I led the creation of this case study and manual while I was at the YMCA of Metro Chicago. Although some part of this are outdated, much of it is timeless!

1. YMCA OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO
FACEBOOK MANAGEMENT REFERENCE MANUAL
Resources for managing a YMCA Facebook page

2. Notice
This is a resource created by the YMCA of Metro Chicago to assist our center staff in maintaining our
Facebook pages. We are sharing this as a case study to allow others to learn from our experience.
However these resources are only meant to be used as an example, they are not meant to be legal or
policy advice.
About the YMCA of Metro Chicago
The Y is Chicagoland’s leading nonprofit strengthening communities through youth development,
healthy living and social responsibility. Through its 65 locations and more than 100 extension sites, the
YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago helps children learn and grow, teaches young people to lead, brings
families closer, and encourages individual health and well-being. As one of the largest and most
established cause-driven organizations in Chicago, YMCA programs impact hundreds of thousands of
lives annually, helping to strengthen neighborhoods and respond to unique community needs across
Chicagoland.
Contact Info
YMCA of Metro Chicago, 801 N. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60610
Steve Heye, 312-932-1200, sheye@ymcachicago.org
www.ymcachicago.org
http://www.facebook.com/ymcachicago
http://twitter.com/ymcachicago
http://ymcachicagoit.wordpress.com

3. Contents
Resources for managing a YMCA Facebook page____________________________________ 1
Welcome____________________________________________________________________ 4
Who is this resource for? ____________________________________________________________ 4
Requirements to be an author___________________________________________________ 5
Facebook Configuration________________________________________________________ 6
Maintaining your Facebook page _____________________________________________________ 6
Ongoing Facebook support plan ______________________________________________________ 7
Guidelines for editing page __________________________________________________________ 8
Content Advice ______________________________________________________________ 10
Moderating Comments _______________________________________________________ 12
Capturing Facebook Comments______________________________________________________ 12
Comment examples _______________________________________________________________ 13
Facebook FAQ’s _____________________________________________________________ 14
Appendix A: Author Acknowledgement __________________________________________ 15
Appendix B: Comment Escalation chart __________________________________________ 17
Appendix C: Air Force Comment Response Flow Chart_______________________________ 18
Acknowledgements __________________________________________________________ 19

4. Welcome
The YMCA of Metro Chicago has launched a Facebook page for each membership center. Pages were set
up and pre-configured by Marketing and IT, with periodic Metro updates pushed to each page. Center
staff were trained to manage the pages and incorporate their communication strategy and timeline into
them. A minimum of two people per center are required for a center to manage the Facebook pages
daily after launch.
Our objective is to have successful, responsible and sustainable social media sites that are managed as
part of the YMCA's overall business strategy. Social media is one of the three major components of our
online strategy. Our plan is to incorporate social media into our websites and the employee intranet.
This effort will focus on pushing information, announcements and news to Facebook about our YMCA
centers. Center administrators will be provided an evolving set of tools to make the posting of content
as effortless as possible.
Who is this resource for?
This resource is meant only for approved YMCA of Metro Chicago social media authors. Please do not
distribute or share this outside of your team of approved authors.
This resource is meant to be used as a reference tool about the YMCAs strategy and processes for our
authors. It is not meant to be a user’s manual for Facebook. The authors are expected to be familiar with
Facebook.

5. Requirements to be an author
The following are the general requirements to be considered as a social media author for the YMCA of
Metro Chicago. However the selection of authors is at the discretion of the Executive Director and must
be approved by Marketing and IT once the requirements are met.
1. Setup a personal profile on Facebook that will be linked to the Facebook page on which you will
be author. You should be comfortable with the mechanics and navigation of Facebook
individually as we do not offer how to use Facebook training.
2. Complete training including content creation, page administration and comment moderation.
3. Actively participate in the content planning and marketing calendar for your centergroup.
4. Be willing to sign and commit to the responsibilities and roles outlined in our social media
author acknowledgement approved by your supervisor. (author acknowledgement included in
this manual)
You will be expected to fill three roles as an author; create content, manage page and moderate
interactions.

