This curriculum reflects the scope typically addressed across a full consulting engagement or multi-phase internal transformation initiative.
Module 1: Aligning Social Media Data with ISO 16175 Principles
- Evaluate social media content types against ISO 16175’s authenticity, reliability, integrity, and usability criteria
- Map social media metadata structures to ISO 16175-compliant metadata schemas for records management
- Assess platform-specific data export formats (e.g., JSON from Twitter, XML from Facebook) for compliance gaps
- Determine retention triggers for social media content based on regulatory, legal, and business event criteria
- Identify conflicts between ephemeral content (e.g., Stories, live streams) and long-term preservation requirements
- Define thresholds for declaring social media content as official records versus informal communications
- Integrate social media classification into existing file plans and retention schedules
- Balance completeness of capture against storage cost and retrieval performance
Module 2: Governance Frameworks for Social Media Records
- Design cross-functional governance committees with representation from legal, compliance, IT, and communications
- Establish approval workflows for publishing content that trigger record-keeping obligations
- Define roles and responsibilities for social media data stewardship across departments
- Develop escalation protocols for unauthorized disclosures or data breaches involving social content
- Implement audit trails that link content creation, modification, and deletion to accountable individuals
- Enforce policy adherence through automated monitoring and periodic compliance reviews
- Adapt governance models for decentralized social media use in subsidiaries or franchises
- Document decision rationales for exceptions to standard retention or capture rules
Module 3: Technical Integration of Social Media into Records Systems
- Select API-based ingestion tools that preserve metadata integrity during transfer to electronic records systems
- Configure automated crawlers to capture public-facing content without violating platform terms of service
- Validate hash values before and after transfer to ensure data integrity per ISO 16175-2 Section 6.3
- Design data pipelines that handle rate limits, API deprecations, and authentication renewals
- Implement structured storage models that support full-text search and relational querying
- Assess trade-offs between real-time capture and batch processing for audit readiness
- Integrate with existing ECM systems using standards-compliant interfaces (e.g., CMIS, REST)
- Ensure captured data includes contextual information such as geolocation, engagement metrics, and user agents
Module 4: Risk Assessment and Legal Compliance
- Conduct data protection impact assessments (DPIAs) for social media data involving personal information
- Map content to jurisdiction-specific regulations (e.g., GDPR, FOIA, HIPAA) based on audience and subject matter
- Identify high-risk content categories such as customer complaints, health claims, or financial disclosures
- Implement takedown and redaction workflows for legally sensitive or defamatory content
- Preserve data subject rights including access, rectification, and erasure within retention constraints
- Coordinate legal holds with IT to prevent deletion during litigation or investigations
- Document chain of custody for social media evidence in regulatory proceedings
- Assess liability exposure from employee-generated content on official versus personal accounts
Module 5: Retention and Disposition Strategies
- Define retention periods based on business function (e.g., marketing, customer service) rather than platform
- Implement disposition rules that align with ISO 16175-3 requirements for secure deletion
- Balance public relations value of historical content against storage and compliance costs
- Automate disposition workflows with approval gates for high-impact content
- Preserve selected content in archival formats (e.g., PDF/A, WARC) for long-term readability
- Monitor changes in regulatory requirements that necessitate retention period adjustments
- Conduct periodic reviews of inactive social media accounts for data minimization
- Document exceptions where business value justifies retention beyond standard schedules
Module 6: Metadata Management and Interoperability
- Extend ISO 16175 metadata sets to include platform-specific fields (e.g., likes, shares, impressions)
- Normalize timestamps across time zones and daylight saving rules for audit consistency
- Map social media identifiers (e.g., tweet IDs) to internal reference systems for traceability
- Preserve relationships between posts, replies, and threads in relational database structures
- Ensure metadata remains attached during migration, backup, and restoration processes
- Validate metadata completeness using automated schema conformance checks
- Support multilingual content indexing and tagging for global organizations
- Integrate metadata with business intelligence tools for performance analysis
Module 7: Monitoring, Auditing, and Continuous Improvement
- Define KPIs for social media records management including capture rate, error frequency, and response time
- Implement automated alerts for failed ingestion attempts or policy violations
- Conduct quarterly audits comparing captured content against published output logs
- Use log analytics to detect anomalies indicating data loss or unauthorized access
- Benchmark system performance against ISO 16175-1 Section 5.4 technical requirements
- Update integration protocols in response to platform API changes or policy updates
- Review incident reports to refine classification and retention rules
- Validate system resilience through disaster recovery testing and data restoration drills
Module 8: Change Management and Organizational Adoption
- Assess organizational readiness for social media records policies across business units
- Develop role-specific training for content creators, legal staff, and IT operators
- Address resistance from marketing teams concerned about operational constraints
- Integrate records requirements into social media style guides and publishing checklists
- Establish feedback loops for reporting technical issues or policy ambiguities
- Align incentives and performance metrics with compliance behaviors
- Manage transitions during platform migrations or decommissioning of legacy tools
- Communicate the strategic value of compliance in risk mitigation and operational transparency
Module 9: Scalability and Multi-Platform Operations
- Design modular ingestion architectures that support adding new platforms without system redesign
- Allocate resources based on platform risk profile and content volume (e.g., LinkedIn vs. TikTok)
- Implement centralized monitoring for distributed social media operations across regions
- Standardize metadata mappings across platforms to enable cross-channel analysis
- Evaluate trade-offs between commercial archiving solutions and in-house development
- Manage API key rotation and access permissions at enterprise scale
- Ensure consistent policy enforcement across paid, organic, and influencer-generated content
- Plan for data growth using forecasting models based on historical engagement trends
Module 10: Strategic Decision-Making and Executive Oversight
- Present cost-benefit analyses of social media archiving to justify investment in tools and personnel
- Evaluate vendor solutions based on ISO 16175 conformance, scalability, and support lifecycle
- Define escalation paths for unresolved compliance gaps or technical failures
- Set enterprise-wide priorities for social media data based on risk and business impact
- Review audit findings and incident reports to adjust strategic direction
- Balance innovation in social engagement with regulatory and records obligations
- Integrate social media data governance into broader information governance roadmaps
- Ensure board-level understanding of liabilities associated with unmanaged social content