In my experience I have found that organizations take a few different routes in developing their social media policy. Some organizations clearly publicize their social media policies – for the world to see – clearly comfortable with the new required transparency, while other organizations adopt social media policy as the needs arise – with ever changing technologies, flexibility is a strong component in any social media policy.
If you are interested in learning more about social media policy development, read on for a great post by Patrick Kerley of Bulletproof Blog: The Blog On Crisis Communications (very cool blog – I highly recommend it!), on 6 Great Examples of Employee Social Media Policies.
From there, read on for Mashable’s Top 10 Must Haves for a Social Media Policy.
Six @ Six: 6 Great Examples of Employee Social Media Policies
In 2009, eight percent of American companies reported that their online reputation had been damaged by employees’ social media activity. Needless to say, employers are quickly realizing the importance of harnessing their employees’ social media use. In fact, 29 percent of American companies have now developed formal social media policies for their employees.
Policies vary in length and specifics, but the most important result is that your employees understand the power and consequences of social media participation. When employees are properly trained and provided with engagement guidelines, companies avoid online controversy and leverage employees as genuine brand ambassadors in the online space.
To help your business establish a policy of its own, we’ve outlined six great examples of employee social media policies.
1. Kodak – The Importance of Education:
The initial focus of Kodak’s social media policy is to clearly define the social media landscape and why it is critically important to effective brand and reputation management. To that end, Kodak’s policy provides a brief description of popular social networks and also includes user statistics for each platform – one of only a handful of policies that break down each network in this way. Employees often find such breakdowns extremely helpful. Kodak also explains how the company uses each network and why. After all, each social network is different, and successful engagement tactics tailored to one might not work on others. By educating employees about each individual network and the role it plays in your online image, you can help them realize the best practices for both personal and professional engagements on these sites.
2. Yahoo – Risk v. Reward:
The overarching priority of Yahoo’s blogging policy is legal liability. In its policy, the company explains the legal implications of engaging online, including a rundown of all possible offenses. It is particularly important for employees to understand the scope of liability for their actions. Damaging tweets can mean legal trouble not only for the author, but also for his or her employer. In order to prevent such consequences, Yahoo provides advice and insight on best practices. While it is important to inform employees about the ramifications of posting content online, encouraging them to engage in a productive manner can be an important tactic for improving your brand’s status online. Yahoo expertly strikes a balance between caution and empowerment. By offering advice on what they should do, you can help employees to engage safely with a digital audience.
3. Coca-Cola – Get Employees on the Same Page:
In its social media policy, Coca-cola takes a break from all things digital to reinforce its traditional company values and brand identity. The soft drink conglomerate recognizes that consistency is crucial when building and maintaining brand equity. In order to create a strong, cohesive image, the same message should be broadcast across all channels. After all, social media is simply another venue for disseminating messages to consumers and online audiences. Coca-Cola stresses that any posts associated with the company should convey the brand’s “positive, optimistic spirit.” This brand truly understands the importance of ensuring that employees know what your brand is all about before enlisting them to be your online ambassadors.
4. Kaiser Permanente – Building Community:
Kaiser understands the communal nature of social media, as evidenced by its blogging policy. Above all else, Kaiser Permanente stresses to its employees that they need to “know fellow bloggers.” The company provides tips in its employee social media policy on how to identify which peers to engage in the online space, demonstrating Kaiser’s recognition that successful social media initiatives must involve two-way conversations. As a result, Kaiser’s employees understand that social media is about offering value to others. After all, no company can be successful if its social initiatives simply push out information with no reactive or responsive component. It is only by actively engaging and building relationships that companies fully capitalize on all that digital media have to offer.
5. Bread for the World – Set Goals, Be Strategic:
This non-profit emphasizes the need for a well-defined strategy in its guidelines. Bread for the World clearly defines what it wants to achieve through social media in its goals section, which is the first thing employees read. The non-profit even illustrates an online communications model for employees that demonstrates how the organization’s multi-platform strategy is designed to accomplish its goals. BftW’s social media policy is dedicated to educating employees about communications strategy to help ensure that their actions fit within this overall model. Corporate social media engagement should always center on a goal or purpose and should not be done simply for the sake of doing so.
6. General Motors – Encourage Transparency:
GM is an industry leader in educating its employees about the importance of transparency. GM’s policy makes it clear that all employees must identify themselves as GM employees, regardless of whether their comments mention the company. This transparency requirement is universally applicable, whether an employee posts content on his or her own social network channel or when he or she simply comments on others’ posts. In addition, GM also requires its employees to issue a disclaimer that clearly states that personal views do not necessarily reflect those of the organization. The issue of transparency has become increasingly important, particularly since the FTC issued its guidelines for online communicators. It is no longer simply unethical to withhold information about what company or product you represent, it may also be considered unlawful. Thus, you need to ensure that your employees are aware of these guidelines and comply with transparency standards.
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Most often, when I tell a client or organization they need a social media policy, they most often agree, but have no idea where to begin in writing one. Mashable offers a pretty handy top 10 must-haves for a social media policy. And it certainly covers most of the bases – authenticity, ownership, being courteous and respectful, avoiding legal quicksand.
