Any company, big or small, needs a social media policy to protect their reputations. Even if your business has no social media of it’s own, social media gaffes made by your employees can have a very real impact on your business. That being said, your employees do have rights and a sound policy will may it clear to your employees what is and is considered acceptable to post online.
What Can Happen if You Don’t Have a Policy?
Something bad will happen; it’s only a matter of time. Prep yourself and your staff on how to handle one or all of the following scenarios.
- A tweet intended for an individual’s account being mistakenly posted to the corporate account.
- A reply by your company or an individual representing your company that has unintended consequences.
- An inappropriate picture being intentionally or unintentionally posted.
- An account being hijacked and used maliciously.
- A fired employee retaining access to a social media profile and using the opportunity to vent their frustrations with no longer being employed.
How to Develop a Social Media Policy
No need to recreate the wheel. Here is a list of several companies with sound social media policies that you can review for inspiration.
Wal-Mart’s social media policy has been approved by the National Labor Relations board standards. Scroll through all of their policies on the left, they’re in alphabetical order.
For more examples of sound social media guidelines, click each company below to be taken directly to their most recent social media policies.
If you need a little entertainment to your day or better yet a little motivation to make sure you add a social media policy to your employee handbook keep reading…