Retention Requirements for Social Media

Social media posts or comment interactions are considered public records.  However, there is no separate schedule for social media.  They should be retained according to their content, rather than the fact that they are delivered via social media.  Since these posts are often used by agencies to disseminate information to the public they are thus duplicates of announcements or news releases; only the originals need be retained.  If social media is used to have two-way communication it is considered correspondence and retained accordingly.  Public comments with no response from the agency, and copies or re-posts of others’ social media posts, need not be retained.

If a record of public availability or promotion of information is required, social media may be retained as long as considered necessary.

1.      Transitory Records                                    ADM-GMT-26           OBS/SUP 3  

                 Retain 3 years after obsolete or superseded, then destroy.

2.      Publicity and Promotion                            ADM-COM-07            CR 5

         Press and News Releases                        ADM-COM-04            CR 5

                 Destroy 5 years after create date

3.      Correspondence - Directors                      ADM-GMT-03            PERM

         Correspondence – Elected Officials          ADM-GMT-04            PERM

                Retain permanently

4.      Correspondence - General                        ADM-GMT-05            CR 3

                Retain 3 years after create date, then destroy            

In the above list, CR stands for "from date created," and OBS/SUP means until Obsolete or Superseded.  If you prefer to keep all social media for your own reference, it's fine to use a third party vendor like ArchiveSocial, Smarsh, Pagefreezer, etc. or simply a screen shot of your post.  Just keep in mind that most social media doesn't need to be retained for very long.

Further information on email and social media records can be found in these documents:

Click on the orange icons below to open the documents.

Contact your Records Analyst so he or she can provide you with training in our RIMS database.

 Record Retention Schedules are lists of record types, organized by function and then by record title.  Each schedule lists the authorized retention period for that record type.  In the past, the State Archives created separate schedules for each record type for each separate agency office.  Our current retention schedules apply regardless of which office produces the record.  See the example below of grant management records.  This type of record could be created by many different offices, but will be governed the same across state government.

• How do I use them?
  • If you’re new to managing your office’s records, start by contacting your Records Analyst.  Our staff can help you understand the retention schedules which apply to your records.  They can also train you to use our RIMS online system to manage your records.
     
• What is a crosswalk?
  • These provisional documents list all records schedules in current use by an agency.  They also list the superseded schedules formerly used for that group of records.  The superseded schedules are not valid; they are listed for reference only, for the convenience of agency staff who used them for many years.
     
• When are state records destroyed?
  • See the "Destruction of Records" section on our "Record Retention Schedules" page.

Visit our Record Retention Schedules page for more information.
 

Visit our State Records Center page. 

Records scheduled as permanent:  the State Records Committee must approve the destruction of paper copies of permanent records. Ask your analyst for the “Request for Approval to Destroy Permanent Records that have been Scanned” (pdf) form. To be considered for this approval you must agree to conform to these standards for digital records:

• ETS "Rule 5":  

• Uniform Electronic Transaction Act

NOTE:  Records which are approved and digitized should be entered into the Wyoming Digital Archives for permanent retention.
 

Non-permanent tecords, scheduled for eventual destruction (after set retention period):  this may be done at the discretion of the agency.
 

Guidelines for scanning in-house:

The State Imaging Center’s goals are to improve state agencies’ access to their records and to decrease the state’s demand for storage space for paper records.  Preference is given to records which, once digitized, will be entered into the Wyoming Digital Archives, the state’s secure digital repository.  But other requests for digitization will also be considered.  We work closely with the State Archives’ Records Management Program to identify records series which might benefit from digitization and secure online storage. Contact Carmen Clayton to discuss your request.  Visit our State Imaging Center page to learn more.

Visit our Preparing Records for imaging page

Visit our Wyoming Digital Archives page.