6. Facebook Configuration
Each YMCA center has a Facebook page, plus one for the YMCA of Metro Chicago as a whole. At times
their will be content pushed to the center Facebook pages from the Association page. As an author you
will have access to post to your center page only. We have started with Facebook and Flickr as our initial
social media tools. This will be expanded over time, but we are asking authors to stay within those tools.
Facebook is continually changing and growing their functionality. We will need to adapt our usage and
moderation of our pages as these changes happen. The screen shots and information within this
manual may not reflect the most current layouts within Facebook, but the overall strategy will still
apply. Please be flexible as changes happen and make Marketing and IT aware of any issues and
challenges you face.
During the Facebook launch Marketing and IT worked together to establish the original setup and
configuration. Later in the manual you will see guidelines about what you are allowed to add and
change within your page.
It is important to note though that you need to have a personal Facebook profile to be made an
administrator on a Facebook page. Below is some information about what that means to you. This is
expanded on in the author training also.
Personal Facebook Profile Page Administrator
Each author needs a personal profile
Your profile is kept private but is used to gain
access to the page
You should set your privacy options to protect
your personal information
Administration rights attached to your profile
No way for our “fans” to identify or see
admins from the page
Admins can only see information about the
fans based on their privacy settings
Set privacy settings on your profile
Fans of our page will not be able to identify who the administratorauthors are, however as our presence
on Facebook increase YMCA participants or other staff my try to find you on Facebook. We would
suggest taking a few minutes to review the privacy settings on your personal Facebook profile:
Facebook Privacy Help:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=839
10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know:
http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/02/facebook-privacy/
How-to: manage your Facebook privacy settings with three simple lists
http://i.engadget.com/2010/07/13/how-to-effectively-manage-your-facebook-privacy-settings-with-l/

7. Maintaining your Facebook page
Adding, installing or integrating any Facebook applications, tools, or tabs is up to the discretion of the
page administrators within the restrictions below. The installation, maintenance, monitoring and support of
these tools is the sole responsibility of the administrators.
Do not install or integrate any applications, tools or tabs that:
1. Involve any financial transactions or fundraising tools
2. Conflict with our character values or do not align with our mission
3. Automatically contact your fans on your behalf
4. Post inappropriate or excessive content or excessive amounts to your wall
5. Is religious or political in nature
6. May expose confidential or proprietary information
7. Links to outside websites that may be inappropriate
Ongoing Facebook support plan
Facebook Admins will be responsible for maintaining the structure, creating the content, moderating
any discussion and managing any new applications added to your center’s page.
Marketing and IT have created this Facebook launch process to enable you to be successful once the
pages have launched. Marketing and communications will be providing the starter design and template
for the Facebook page. Future marketing campaign materials will include possible Facebook content
ideas. Marketing will also provide support with branding strategy going forward. IT will provide
consultation about the elements of the Facebook page that were part of the original launch.

