The Side Note

Regardless of your company size, a social media policy to control the way your team communicates with online audiences is critical to the success of your business. Now that Facebook and Twitter have become an important part of doing business, it’s time for your company to craft an up-to-date and flexible social media policy to protect your company’s reputation both online and off.

Your policy must have a clear objective and should clearly define what employees can or can’t do on social media. Make sure that the objective is practical, reasonable and applicable to all who are participating in social media for your business. However when it comes to your company data, confidential information is an asset and everyone has the responsibility to protect it. If the social media policy is violated, ensure you have reasonable responses. Depending on the degree of damage or violation, you can go from disciplinary actions like suspension, termination, or even civil or criminal penalties.

Back in September, Microsoft employee Joe Marini tweeted about a Nokia Windows Phone. The trouble was, the phone hadn’t been released yet. This upset his bosses, and Marini ended up leaving Microsoft.

In 2008, Virgin Atlantic took disciplinary action against 13 crew members who participated in a Facebook discussion that “criticized Virgin’s safety standards and insulted passengers,” according to the Guardian. The comments were promptly removed, the group was fired.

When crafting a policy, be sure to:

• Remind employees to familiarize themselves with the employment agreement and policies included in the employee handbook.
• State that the policy applies to multi-media, social networking websites, blogs and wikis for both professional and personal use.
• Tweets or posts should not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary.
• If an employee comments on any aspect of the company’s business they must clearly identify themselves as an employee and include a disclaimer, that should be something like “the views expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of (your company’s name).”
• Tweets or posts should not include company logos or trademarks unless permission is asked for and granted, and must respect copyright, privacy, fair use, financial disclosure, and other applicable laws.
• Employees should neither claim nor imply that they are speaking on the company’s behalf.
• Require approval on corporate blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc., when the employee is posting about the company and the industry.
• Reserve the right to request the certain subjects are avoided, withdraw certain posts, and remove inappropriate comments.

When the guidelines are used correctly this policy can help increase productivity as well as secure your company from social media disasters on the web. What do you think about social media policies? How critical is it for your business? How would implement it? Tell us what you think on our blog, share it with us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.