Mashable’s Top 10 Must Haves for a Social Media Policy
1. Introduce the purpose of social media
All policies need to address what’s in it for the reader/user — what should the reader take away after reading the policy? One of the common themes I kept coming across in introductions to social media policies is the idea that the policy should focus on the things that employees can rather than what they can’t do. For those of us who have experience writing policies, this is a real paradigm shift.
But that’s the spirit of social media — it’s all about leveraging the positive. And that needs to be evident in the policy. Houghton agrees, “The old way of doing things is to create an unnecessarily restrictive model of engagement that prevents companies from leveraging new media appropriately.”
2. Be responsible for what you write
Oren Michels, CEO of Mashery, explains that “people tend to interpret having the ‘right’ to express themselves online as implying a lack of consequences when they say stupid things.” That’s not the case. Your organization and its representatives need to take responsibility for what they write, and exercise good judgment and common sense.
“Dooced” is an InternetInternet
expression that means to lose one’s job because of things one says on one’s website or blog. No one wants that to happen, of course, so using common sense and being responsible is important.
3. Be authentic
Include your name and, when appropriate, your company name and your title. Consumers buy from people that they know and trust, so let people know who you are.
4. Consider your audience
When you’re out in the blogosphere or Twitterverse or other social media channels, remember that your readers include current clients, potential clients, as well as current/past/future employees. Consider that before you publish and make sure you aren’t alienating any of those groups.
5. Exercise good judgment
Refrain from comments that can be interpreted as slurs, demeaning, inflammatory, etc. The Internet is full of varied opinions, and it’s okay to share yours, but you never, never, never want to be branded a racist or narrow-minded or an unstoppable hot-head.
Your employees should understand that companies can and will monitor employee use of social media and social networking web sites, even if they are engaging in social networking or social media use away from the office. Eric B. Meyer, an associate at the labor and employment group of Dilworth Paxson LLP, reminds us that, “employees should always think twice before hitting ’send‘; consider what could happen if your organization sees what the employee publishes on the Internet and how that may reflect not just on the employee, but also the company.”
Bottom line: good judgment is paramount regardless of whether an employee’s online comments relate directly to their job.
6. Understand the concept of community
The essence of community is the idea that it exists so that you can support others and they, in turn, can support you. You need to learn how to balance personal and professional information, and the important role that transparency plays in building a community. Your community shouldn’t be an environment where competition is encouraged or emphasized, but rather a platform where your customers or users feel comfortable sharing, connecting, and receiving help.
7. Respect copyrights and fair use
This should be a no-brainer, but just in case: always give people proper credit for their work, and make sure you have the right to use something with attribution before you publish.
8. Remember to protect confidential & proprietary info
Being transparent doesn’t mean giving out the Colonel’s special 11 herbs and spices used in KFC chicken or the recipe for McDonald’s Big Mac special sauce.
Those examples seem pretty self-explanatory, but Meyer, points out that, “employers may fail to make employees aware of any obligation they may have to protect confidential or proprietary information.” Transparency doesn’t give employees free rein to share just anything. Meyer says that every state has a law governing trade secrets.
Therefore, employees who share confidential or proprietary information do so at the risk of losing their job and possibly even ending up a defendant in a civil lawsuit. At the very least, companies will seriously question the judgment of an employee who shares confidential or proprietary information via social media. It’s a good idea to make sure all of this is clearly laid out in your social media policy.
9. Bring value
Social media will more likely pay dividends for you if you add value to your followers, readers, fan, and users. Michels, for example, said he’s used blog posts as a “means to frame the conversation around specific issues and make sure that our position is heard and commented on,” or as a way to build buzz for upcoming products or services.
Joe Homs, the CEO of Headset Bros., shared with me two instances where social media has provided an opportunity to bring customer value. Once, on TwitterTwitter
, they ran across a person who was looking for a recommendation for a product they sell. A simple message to her that was quick and relevant allowed them to make a fast sale.
Another time, on FacebookFacebook, a customer complaint about not receiving an order led to the realization that their shipping company had lost the package. Sending the customer a new package overnight fixed the problem and they eventually worked out the problem with the shipping company as well.
Still confused about the different ways you can provide value using social media? Check out the video from Barry Judge, the Chief Marketing Officer at Best Buy, embedded below.
10. Productivity matters
I asked Homs if he was concerned that his employees would lose focus if they were spending too much time on social media sites. His comment: there’s not much to balance. He told me, “talking to people (over social media or otherwise) is our ‘real’ job.” Headset Bros estimates that 90% of their business is communication with customers (online and by phone). To help with the rest, they’ve automated most of their other business functions.
But, your social media usage won’t get you very far if you don’t execute on the core competencies of your business. Remember that in order for your social media endeavors to be successful, you need to find the right balance between social media and other work.
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Whether you’re writing your social media policy from the get-go, or letting it develop organically in reaction to situations as they arise, these are all things that you should consider. I’d like to hear from you – what do you have in your social media policy – or what do you think you should have?
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