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Social Media: What Policies Do You Need?

August 3, 2010 by MSI

According to a recent survey from Experian Simmons, over two-thirds of Americas are using social media today, up over 230 percent from just 20 percent in 2007. While the vast majority use social media at home, use amongst mobile devices and in the office continues to grow. As corporate marketers work to leverage and expand their efforts in the social media space, human resource practitioners and management executives are left with the challenges of how to address social media in the workplace. Does your company allow employees to access social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and LinkedIn at work? Do you put forth a policy specific to social media that identifies restrictions and guidelines regarding the use of social media amongst your employees relative to your company?

First, comes the decision of whether or not to allow your employees to access social media from within the workplace. In the U.S., 54 percent of companies currently ban employees from accessing social media sites at work (Source: Robert Half Survey), leaving just under half with no restrictions. If you view it from the perspective of social communication, are companies banning phone calls and personal emails while in the office? Of course, at the same time, social media, for many, becomes a vast universe of communication, news and games and can easily consume a large amount of time.   

While each company must decide what works for them in terms of their culture and the restriction of social media access at work, more and more organizations are developing social media policies for their employees. As social media grows, so does the level of exposure for the individual and their employer. Many individuals are identified with their company either in the social medium or on the Web somewhere, and, as such, their behavior on the Internet and especially in the social media space (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) does reflect back on the employer. Best put by Scott Monty, head of Social Media at Ford, “You speak for yourself, but your actions represent Ford Motor Company.” As such, it’s critical that companies today develop and integrate a social media policy into their human resource practices to protect the organization both legally and financially. While companies like Zappos keep their policy short and sweet only saying, “Be real and use your best judgment,” other experts recommend the following as basic guidelines:

• Ensure that your social media policy is aligned with your corporate culture, your company’s code of conduct, and your privacy policy
• Remind employees to be mindful and avoid bad language or using social media for SPAM
• Reinforce the discretion required for all company information including clients, products, legal, and financials
• Finally, integrate the social media policy with your other human resource policies, clearly outlining the repercussions for violations, and obtaining a signed copy from each employee

Also, feel free to check out the following resources:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/ralphpaglia/141903/social-media-employee-policy-examples-over-100-companies-and-organizations

http://humanresources.about.com/od/policysamplesb/a/blogging_policy.htm

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65O5M720100625

http://mashable.com/2009/06/02/social-media-policy-musts/