4Cs of Employer Internal Social Media Policies

1. Consider

•    What do we seek to achieve for a company? For clients?
•    Who will have access to social media on behalf of the company?
•    Will employees be permitted to use social media in the workplace or not?
•    Will employees (e.g. presenters) be encouraged to use social media in the workplace?
•    Will employers have access to employee’s ‘work-related’ social media accounts?
•    What editorial guidelines will apply for posting to social media – company and work/personal?
•    What copy clearance procedures will apply?
•    Training programmes for use of social media?
•    Who will be responsible for monitoring/updating?
•    Reporting procedure for take down notifications or brand on-line image/reputational issues?
•    Will company be covered by media liability/public liability insurance for any social media liability?
•    Industrial relations/collective bargaining considerations – privacy, disciplinary procedures?

LIST NOT EXHAUSTIVE – WHAT IS RELEVANT TO YOUR BUSINESS ACTIVITIES?

2. Create
•    Articulate policy
•    Take marketing/PR/legal/insurance advice as required
•    Write it down
•    http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php – samples available

3. Communicate
•    Communicate to all employees – vertical and horizontal
•    Strategy for active buy-in – signature/acknowledgment?
•    Communicate reviews and updates in similar manner
•    In-house training

4. Comply
•    Encourage and monitor compliance with policies
•    Spot checking (e.g. copy clearance procedures)
•    Record keeping (e.g. notice of take down requests, steps taken to address image/reputational issues/screen-shots/screen grabs of offending material before take down occurs)

Our workshops will expand on these issues, to help your company get started with social media, Emarkable has created this Social Media Strategy Workshop that contains best practices, checklists, templates, tools and resources book a consultation.