Don’t Get Bitten Because You Have No Social Media Policy
A social media policy is a living document that guides how employees discuss your company online, protecting your reputation while encouraging them to act as evangelists. Without one, employees can cause PR nightmares, yet only about 30 percent of companies have a policy while 77 percent of adults use social media. The policy should set clear company and personal conduct ground rules, be kept current, communicated to all employees, and actively enforced.
- A social media policy is a living document, not set-and-forget, and must be updated as platforms, rules, and laws change.
- Only about 30 percent of companies have a social media policy while 77 percent of adults use social media, per Pew Research.
- The document serves two purposes: setting ground rules to protect the brand and encouraging employees to evangelize products and services.
- Cover both company topics (confidential info, finances, unreleased products, brand voice) and personal conduct (hate speech, political posts, violence, nudity, drugs or alcohol).
- Make the policy accessible to all employees, assign a point person for questions, and designate management to enforce violations.
Your company’s social media can be like keeping a wild animal for a pet. You can tame it, sure. Manage it. Control it. But its wild side is still there. Lurking. Waiting to spring out of your control and bite you. Which side of this tamed wild animal you see depends on the strength of your company’s social media policy.
Employees are potentially a huge asset to your social media efforts. They can be a built-in army of company evangelists. Or they can run amok and cause PR nightmares through their social media accounts.
What Is a Social Media Policy?
A social media policy is a living document guiding employees’ social media interactions regarding your company. Some companies choose to regulate employees’ personal social media posts as well.
The purpose of the document is two-fold. First, it sets ground rules for employees regarding how to discuss the company, and its products and services. The idea is that the document helps you manage and protect your company’s reputation and brand. The policy may detail taboo subjects, or “internal only” topics that shouldn’t be discussed publicly.
This policy direction helps management avoid PR nightmares, or perhaps disclosure of information about upcoming products or initiatives. The ground rules also might cover employees’ personal conduct, because their behavior reflects on the company. “No political posts”, for example.
The policy also encourages employees to evangelize your products and services through social media. Whether you have two employees or 20,000, they are potentially a source of free advertising and sales leads as they write positively about your company.
What’s Included in a Social Media Policy?
There are no set rules for this document. Each policy is as unique as the company it regulates. To get the document started, here are some points to cover in your policy. But keep in mind, this is a high-level list. It’s not intended to be all-inclusive.
Company
- Avoid discussing internal policies or confidential information
- Don’t reveal company finances
- Do not leak details of upcoming product releases
- Use the company’s voice when posting about the company
Personal
- Avoid posts or groups that include hate speech
- Political posts
- Posts that include violence or nudity
- Images or discussions about drugs or alcohol
Implement your Social Media Policy
It’s important to remember your policy isn’t “set it and forget it”. This is a living document that must be updated regularly. Social media changes often… new platforms, new rules, new laws that affect social, etc. So, your document must be kept current. And you must enforce your employees’ usage of the policy.
Make your document is accessible to all employees, and ensure they know where and how to access the document. Make at least one person on your social media or PR team available as a point person for questions and feedback. Also, assign at least one person in management to enforce policy violations.
Don’t Wait to Get Bitten
Just like a wild animal kept as a pet, your company’s reputation on social media will remain tamed.
Until it doesn’t.
According to Pew Re search, 30 percent of companies have a social media policy in place. But 77 percent of adults say they use social media. That’s a recipe for a PR disaster. (I’m looking at you, Taco Bell.)
PR disaster
Don’t wait until social media bites your company’s reputation and brand. Use this post as a start to create a social media policy. Check out our next post on this topic as we present part two of why and how to create a social media policy. We’ll discuss more on how to implement your policy internally throughout your company.
Frequently asked questions
- What is a social media policy?
- It is a living document guiding how employees interact on social media regarding your company, and sometimes their personal posts as well. It sets ground rules to protect your reputation and brand while encouraging employees to evangelize your products and services.
- What should a social media policy include?
- There are no set rules, but it should cover company topics such as confidential information, finances, unreleased products, and using the brand voice, plus personal conduct around hate speech, political posts, violence, nudity, and drugs or alcohol. The post stresses this is a high-level, not all-inclusive, starting list.
- How many companies actually have a social media policy?
- According to Pew Research, about 30 percent of companies have a social media policy in place, even though 77 percent of adults say they use social media.
Dave Ellis wrote for Summit Thoughts as part of the sO2 Digital team, focusing on messaging, positioning, and the craft of writing copy that earns attention and drives response.
Christina Rice is the Founder & CEO of sO2 Digital (Supplemental Oxygen Digital, LLC). She has spent her career building the people, processes, and technology that make digital advertising perform at scale, and leads the team behind Atlas, sO2's media activation platform. She reviews and updates Summit Thoughts to keep the agency's thinking current.
