium API access. However, its ability to continuously capture data means minimal manual intervention is needed. Additionally, this method is scalable for large data volumes and is compliant with platform terms of service.
2. Web Scraping
Bots or software are deployed to pull content from social media web pages. Benefits include broad coverage to capture data and configurations for capturing specific types of content. It’s important to know that scraping may violate platform policies, resulting in potential legal issues. and changes in website structure can make the scraper ineffective.
3. Manual Archiving
Manual archiving is when a staff member manually captures posts, screenshots, and other social media content, preserving the visual appearance of content. This method is ideal when needing to archive specific, high-value posts or small groups of interactions. However, it can be error-prone, time-consuming, and may lack timestamps and user information.
4. Third-Party Archiving Solutions
Specialized software is often used to handle an agency’s archiving needs. These automated solutions help maintain public records and FOIA compliance across multiple platforms, although they are not always API connected.
5. PDF or CSV Export
Data from social media platforms is exported as a PDF or CSV, providing an organized way to easily view, sort, and filter posts, comments, and other engagements. Not all platforms support this and it may not capture all replies or multimedia, but the upside is these file types are easy to store and view.
6. Email-Based Archiving
Email-based archiving uses notifications to send posts, messages, and comments to an email inbox for archiving. New content is logged as it happens and this method integrates easily with existing email retention policies for better compliance. Users should be aware that this method may miss multimedia content or edits and careful organization is needed to keep inboxes from flooding.
Key Considerations When Selecting a Social Media Archiving Method
Selecting the right approach to social media archiving is critical for agencies. Here are four considerations to help:
- Content Volume: When choosing a method for archiving, agencies should consider the amount of content that will need to be archived. For example, API-based solutions are most effective for agencies with large-scale needs and high volumes of data.
- Compliance Needs: Public record laws dictate what agencies need to capture from social media. It’s critical to use social media archiving software that ensures the necessary metadata is collected, such as API archiving or third-party solutions.
- Platform Policies: Different channels have different terms of service. Agencies must remain compliant across platforms, and methods like web scraping may violate these terms.
- Budget: When choosing a solution for social media archiving, agencies must balance cost with automation needs and how much data capture is required to make the best decision.
Why Government Agencies Need an API-Integrated Social Media Archiving Solution
Government agencies of all sizes are increasingly turning to social media as a way to communicate with residents, share information, and even provide services. It’s important to use solutions that can seamlessly connect with a social media platform’s API archive. This is the most secure option for comprehensive, accurate, and automated record-keeping while maintaining compliance with public records laws.
CivicPlus Social Media Archiving software captures 90% of social media records within 30 seconds of its posting, even if the content is edited, deleted, or hidden. Our solution also collects critical metadata such as digital signatures and timestamps, a key benefit as most other methods are limited or can’t collect this data. Integrating directly with multiple social networks via the social media API, our Social Media Archiving solution leads to faster, more comprehensive records.
Additional features that make our solution stand out include:
- API-Based Integration: Connects to the official API of a social media network to capture comprehensive records (including robust metadata).
- Optimized Polling: Cycles through account history to optimize the time spent on each period and content type.
- Historical and Ongoing Capture: Rechecks account histories (including new, edited, and deleted content) to fully capture newly supported content types, even in historical posts.
- Backtracking Service: Captures records from an account’s creation date within the limitations of the social media network.
- Versioning and Logging Changes: Logs changes to records in real-time through a versioning system, so all updates and important changes are organized and regularly tracked.
- Deleted Records Validation: Implements a multi-step validation process when deleted records are discovered so those are no longer available from the network.
- Account Connection Monitoring and Notification Services: Notifies relevant parties if an issue is found during the monitoring process so it can be promptly addressed and resolved.
Social Media Archiving Built for Compliance
Highly detailed record-keeping supports greater community transparency and trust. To do it right, agencies need a streamlined and comprehensive approach to social media archiving. Selecting the right solution is a critical step toward maintaining compliance and preserving digital content and metadata in an easily accessible way.
From analytics to advanced search to open archiving, CivicPlus Social Media Archiving software helps agencies work smarter and remain accountable and accessible to residents. Take the next step to find out why 28,000 users in the public sector trust CivicPlus Social Media Archiving software.