8. Guidelines for editing page

10. Content Advice
The training has a heavy focus on how to create content for your page. This resource is not meant to
replace that information; these are just supplementary suggestions and clarifications.
The following suggestions apply to all employees and contractors managing social media on behalf of
the YMCA of Metro Chicago. They cover all publicly accessible communications via the Internet
pertaining to the YMCA of Metro Chicago, such as social networking updates, blogging, microblogging,
photo and video sharing sites.
1. Using social media is a medium which permits the YMCA to take part in the industry
conversation. Before you begin to write, you should consider doing some reading and
researching first. Learn where the conversation is and what people are saying about our
industry through Google Search, Google Blog Search, Blogpulse, or Technorati. Look for recent
news about health developments, fun kids activities, and Chicago area events.
2. Be consistently truthful in your social media posts and never, ever lie or hide information. If you
do not have the answers, it is perfectly acceptable to admit it. Lying causes the YMCA to lose
credibility, and credibility is difficult to regain after it is gone. Not having all the answers is
human, which is to be expected of authors. However, any answers that you are unable to
provide at the time of posting must be researched and updated with the correct information as
soon as possible. Any promises made should also be addressed in a timely manner.
3. Likewise, if you make a mistake or report inaccurate information, acknowledge it quickly. It
does not matter if you or our readers discover it; it should be addressed as soon as possible.
Then you must make sure that our social media readers know how the mistake will be
corrected. Then fix the problem!
4. As a representative of the YMCA, it is permissible for you to write about your work and have a
dialogue with the community. However, you may not publish proprietary or confidential
information about the YMCA. This includes, but is not limited to, information about future or
upcoming events and programs not yet made public, unreleased announcements about changes
in personnel, etc.
5. Consult your manager first if you have any questions at all about the appropriateness of
publishing particular concepts or developments related to the YMCA’s business on social media.
If the judgment call is tough, on secrets or other issues, get advice from management before
you publish.
6. People are going to say less than favorable things about the YMCA, our practices, or our
industry, either as comments on the social media posts or in the social media community at
large. That’s part of the process. Don’t try to write a post unless you can answer all the
questions – good and bad – professionally, quickly, politely, and accurately. Don’t get defensive
or offended, they are communicating with our organization, not you personally.
7. Use a human voice. The social media is a method for demonstrating to the community that
there are real people behind the scenes at the YMCA of Metro Chicago. Write professionally,
personably, and conversationally, but not formally. There is a person behind these accounts and
that must come across. Be personal and personable, but always keep the values and mission of

11. the YMCA in mind. Busy day at the Y? Talk about it. Headache this morning because you were up
late partying the night before? Keep that private.
8. Write in a manner that allows you to be comfortable with taking personal responsibility for your
posts. Social media is a form of online discourse, constituting individual interactions, not
corporate communications. YMCA employees are personally responsible for their posts.
Identify yourself and your role at the YMCA when you post about the YMCA or YMCA-related
matters.
9. In general, “be nice” is a good mantra to follow when composing a post. Whether you’re in the
actual or virtual world as a representative of the YMCA of Metro Chicago, your interactions and
discourse should be respectful. Watch what you’re saying. Do not threaten or attack any
person or entity, either in your posts or in the comments. Avoid insults, obscenity, profanity,
and inflammatory subjects. Do not post any material that is libelous.
10. The best way to be interesting is to write about what you know. If you have a deep
understanding of something, talk about the challenges and issues around it. Don’t rant about
things you don't understand, as you're more likely to get called out by a real expert.
11. The Internet is all about links, so when you see something interesting and relevant, don’t
hesitate to include links to this information in your posts – even if it’s to a competitor. In doing
this, we are doing our readers a service by being their informational hub on the web.
12. Your posts should demonstrate that, as a representative of the YMCA Chicago, you are the
authority on the subject matter. We should know more about our industry than anyone else, if
we’re writing about it. If there’s someone that knows more, we should link to them.
13. If you have any biases or affiliations, disclose them. Transparency and authenticity in your
writing are important, and directly affect the YMCA’s credibility as well. If you are endorsing a
particular product such as an energy drink or athletic equipment, for example, and the YMCA
was given the product for free, say so. If you are a board member of the American Heart
Association and you are advocating a particular position that the organization holds, reveal that.
Having biases or affiliations is permissible, so long as you are clear about them when writing.
14. Photos used by the YMCA should receive permission from the parties involved before posting to
the public. In particular, photos of minors participating in YMCA activities should be approved by
the respective parents before going online, even in private or closed forums. The same
guidelines should hold for YMCA videos. Please contact Risk Management if you are unsure or
have questions about photo releases.
15. Approved Administrators for social media sites must ensure that great care is given to comment
on User Feed items under the proper alias. Personal comments must be identified as such, and
YMCA comments must be made under the YMCA name.
16. When “favoriting or liking” business or organization pages, following other user accounts, etc.
the YMCA values and beliefs must be kept in mind. For instance, the YMCA Chicago fan page
would not become a fan of another organization that did not reflect the same values – a bar or
nightclub for instance. Becoming a fan of a page is equivalent to a public endorsement of the
YMCA for that product or service. You should only connect with those that the YMCA has
partnered with.

