BITS has released a guide for financial institutions to use for help in adopting social media and managing its risks.

The 71-page document – titled “Social Media Risks and Mitigation” – was produced by a panel of communications, security and technology experts and is intended to help banks and credit unions use emerging and existing services such as YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

Among topics covered are reputation, phishing and social engineering threats, along with compliance, information retention and hiring issues.

“This paper is intended for a general audience, from business practitioners to compliance, risk and legal professionals, primarily from a United States perspective. It provides a synopsis of the major themes an FI should consider when using and deploying social media and is best used as a reference guide,” BITS says in the introduction.

BITS is the technology arm of the Financial Services Roundtable trade group.

Credit union professionals listed as contributors to the paper are Robert Reh, chief information officer at the $366 million Nassau Financial Credit Union in Westbury, N.Y., and Heather Ausmus, social media producer at the $7.8 billion Alliant Credit Union in Chicago. Reh is also vice chair of the CUNA Technology Council.