More and more people are beginning to use social media, and it’s becoming more accessible to people
around the world — with an estimated 2.46 billion users in total. Although social media is something we
might associate with leisure and spare time, it is important for businesses to address its use inhouse –
outlining what employees can and can’t do.
Your brands and your employee’s social media policies
There are two social media policies that you should be curating to ensure protection over your brand.
You’ll require a social media policy for your brand and another for your employees – they are similar in
structure but targeted differently. It’s vital that any social media policy you have in place as a business is
enforced with strict measures so that your company is never in a vulnerable position. We’re in a digital
world that is constantly changing this is a good incentive for business owners to continuously review
their policies and make any necessary changes that will continue to have the best interests of the
company at heart.
How should you begin your social media policy? Let’s start things off with…
1. Rules & Regulations
Starting off with the rules and regulations will set the context for the full policy booklet. It will outline
the expectations you have for your employees in terms of their behaviour on social media. On personal
social media, if a person has tagged their workplace in their profile, and are not private, they are
representing the company to the wider public. This means that you need to restrict the use of profanities
and stay away from controversial topics that could impact the company.
Within this, you must state that any information that employees are privy to whilst working in the
business must be kept confidential. They should not discuss this across social media platforms.
For the social media accounts that represent your company, specific brand guidelines must be
highlighted. How do you want your company represented? This includes how you want your employees
to respond to any mentions of your brand – whether these are positive or negative comments. It’s also
important to outline how you want your staff to talk about your services or your products.
2. Roles & Responsibilities
When running a social media platform, you can set different permissions for different users and issue
responsibilities to each. This can vary depending on the platform, as each will have their own specific
needs. Depending on the skillset and training you give to the teams on social media channels, you might
require someone who can approve messages, deal with security and legal concerns and create content
that will be posted. It’s important to outline who can and can’t use the social media channels in the
business.
3. Potential Legal Risks
Ensure that you are operating in accordance with regulations to prevent any damages to your brand.
When it comes to social media, you need to make sure that you’re crediting your source with any
content you are using, an example of this would be repurposing an image for your own business gain. It
also needs to be discussed about what can and can’t be shared – making sure that everything gets
approved by a senior staff member.
You must highlight the difference between personal and brand account usage — those using their own
accounts and look to interact with posts similar to the business they are working for should state that all
opinions are their own.
4. Security
With the world turning digital, cyber-attacks are becoming more common. This means that companies
must be aware and know how to handle any potential threats. To reduce the threat of phishing scams
and even ransomware attacks companies must create secure passwords, avoid phishing emails, spam,
scams and any malware threats and know how to respond in the event of a breach.
Giving your employees the right insight to social media usage within the company is essential to build up
a trusted relationship that will reflect through behavioural patterns online. This will ensure that your
business is not negatively impacted by social media.
This article was brought to you by visitor management system providers United Carlton — how will yoube changing your social media policy?
Sadhan Pal says
Hi Erik,
Nice article for mastering social media policy. Thanks for the article.
sham says
This is very important article for security and mastering for social media policy.
Thank for this articles.
Cynthia Brandon says
you need to make sure that you’re crediting your source with any
content you are using, an example of this would be re purposing an image for your own business gain.
Rumman Siddiqui says
Hi Erik,
This is a great article .
Thanks for sharing
Harshil Tyagi says
Hi, thanks for sharing article regarding social media policy. I never thought in this direction when dealing with social media marketing.. Your article provides me perfect direction towards social media marketing