12. Moderating Comments
Comments will need to be monitored daily by the authors and is critical to the long term success of our
Facebook presence. Please refer to the training for an explanation of our process to reply to comments,
plus you can refer to the Air Force Comment Response Flow Chart and Comment Escalation Chart in the
appendix of this manual.
Capturing Facebook Comments
As a part of the comment escalation process comments will need to be documented. Before deleting
any comments, please keep a record of those comments. Here are the basic steps. Your center should
determine if you want to store these records electronically or in a paper file.
Steps:
1. Open Microsoft Word and create a new document
2. Using Internet Explorer go to Facebook page where comment exists
3. Hold down the “alt” button and hit the “PrtScn” (print screen) button
a. Hold and
4. Go back to the Microsoft Word document
5. Paste the image into the Word document (you can hold down the “Ctrl” button and hit the “v”
button or use the ribbon button for paste).
6. Add the following information to the Word document:
a. Your name
b. Actions taken (comment deleted? Author contacted? Called MarketingRisk
Management? Other?)
c. Date actions were taken
7. File or store the document.

13. Comment examples
To help you prepare for comments here are some real examples from Comment Cards that you can
think through.
1. Your snowplow company should be fired! Lot looks like an eight year old plowed it. We lose so
many parking spots What am I paying for?!?
2. You really should label the front doors with signs that say in and out. There are always traffic
jams there and mass confusion. Kids are getting separated from parents and seniors are getting
knocked over.
3. There is a man in the morning, he swims. You need to get rid of him. This morning he mooned
an entire water fitness class and the ladies were very upset. This is not appropriate YMCA
behavior
4. Toilet seat is soo loose we are going to lose someone
5. Please put signs on windows in summer telling people not to open them and then ENFORCE it
6. Please make this a non smoking building.. it stinks like cigarettes
7. Your front desk moves so slow and when I call they don’t answer the phones, let alone know the
answer to my questions.
8. The YMCA facility is dirty and old compared to other gyms that I have visited in the area. Why
cant you do more to make this better?

14. Facebook FAQ’s
Q: How can I post on another center’s Facebook page?
A: At this point there is no way to post to another YMCA FB wall. However there are a couple options:
1. Send your post to Lee Concha if it is a post that should be shared across all centers.
2. Send your post to the authors at the other centers and ask them to post it
3. Go to that YMCAs FB page and post on their wall from your personal profile
4. Use the @ functionality in your wall post to mention that YMCA
(http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=109765592130)
Q: Can we launch a new Facebook page for a team, group or program area of our YMCA (swim team,
staff only or race as examples)?
A: No, please do not create any additional pages or launch any new social media tools at this point. We
do not have the capacity to manage them and we want them to be successful.
Q: What do we do if one of our authors leaves or we want to add additional social media authors?
A: We are still working on the mechanics to replace or add authors. We still need authors to complete
the training and acknowledgement before starting. Situations will be handled on an individual basis until
a final process is in place. Please email sheye@ymcachicago.org to proceed.
Q: Should we friend members or other YMCA staff on Social Media sites?
A: If your only connection is work to the person sending the friend request then you should gracefully
deny the request. If you are friends or have a relationship with the friend requestor outside of work,
then you can choose to accept or not. But you should limit personal interaction with people you only
know from work and do not speak on behalf of the YMCA from your personal account.
Q: What do we do if we find a social media site about the YMCA that we did not create? (For example a
swim team, a parent, adventures guides or other group creates their own site)
A: These will need to be reviewed individually. Please send any sites that you find to
sheye@ymcachicago.org and we will get back to you with recommended actions.

