Happy Monday. I’m in the process of drafting an official social media policy for Outspoken Media. Historically, we’ve worked under a “common sense”/“don’t be a jerk” policy, but as the team continues to grow, it’s important to get something official on paper. Not because we want to rein anyone in (God knows that never worked with me…), but because we don’t want to throw them into the wild without proper training. It’s my hope that a social media policy (combined with lots of in-person question answering) will be a good way to both empower employees to be social AND give them the confidence they need to step out.
Your corporate social media policy is a set of guidelines that employees will be able to turn to when navigating unfamiliar situations. Because, as common place as it may feel, Facebook and blogging and Twitter isn’t normal for everyone. Conversing with customers, colleagues and contacts in the confines of 140 characters is often something that takes a little knowledge and skill. The purpose of your social media policy is to help employees understand what is and what is not acceptable, where the line is, and how, exactly, they should react when someone they’ve never met, and whom they were only trying to help, turns around to call them a HUGE MORON. Because while social media marketing can produce some great results, it can also produce even bigger Kenneth Cole-style disasters.
When drafting up Outspoken Media’s social media policy, I found it helpful to first outline some of the key areas I wanted to cover. I thought it may be worthwhile to share a bit of what’s in ours for others in the same situation. I’d love to hear how it differs/mirrors your own policy.
What is social media & what is your purpose for being there?
When you talk about your company’s “social media” use, which sites are you referring to? Is it just Facebook and Twitter or are you also referring to your company blog, internal wikis and your in-house Q&A system? If you are, then you need to spell that out so that everyone is operating under the same definition. Once that’s squared away, provide an explanation of what social media means to your company. Why are you investing resources in participating? What do you hope to get out of it and how are these tools helping you? That company mantra or philosophy will be invaluable in quickly leading employees out of murky water.
How does social media integrate into their job?
It’s important that employees are able to see social media as an extension of their position so they embrace, not resent, it. Whether their position is that of your company’s receptionist, its CEO, or someone in middle management, they’re still an arm and a face of your company. And their interaction counts. One of the best ways to encourage smarter participation is to make someone aware of the larger goal and their part in helping everyone achieve it. Let me see how their interaction can be used to benefit the entire company.
Who are they in social media?
Your social media policy needs to make it clear who your employees are in the world of social media. Are they to identify themselves as being part of the organization and, if so, how are they to do it? Should they create company-specific accounts with the company name in the username or will they be engaging from personal accounts? [If the latter, you may want to read our post on how breaking up is hard to do.] How do they handle sites like Digg, which are less open to marketing personalities? How much transparency should be used and is that site-specific?
Breakdown of common sites
Ideally, you’ll want to create a channel-specific rulebook for each social media network that you’ll be working to create a presence on, but it’s still not a bad idea to include some best practices in with your general document. Briefly introduce employees to the networks, your established accounts on each network, the purpose of the account, and some best practices for how they are to engage there, if at all. If you’re not sure how to get started, I’d recommend checking out the post Tamar Weinberg wrote on social media etiquette back in 2008. She did most of your work for you. What’s really important is that you give the person reading a quick overview at what the site is about and the key things they need to know about interacting there. If the person will be responding to blog comments, you may also want to include some tips for how to respond to blog comments in a way that provide value, instead of more spam. In fact, please do this. I’m tired of deleting your employee’s spammy comment
Best practices for engagement
At Outspoken Media, we’ve always instructed employees and staff to take a common sense approach to social media engagement
- Acknowledge your association to Outspoken Media
- No personal attacks
- Stay away from flame wars
- Don’t poke the crazy [Rhea has to often remind me of this one.]
And I have to say, it’s worked rather well for us over the past two years. That said, as our team continues to grow, it’s becoming more important that we spell out certain beliefs that are core to Outspoken Media’s public engagement. And you’d be wise to do the same for your company. Your social media interactions are more and more becoming your digital footprint. Make sure you’re giving employees a trail to walk on.
How to handle common occurrences
Why should an employee do when they see a negative tweet about the brand? Who do complaints get passed off to? How do they handle an irate troll making threats? What topics are off-limits? How much personal information are they allowed to share?
Wouldn’t it be nice to have the answers to these questions before YOU started in social media? Give them a road map and a guide to handling common social media occurrences. It will make that first “YOU LIVE WITH YOUR MOM! LOLZ” comment far less jarring and give them the tools they need to best handle the situation in a way that your company approves of.
Social media & NDAs, client/company confidentiality
You know what’s a total natural reaction to finishing great work for a client? Wanting to tell the whole world what you did. Sometimes that’s 100 percent allowed and other times it could get your company sued for millions of dollars. Just because someone signed a traditional confidentiality clause or NDA with your company, doesn’t mean they automatically assume that applies to social media conversations, as well. Make sure they know it does and that they know what they can say, what they can’t, and what you’d absolutely hang them from their TOES if they ever muttered.
Social media & productivity
As great of a tool as social media is, it can also become a colossal time waster. Let it be known that the company will be monitoring employee social media use (and actually DO monitor it) and that abuse will be handled appropriately. It’s a nice kick in the butt for people who will otherwise spend all day tweeting and it also lets them know that disciplinary action will be taken if things get out of control. Hopefully it won’t come to that but, well, we all have our days of crazy tweeting. I mean, I don’t. But I hear others do. ;)
Those are some of the highlights of Outspoken Media’s forthcoming Social Media Policy. How does ours compare with the policy you have for your company? Anything you can’t believe we missed or don’t cover? Let us know.
