We think it is brilliant that Yorkshire CCC players are engaging with technology and
having an online presence. We don\u2019t have a social media policy as such, because we
don\u2019t want to tell you what do to. Instead, we have produced these guidelines in the
hope that they will give you something to think about and help you to protect your
reputation.

Social media is a great way to raise your profile, express your views and have a
laugh. However, many social networking sites are by their very nature social, open
and public! This means that whilst they can be used to raise your profile amongst the
public, they also throw you open to greater public scrutiny e.g. the public get an even
closer look at you!

Be aware that what you post and comment is likely to be permanent and whilst you
may intend for it to remain private, there is a chance of it coming into the public
domain at a later date. Unfortunately the conversations we have online are not the
same as you would have down the pub over a pint.

You may want to remove or untag photos that don\u2019t show you in the most flattering
light or don\u2019t project the shining image of a professional sportsman. Even if your
profile is set to private, photos appear in other people\u2019s albums, so do untag or ask
people to remove photos. Likewise what you post on other people\u2019s walls can be
viewed by that person\u2019s friends and will be available to everyone if their profile is
public.

The micro-blogging site ist he thing at the moment. It allows you to answer the
question \u2018what are you doing\u2019 in 140 characters. The way Twitter works is, you
\u2018follow\u2019 people and then hopefully after some interesting Tweets people will begin to
\u2018follow\u2019 you. Remember: your followers get to see all your Tweets. Cricketers James
Anderson and Graham Swann have used Twitter to great effect and raised their
profile with some light hearted banter this summer.

In addition, to answering \u2018what are you doing\u2019, there are two types of message you
can send. People can either @ message or direct (DM) you. It is important to know
that the @ message is public, whilst DM is private! Also, Twitter is permanent! Yes
permanent! Whilst you can delete Tweets from your feed, once they have been
published, they will remain in other people\u2019s feeds forever!

If someone does post something derogatory, the best advice is to ignore it. By all means get in to reasoned debate, but don\u2019t engage in conversations where insults are being bandied about. The relative anonymity of the internet means that people may be more likely to say something derogatory or controversial than they would in the real world \u2013 so if anything, higher standards of behaviour and a thicker skin are required online!