Jan 25, 2010

Do You Need a Social Media Policy?

 

About a year ago, an employee who had been working at the company for six months posted a blog that expressed his dissatisfaction with two major ad servers in the industry. The employee had tried giving the companies feedback by phone and e-mail, and when he received no response, he finally wrote about his experience in a blog. Within hours of the post, Hubbard had calls from the heads of both of those companies asking why Media Two employees were allowed to bad mouth other companies. In keeping with the blogging policy, Hubbard stood by his employee, and actually felt that the blog served to get the companies' attention. "Social media is about interaction," says Hubbard, "and we want to be interacting whether it's good or bad. In this case, there was a bad element out there that an employee addressed, and he did so in a very structured and professional way, while leaving the personal out of it."

One of the things that Hubbard recognizes is that employees make mistakes, whether it be on social media sites or in some other aspect of their job. But, Hubbard wants those mistakes to be a learning experience. "We don't threaten anyone," says Hubbard. "We want you to make mistakes, but we don't want you to make the same mistake twice." For Hubbard, being a small company in the social media space also has its advantages because the consequences that resulted from a disgruntled employee blog are much smaller and more easily mitigated than they would be at a bigger company where there might be higher industry regulations.

Hubbard's employee was not actually bad mouthing the company he worked for, which makes a huge difference given the company's policy of not misrepresenting the company. Media Two employees are told that whenever they are interacting personally on social media sites, they are also representing their professional life. The company's general policy about using social media sites professionally is that employees should not be using it to say things they are not supposed to. Hubbard also ensures that all employees have their privacy settings set properly on their personal Facebook and Twitter accounts. Employees are advised to restrict photos and other very personal content from work friends and professional contacts, because even in their personal lives they are identified as employees of Media Two.

Media Two's social media policy is an internal document that is constantly evolving based on the company's use of different (and newer) social media sites. Beal says that because of the changing nature of technology, a social media policy won't do you any good unless you are constantly communicating those policies to employees. "Take time to educate employees about how they can contribute," says Beal. This can be done through a short training session in which managers discuss best practices. Employees should also know who they can go to if they are unsure about posting something. Beal says it works well to assign someone at the company to the role of community manager who is in charge of overseeing any company activity online.

Additionally, a social media policy does not have to be a long, weighty document, says Beal. In fact, most companies that have social media policies have "no more than 10 bullet points," says Beal. It should be posted in a place where it is easily visible, he adds, like an internal company wiki. Ultimately, your social media policy should function as an informal guide, in which there is room for interpretation and discussion with employees. "The benefits of having your employees engaging in social media far outweigh the dangers of them saying something that they shouldn't," says Beal.

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For more resources on social media policies, and to view samples of other company's policies, visit:

Online Database of Social Media Policies:
http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php

16 Social Media Guidelines, Econsultancy Blog:
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5049-16-social-media-guidelines-used-by-real-companies

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