Need a Social Media Policy in a Hurry?
A good social media policy will go a long way – of course it needs to be implemented and monitored – but the policy is the starting reference point for all employees and the business.
If you need to do this in a hurry, I’ve found a fantastic tool on the net that covers most bases. This is a really simple 12 step Q & A that allows some customization that results in a straightforward policy that you can then distribute to your employees.
I really like the “Social Media Tips” section and it also includes a “Don’t Forget Your Day Job” paragraph. In all it’s well written, covers ettiquette and good commons sense.
Of course these do not replace a highly customised social media policy which obviously addresses the nuances of your own business, things like intellectual property, staff spokespeople etc. All businesses should eventually develop their own policy and, it also doesn’t replace good legal advice that should ideally be used when developing social media policies for ultimate business protection. But, it does go a long way and is much better than having no policy at all. As a rule of thumb make sure you introduce your social media policy at the time of training staff in social media and before executing your social media strategy.
If you have seen any other such tools for developing instant social media policies, I would be really interested to hear about them vstorey@blandslaw.com.au
If you would like legal advice in developing a social media policy please contact Andrew Bland of BlandsLaw on abland@blandslaw.com.au
If you’re a company that has been convinced of the benefits of engaging in social media where do you start? (By the way, if you haven’t been convinced please read the Melcrum survey which outlines the measurable benefits). What do you need to consider? Which professionals do you need to engage? Where do you start?
Here’s how I would approach getting involved with social media, with the benefit of some hindsight.
There are six key areas to take into consideration:
1. Strategy
Strategy may sound obvious but it’s actually particularly important in this multifarious medium. What is your purpose? What do you want to gain or achieve out of using social media? Is it a sales tool or a means of disseminating information? Is it a method of engaging employees or customers (two very different purposes)? Are you simply wanting to track what is being said about your product or service or do you want to watch what your competitors are doing. Is it for advertising? How does it complement existing strategies? What are you using social media for and why? And most importantly, who is going to take ownership of social media in your company? Is it the HR department or the Marketing department, the Sales department or the IT department?
Once you have a clearly defined strategy it will be much easier to approach the other areas of consideration.
Where do you go for help with strategy? There are many social media strategists around, all with varying degrees of expertise and experience in different industries. The best way to find a good social media strategist is to look around and find a company that’s obviously doing well in social media and ask who they used. A social media strategist is a great investment and will probably become part of your organisation on an ongoing basis, so make sure it’s someone you really enjoy having around. My other experience with social media strategists is that by their very interest in social media, they are really interesting, innovative and genuinely inspiring to have around. You’ll probably end up wanting to use them in other parts of your company just because they’re so full of great ideas.
2. Budget
Again, a budget sounds obvious but everyone will tell you at length that social media is FREE, but it’s not. It’s only free if you consider your time worthless because the expense involved is mainly time; if not yours, then someone elses. However, having said that, social media is time consuming to set up and get going but with some persistance and a steep learning curve you will find (free!) tools that help you reduce the amount of time required to manage it.
You will also need to budget for professional assistance – a strategist, a solicitor (more on that later), some PR, possible website upgrades or amendments and any time your employees engage in using social media.
3. Social Media Policy
Every organisation should have some kind of social media policy, even if they are not planning to actively engage in a social media strategy. Why? Read on:
As at March 2010 if Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s third most populated…with over 400,000,000 users.
Whether you know it or not some of your employees, many of your customers and your competitors, will be engaging in activities using social media. How do you protect your company from exposure in this vast, far reaching, medium?
A good, customised, social media policy can assist a company in protecting themselves from the many risks in engaging in social media. As well as incorporating legal “do’s and don’ts” you should include some general guidelines on how the company expects employees to use social media. I have written at length about this in previous blogs and you can now download a standard social media policy from our website. This is a risk management issue for companies – social media is well worth the engagement but you must consider the potential outcomes.
Where do you go for a social media policy? I would start with your strategist or HR department to write some good “touchy feely” guidelines that will provide a tone of encouragement for employees. I would then take it to your friendly Social Media Lawyer to put all the legals around it. A good lawyer should take your commercial strategy into consideration and incorporate these into the policy. Remember, a social media policy has two functions;
- To inform and guide your employees (along the lines of your strategy and company ethos)
- To protect your business, your customers and your employees from potential risk
4. Training
I can’t emphasise the importance of training enough. There is no point having a social media policy in place if nobody knows about it. Training is a huge opportunity to get your employees together and discuss social media and get them on side. Everyone of your employees is a potential PR person for your business – engage them, train them, encourage and reward them and you’ll find huge benefits in productivity. Also, your policy is a worthless piece of paper, if you end up in court not having conducted training. Regular training reduces the chances of unfair dismissal claims, reduces the chance of leaking confidential information and increases your ROI.
Where do you go for training? Good question! I’ve not see a lot of training being talked about (which concerns me) but we do run legal training sessions (including train the trainer) and I’m sure most social media strategists would be able to run or organise this service for you.
