Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?
If your company is one of the millions of small businesses involved in social media, listen up. While there are hundreds of benefits associated with social networking, there are just as many possible pitfalls, especially if you’re leaving your online interactions up to uneducated employees. You wouldn’t let an employee send an email with confidential information in it, so why is your assistant constantly tweeting about your bottom line? Now’s the time to protect your company’s corporate identity with a social media policy.
What is a Social Media Policy?
A social media policy outlines for employees any guidelines or principles necessary for communicating about your company in the online world. This will help your employees learn proper usage and behaviour when networking online. The overall goal of a social media policy is to protect the rights and privacy of your employees, as well as the reputation of your company.
Who Should My Social Media Policy Cover?
Social media is for everyone, not just the PR people in your marketing department. In order for a social media policy to be effective, it must be applied to all employees. I’m willing to be good money that 98% of your current staff is on Facebook – I’m also willing to wager they complain about their job in the status updates at least once a week. The line between our personal and professional lives are becoming increasingly blurred these days, make sure your employees are aware of what is appropriate and inappropriate when it comes to discussing their work life online.
How Can I Create a Social Media Policy?
Not sure where to start when composing a social media policy? How about your existing communications policy? This document hammers out how employees use the phone or email in a professional setting, it can also provide you with a basis for creating your social media regulations. Your employees know never to open a suspicious email at work, but do they know how to distinguish spammy links in a 140 character tweet? Communication policies need to be extended to include interactions online.
Get Started with PolicyTool
Need help creating your company’s social media policy? Then check out PolicyTool. Developed by rtraction, in collaboration with one of Canada’s leading legal authorities on Internet technology, David R. Canton, PolicyTool provides small, medium, and large business owners with simplified social media guidelines. All you have to do is answer a few questions about your business and the system will provide you with a social media policy that’s been customized to your company. Not sure if you should require your employees to ask permission before they can sign up on social media networks? PolicyTool can help you decide. Just remember – the document that PolicyTool creates is just a starting point. Every company will have to tweak their policy in order to manage unique situations.
View Some Sample Policies
Chatham-Kent small business owners can view the social media policies of numerous companies online at the Social Media Governance website. This online database includes policies from major corporations like the American Red Cross, About.com, Kodak, and Coca-Cola. Government agencies can learn a lot from the City of Seattle policy, while educators should take a look at the Ball State University document for complete details.
Does your company have a social media policy? Why or why not?
2 thoughts on “Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?”
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Thanks for highlighting the need for companies to have a social media policy. We also have a sample social media policy available to download at http://www.blandslaw.com.au/checklist_ssmp.html. This has been developed in-house by our social media lawyers and provides a comprehensive look at what needs to be covered.
Kind regards
Vivienne
As an IT consultant I am fully aware that IT management is struggling with whether social media is productive or obstructive for companies and their employees. Software is being developed and policy and restrictions are being decided everyday by IT managers. The security of company networks are at stake but the potential for innovation using social media is a large enough carrot for the discussion of how to properly utilize the medium continues. Palo Alto networks came up with a whitepaper, http://bit.ly/d2NZRp, which will explore the issues surrounding social media in the workplace. It is important to not only understand the immediate benefits of doing business how one lives, but the threat it presents to a company’s greater ROI and productivity when it comes to the server’s safety and security.