15. Appendix A: Author Acknowledgement
Social MediaNetworking Author Acknowledgement
This must be completed by all Staff prior to being authorized as an Author for social
medianetworking on behalf of the YMCA of Metro Chicago.
Using social media on behalf of the YMCA of Metro Chicago is an extension of our brand, services and image.
When you use these tools to engage with our communities, you are representing the YMCA and become the face
of our brand.
As an author, you should actively participate and maintain the content, conversation and communities that are
part of the social media sites in which you participate. It should be clear you represent the YMCA.
You are expected to:
Represent the YMCA in a manner consistent with our character values of Caring, Honesty, Respect and
Responsibility
Provide moderation over all content and activity across all social media activity on a daily basis
Respect the privacy of our members, staff and community
Provide content, conversation and interaction that adds to the community in a positive way
Social Media Usage Guidelines
Verify accuracy of information before posting. If inaccurate information gets posted, acknowledge and
correct quickly.
Notify Marketing and IT before launching any new social media tools or sites.
Follow YMCA privacy and confidentiality rules when posting
Do not upload copyrighted material without permission from the author/source and cite/credit sources
used Ensure proper photo waivers are on file before posting any photos.
All content and tools may be monitored and removed if deemed inappropriate or inconsistent with YMCA
standards.
Before changing site settings, changing functionality or expanding tools, consult with IT.
Becoming a fan of a page is the equivalent of a public endorsement by the YMCA for that product or
service. Only those business or organizations that YMCA of Metro Chicago partners with should be listed
as a “favorite or liked”.
The YMCA of Metro Chicago is a tax-exempt organization and as such, is prohibited from engaging in
political activism. Therefore, Authors must refrain from endorsing candidates for political office or
becoming involved in any political campaigns or issues.

16. As a Social Media Author on behalf of the YMCA of Metro Chicago, you have specific responsibilities:
Separate your personal and professional information; use YMCA accounts only for official purposes.
When posting personal information, do not reference your role at the YMCA or use your YMCA email
address.
Consistent and relevant content – In order to be successful in social media, content needs to be relevant
and current. Post new content at least weekly (see goals for each launch for details) for your respective
social media site(s).
Monitoring comments – Social media is a conversation, not a set of announcements. Monitor comments,
not just for inappropriate ones, but also to reply and engage our audiences. The team of administrators
of your page will be expected to check for comments at least twice daily and at least once over the
weekend.
Comment escalation – Follow the attached Social Media Comment Escalation Process to document and
escalate any content or comments as needed (see attached appendix).
Document incidents – As negative, inappropriate or high risk comments are made, follow the escalation
process. The incidents need to be documented and reported as indicated in the escalation process.
Measuring success –Social media efforts will have agreed upon measurable and reportable goals defined
during the launch. These metrics will be monitored by the author and should be shared with Marketing
and IT on a monthly basis.
Ensure continuity – Each social media effort should have at least two authors with access to all of the
tools and information. Upon termination of employment at the YMCA, you agree to not delete or
inappropriately use your access as an author in social media. You agree to transfer your permissions to
another author upon termination.
Follow HR Policies - Maintain a professional relationship with minors consistent with our Human
Resources policies and procedures. You agree to treat online activities in a way that is consistent with all
existing HR policies.
This policy applies to all present and future electronic communication system and devices, and any/all
improvements or innovations to existing systems and devices. The YMCA of Metro Chicago reserves the right to
amend this policy at any time through an authorized format or personnel.
Agreement:
I have attended the comment escalation training and have read and understand this agreement and agree to
comply with the expectations of being a social media author for the YMCA of Metro Chicago.
_______________________________________________________ ____________________________
Social Media (specify pages, destinations, etc.)
_______________________________________________________ ____________________________
Employee Name Signature Date
____________________________________________________________________________________
Supervisor Name Signature Date

17. Appendix B: Comment Escalation chart

18. Appendix C: Air Force Comment Response Flow Chart

19. Acknowledgements
We would like to give special thanks to the YMCA of Greater Houston and the YMCA of San Diego
County for sharing their policies and resources with us. Staff at both of the YMCAs were eager to help us
and it proved very valuable to us, Thanks! We have incorporated their resources throughout this
manual. We also would like to give credit to the Air Force for the Blog Response chart.
Notice
This is a resource created by the YMCA of Metro Chicago to assist our center staff in maintaining our
Facebook pages. We are sharing this as a case study to allow others to learn from our experience.
However these resources are only meant to be used as an example, they are not meant to be legal or
policy advice.