Twitter Archiving for Government
When I first looked at launching our Twitter account, I did some checking into available Twitter archival services. Upon discussing my intentions behind launching a Twitter account with my IT department, I discovered there were a lot of concerns around government's use of social media. I've mentioned this a few times in past discussions post on my page and today I read this article which specifically discusses social media archival.
The solution we are utilizing at Deschutes County 9-1-1 for Twitter archival is Tweetake. Tweetake allows a Twitter user to back up all of their friend, followers and posts and extract the data into .xls format. While this solution may be a little cumbersome, it is sufficient enough for our needs, so far. Our social media policy requires us to back up social media files/accounts on a monthly basis. To date, we have only gone live with Twitter. When we go live with Facebook, we will need to identify another service that does the same for Facebook users.
What, if anything, are you and your agency doing to archive your social media accounts? Are you aware of any best practices for this activity?
The solution we are utilizing at Deschutes County 9-1-1 for Twitter archival is Tweetake. Tweetake allows a Twitter user to back up all of their friend, followers and posts and extract the data into .xls format. While this solution may be a little cumbersome, it is sufficient enough for our needs, so far. Our social media policy requires us to back up social media files/accounts on a monthly basis. To date, we have only gone live with Twitter. When we go live with Facebook, we will need to identify another service that does the same for Facebook users.
What, if anything, are you and your agency doing to archive your social media accounts? Are you aware of any best practices for this activity?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Barb Chamberlain on -
I'm archiving our Twitter account using backupmytweets.com, which I run monthly. It's also a free service.
I get an HTML file so I get to see the screen more or less exactly as it would appear on our profile. I like that because it's what I'm used to looking at, and it makes it easy to scan and find an old tweet I want for some reason (which happens every so often).
This is a record of the POSTS, not the friends/followers. I figure the public record I'm creating is what we tweet, not who we follow or who follows us.
I haven't yet started archiving our Facebook page and have no great ideas there. For now I'll use an old-fashioned system: I'm going to use Print Screen to capture screen shots of each page and save those as files. I'd love to have something more automated.
@BarbChamberlain
Director of Communications and Public Affairs
Washington State University Spokane
@WSUSpokane
www.spokane.wsu.edu
www.facebook.com/WSUSpokane
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Pray, MBA on -
Sometimes old school, low-tech solutions are the best. I didn't even think about the Print-Screen idea for Facebook. Good call.
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Permalink Reply by Steve Radick on -
I like http://www.backupify.com/ for my backing up my personal Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Wordpress, etc. accounts, and I've never had any problems with it. It's FREE until the end of the month too.
*I have no financial stake in Backupify.com - I just happen to use the service and have liked it so far
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Permalink Reply by Adriel Hampton on -
Just got my first archive from Backupify - Twitter only so far. Very impressed, esp. with the pdf "book" it generates.
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Permalink Reply by Jay S. Daughtry, ChatterBachs on -
Thanks for letting me know about www.backupify.com and for the solid recommendations, Steve and Adriel. I have now signed up as well and have re-posted this promotion on my FB and Twitter accounts.
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Permalink Reply by Barb Chamberlain on
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Someone on Twitter suggested using Posterous to post to Facebook, which would create a record in that account of what you sent. I haven't used Posterous so I don't know how that would work, particularly since we have multiple tabs on our FB page and need to post content to specific zones.
It also wouldn't (I'm guessing) let us capture the comments and feedback, which are an important part of the record.
@BarbChamberlain
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Permalink Reply by Sam Allgood on -
Another option for archiving your facebook page would be to use your browser 'Save As' feature to save a local copy. This, unlike the image capture, would be searchable.
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Permalink Reply by Barb Chamberlain on
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Ahh--great idea! Thanks. Saving now.
@BarbChamberlain
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Permalink Reply by Mary Groebner on -
Seattle CTO Bill Schrier tweeted about this yesterday.
Here's his tweet:
How do govt, others back up Facebook pages, twitter for retention, public disclosure? http://bit.ly/5iXAIJ - an answer: http://bit.ly/7IC5zG
(That second bit.ly goes here: http://blogs.msdn.com/bright_side_of_government/archive/2010/01/11/... )
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Pray, MBA on
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Thank you all for your feedback.
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Permalink Reply by Jay S. Daughtry, ChatterBachs on
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Shawn, thanks for starting this discussion. I've learned much from your post and subsequent responses.
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Permalink Reply by Shawn Pray, MBA on
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You're welcome. I've had to blaze my own path and ask more forgiveness than permission in launching our agency's social media initiative. I think there is a lot to be said from learning from your peers and the experience of others.
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