Teddington Legal Gold Coast specialises in media law and providing appropriate legal advice to business to help them manage their brand image. Today a huge part of this image plays out in social media, which is why it is so important that your business have an appropriate Social Media Policy in place.
This policy has two main purposes. The first is to set-out how your business's social media presence is to be managed. Who will do it? Using what tone of voice? What mediums? What do we want to say?
The second is to manage how your staff utilise social media both in and out of the workplace. Are they permitted to use it at work? When can this occur? Are they able to say where they work? What are the repercussions of making a negative statement about the business on social media?
These are all questions that an effective Social Media Policy should set out to state.
We recently came across this great article that analyses social media policies in more detail and thought we would share it with you.
A Practical Guide to Writing an Effective Social Media Policy:
For many organisations, social media is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can help spread goodwill about an organisation in an organic and genuine way.
However, the same characteristics that enable social media to benefit a company make it capable of destroying reputations if used incorrectly. To help encourage positive use of social media, while carefully mitigating any potential for risk, companies are finding it increasingly necessary to outline clear social media policies.
In much the same way that a mission statement provides overall direction for a company’s strategic decisions, and a style guide directs the way that your brand is presented visually to the public; a social media policy establishes a set of guidelines that govern how various company stakeholders represent your brand on various social networks.
Here are some practical considerations to have in mind when writing a social media policy for your organisation.
1. Incorporate your company culture
Before you start hammering out the technicalities of your company’s policy it is important to understand that the goal of any social guidelines should be to reinforce and reflect the unique values, culture and ideals of your organisation.
Prior to telling your employees how to be effective brand ambassadors online, it is necessary to have a strong understanding of the qualities you want them to exemplify as well as the unique attitudes of those employees.
For example, IBM understands that the type of employees they attract are people who are passionate about ideas and naturally want to share this information. Although such public sharing of private company knowledge can be risky, IBM realises that banning such activity outright would stifle the potential good it might produce and go against the nature of its employees.
One sentence from IBM’s social policy stands out in particular:
“Through these [online] interactions, IBM’s greatest asset—the expertise of its employees—can be shared with clients, shareholders, and the communities in which it operates.”
In one concise statement, IBM both establishes its position as an organisation that values its employees’ ideas and encourages their inclination to share these ideas. The tone of the rest of the document follows from this idea. The reader can sense that IBM trusts their judgement, and simply wants to encourage its employees to share online while exercising proper judgement.
Try following IBM’s lead by paying close attention to your organisation’s unique culture before attempting to create guidelines that your employees will be forced to follow.
2. Don’t underestimate the value of common sense
You wouldn’t have hired an employee if you didn’t believe they had good judgment, so it only makes sense to assume that if you ask your employees to exercise common sense online they will comply. The sheer variety of interactions that occur online all but guarantee that you won’t be able to anticipate and highlight all the things employees should avoid talking about online.
Certainly make sure to make specific note of the kinds of sharing that are explicitly forbidden (like proprietary company information, swearing, etc…), but also understand that simply asking your employees to use common sense before posting online can prevent a lot of missteps.
This is especially true if you followed the first piece of advice and made the values your organisation hopes to express online clear. Make clear what is expected of employees who choose to participate in social media. You can clarify even further by providing some templates or examples of good posts that they can refer back to in the future.
By giving your employees enough latitude to trust their own instincts and communicating that you trust and rely on their good judgment, they will not feel like they are being forced to do anything and will instead feel personally responsible to represent the company sensibly.
Coca-Cola puts this advice in a very succinct and effective way: “When in doubt, do not post.”
3. Don’t discourage social media use
This might seem really obvious, but a lot of social media policies are written in such a way that they actually come off discouraging social media use. While policy might dictate that certain uses of social media are off limits, make sure to cut down on the amount of negative language and restrictions.
If employees feel that using social media might threaten their job, they will certainly not use it and also might end up resenting your organisation. There is even a slang term for losing your job due to social media missteps.
The thing is that, when used correctly, social media can contribute a lot of value to your organisation. As mentioned before, IBM understands the value that social media can add to its organisation, and wrote its policy in such a way that clearly lays out the rules without being intimidating or overbearing.
By communicating that you trust your employee’s good judgment and not being overly prohibitive you can not just prevent poor use of social media, but encourage its productive use.
4. Communicate simply and memorably
Although your social media policy must comply with various employment laws and clearly state what types of online communications are acceptable, try and avoid the stiff, stunted legalese that often plagues corporate communication.
Your social media policy, however well thought out, is useless if it is not readable and succinct. Keep your writing conversational and have your audience in mind. After all, they will probably only read it once but will have to follow it for their entire time with your organisation.
Take the lead from Wal-Mart, whose policy has a conversational yet authoritative tone, that makes it memorable and easy to read. The document has to appeal to a variety of stakeholders of varying formality and the author clearly took the time to write the policy in such a way that it worked for an associate or an executive level employee.
Making your social media policy easy to read will ensure that your employees react positively to the policy and will increase the likelihood that they remember and follow the guidelines you establish.
Final thoughts:
It’s worth pointing out that all the guidelines mentioned above have a central theme in common. They all require that the social media policy’s author does not just rattle off a set of dos and don’ts, but rather considers his or her employees and organisation carefully.
The most effective policies are not those that impose the most restrictions or have the most fine print; rather, they are the rules that fit the existing culture so well, are articulated so clearly, and are made so self-evident that employees follow the rules without even realising thinking twice.
Article written by Brian Honigman and originally published on thenextweb.com
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