Your company needs a social media policy to ensure that all its employees know what they should and shouldn't do on social media. Additionally, it can help your company mitigate any legal or security issues.
A social media policy describes how an organization
and its employees should conduct themselves through the web. It helps protect
your company's online reputation and encourages employees also to get involved
in sharing company information on their online networks.
The problem is that many companies do not know how
to organize a good social policy and want to ensure that employees read it.
Doing so means keeping it simple, clear, accessible,
and constantly updated. The goal is not to frustrate your workforce or
discourage employees from participating in social media. However, some basic
behaviors need to be emphasized so that no major problems arise in the future.
Social media policy in the
workplace:
A few years ago, Apple introduced a new set of
emoticons. The much-anticipated update included the ability to change the skin
color of human emoticons to represent human diversity better. Unfortunately,
Clorox missed this important fact when they released the update.
The Clorox Twitter account sent out a tweet with a
bottle of Clorox bleach, and the bottle was a mosaic made up of emoticons. They
accompanied the image with the caption: "The new emoticons are fine.
However, where is the bleach?
What the Clorox team believed to be a clear message
triggered a Twitter frenzy. The message was perceived as equally discriminatory
since people believed Clorox advocated bleaching all the dark-skinned emojis to
make them all white.
This is not the first time a well-known corporation
has experienced a social media mistake. Home Depot, DiGiorno Pizza, and Kenneth
Cole have all made social media mistakes.
These incidents are perfect examples of why your
company needs a social media policy.
A social media policy is important to companies because it can achieve
three things:
·
Sets expectations (reduces
confusion)
·
Protect brand
reputation
·
Increases employee
advocacy
Social media policies shouldn't just be about
keeping your team from messing up. It might inspire your group to use social
media more frequently. They will feel free to participate if there are clear
rules that make it apparent what they can and cannot do on social media.
Please review the social media rules of a few
well-known companies. We will examine the policy's strengths and areas for
improvement. Let's take the well-known companies' lessons and use them to
strengthen your social media guidelines.
Dell Global Social Media
Policy:
A specific social media policy exists at Dell. It
comes down to six guiding principles.
1.
Safeguard
information
2.
Be
truthful and forthcoming.
3.
Observe
the law and the rule of behavior.
4.
Be
responsible, kind, and social. Enjoy yourself.
5.
Owning
a social media account
6.
The
sixth point is owning a social media account; that's important.
In the past, there have been legal disputes over the
ownership of a social account and the followers of a company account.
A social media policy is thought to safeguard the
business and define expectations for staff members. This clause guarantees that
the ownership of the account is clear.
I would need more details regarding Dell's social
media policy. Although we're not in court, a lawyer could contend that Dell's
social media policy encompasses everything Coca-Cola does. Social media policy
needs to be explicit rather than ambiguous. The "Be Nice, Have Fun, and
Connect" section, for instance, contains the following phrase:
"Social media is another tool you may use to develop our brand; make sure
you use it appropriately."
I would reinforce this point with a few follow-up
points for greater clarity. Coca-Cola has two points (with explanations) in its
social media policy that expand on the "make sure you're doing it the
right way" idea.
Be careful when mixing your business and personal
life.
When in doubt, don't post.
Adobe sets the boundaries
from the start:
Adobe's main employee code of conduct document
references its social media policies. This section is short, so there is
probably a dedicated internal document.
But what's nice about Adobe's approach is that it
makes social media a key part of its core code of conduct. It also sets clear
boundaries for how employees can and cannot behave. For instance, Adobe
specifies that workers are not permitted to speak on behalf of the company
unless they have received permission from Adobe Public Relations.
Teams in charge of marketing
and compliance:
How can your staff utilize social media by our
company's policies?
Understand the most recent compliance regulations
and keep up with any continuing changes by working closely with your compliance
team. In return, you can also share details about the latest changes in social
media marketing and your company's social media strategy so they can identify
potential risks.
Use
these 5 examples of social media policies as inspiration to help you create
your company's version. By connecting the two departments, you can align with a
crystal clear social media policy that promotes the right behavior for employee
advocacy.