The Business of Broadband

Your social media policy doesn't have to be novel-sized.

I know, I know. You rarely look at your employee handbook and you really don’t want to have to create yet another policy.

But if you or your employees use social media, even for personal enjoyment, you need a clear social media policy. You want to be sure that your employees understand that their participation both on and off the clock has an impact on your business.

But your social media policy doesn’t have to be novel-length. In fact, it might be less than a page. While specific guidelines or rules will vary from company to company, especially for businesses or products subject to more rigorous government regulation, there are five basic areas you need to cover.

1. Introduction

This one may seem obvious, but I’m not advising you to write a giant intro. Just state your company’s philosophy on public communication in general terms and social media in specific terms. Be sure to define the scope of your policy. For example, you’ll want to provide an overview of the sites, networks or types of social media are covered, how you’ll view business time versus personal time, and how you’ll monitor your employees’ use of social media.

2. Confidential Information
Just because you’re open to communicating with your target audience and the general public through social channels doesn’t mean it’s time to open the floodgates on all your confidential and proprietary information. Be sure to explain how you expect your employees to handle the company’s private info, how they should disclose a conflict of interest, your expectations of their behavior regarding competitors and the responsibility they carry for any communication through social (and other) channels.

3. Procedures
It’s important to plan how your employees will present your brand, so use this section to explain any naming conventions you want followed – for example, when I tweet on behalf of ZCorum’s marketing team, I use @paula_zcorum. This is also a good section to explain your position on being a good citizen of the social media community and establish guidelines for interacting with customers.

4. Expectations of Participation
If you’d prefer only certain employees to participate in social media, explain who has approval to represent the company and establish a way for interested employees to secure permission to do so. Explain how frequently, and at what times, you expect employees to be engaged in social media. While respecting your employees as mature adults, you may also want to explain the consequences of using social media inappropriately and how you intend to monitor the company’s use of social media.

5. Feedback
Social media, like any other communications medium, changes and evolves. Your policy should be flexible enough to accommodate change. Use this section to encourage employees to share feedback on the ways the company can use social media to achieve its goals.

More Resources
As you draft your own policy, you may find you need to cover more or less information. Following are some additional resources to help you create the right policy for your business:

• Are You Socially Acceptable?
• Manage Your Brand on Twitter – A Video Interview with Ann Handley
• How to Avoid Social Media Espionage
• How to Respond

You might also find it helpful to review this simple policy from Intel.

Are you using social media? Do you have a formal policy? Leave us a note in the comments section below and let us know what you’ve found works and what’s just words on paper.