5. Monitoring
Most important. You need to know who is saying what about you and when. Otherwise, how do you prevent some horrible PR crisis damaging your company name or brand? Again, even if your company is not actively engaging in social media, some of your customers and competitors probably are.
There are some simple ways of monitoring what is being said about you in the social media space such as Google Alerts and search features in Twitter. At a minimum you should watch your company name, brand names and names of key employees, customers and competitors. Be aware that if you are going to monitor your employees, you must inform them first (preferably via your social media policy).
We have also found a great company that can do all of this for you, including some incredible metrics on conversations via geographical location. I’d highly recommend you look up Buzz Numbers and take a look at their comprehensive service.
6. Crisis Management
Most companies will hopefully not encounter a social media crisis. They are in fact few and far between and most companies have a very positive engagement with social media. However, you do need to have a plan in place in case disaster strikes. The way a social media crisis is handled in the first instance can determine whether it’s over and done with very quicly with very little collateral damage or whether all hell breaks loose and you end up with a virul negative information campaign.
In terms of crisis management, there are two considerations:
- Public relations – have a really good social media PR person set up a crisis management plan for you that can be implemented instantly if you encounter a problem.
- Legal – there will be legal considerations so enage a lawyer to be involved in step one and available should something go awry.
I’m sure I’ve forgotten something – there’s so much to consider and I would really appreciate this being added to via comments.
Can your employer own your twitter account?
This is an interesting question – could there be a situation where the employer has ownership over a Twitter account? What are those situations and what is the resulting advice over managing ownership of Twitter accounts?
Now I just want to emphasize that I am not lawyer, so this is not legal advice (obligatory disclaimer), however as I do work for a law firm I have access to some pretty good legal minds so I asked around and though the answers seem quite obvious they do emphasize the importance of how you name your Twitter accounts.
In essence, if your Twitter handle is in your personal name ie @vstorey, then your employer could have little substance in a claim to any ownership of the account. If, however, your Twitter handle references your employer in any way ie @VivBlandsLaw then the company may have some legitimate claim to ownership.
So what are the implications inthe way you name your Twitter handle? Well, it’s fairly straight forward. If you are an employer that wants to retain a Twitter account around the movement of employees in and out of the company, make sure your employees tweet under Twitter handles that reference your company. Different companies handle this in different ways; for example, some use a single twitter account that gives multiple access to employees who sign off on their tweets using their initials. Understand that even if your employees are tweeting on behalf of the company but using personal Twitter handles they will be able to continue using this Twitter handle even after they have left the company.
If you are worried about retention of intellectual property, remember that Twitter is highly public; you can easily see who anyone is following and conversely, who is following them. You might want to make sure your restrictive clauses in your employment contracts include a direct reference to solicitation via social media. This to ensure that ex-employees are not using their Twitter accounts to solicit for competing business post employment.
Ideally, the naming of Twitter handles should be covered in a companies social media policy that employees are aware of. There should be some known protocol and procedures in developing any social media naming conventions, most especially around including company names.
Thoughts?? Our solicitors are requesting some test cases please!
A recent decision of Fair Work Australia should highlight to employers the importance of having a social media policy in the workplace.
The background to the case is that a Melbourne hair-dresser who, amongst other reasons, was dismissed after talking disparagingly about her employer on Facebook has successfully argued that her termination constitutes an unfair dismissal. The hairdresser was successful on arguments other than the Facebook issue, but the case still raises important issues about the use of social media by employees.
Commissioner Bissett made the very important observation that: “Postings on Facebook and the general use of social networking sites by individuals to display their displeasure with their employer or a co-worker are becoming more common. What might previously have been a grumble about their employer over a coffee or drinks with friends has turned into a posting on a website that, in some cases, may be seen by an unlimited number of people. Posting comments about an employer on a website (Facebook) that can be seen by an uncontrollable number of people is no longer a private matter but a public comment.”
Employees should not be under the false impression that their Facebook postings are private, even if their privacy settings are reasonably tight. Any ‘friend’ on Facebook can simply copy and paste those comments, and they can be passed on indefinitely. Employers also need to be aware of this and understand that their employees are in fact, engaging in social media increasingly, both during and outside of work hours. Employers should take this into account when making business decisions, particularly around the management of employees in this medium.
As an employer, there is already some recourse to a legal remedy for certain employee behaviour outside of normal working hours. The principle from Rose v Telstra may apply. That is, an employee can be held responsible for behaviour outside working hours if it breaches an express term of the employment contract.
Implications for Employers
In this particular case, the comments made on Facebook were not deemed to be harsh enough to warrant the employee’s dismissal. However, in many cases , comments on Facebook and other social media sites will be damaging and harsh enough to cause the employer to consider dismissing the employee. It is important therefore that employers effectively communicate concerns about potential damage to its business as a result of its employees making inappropriate commentary. Such communication should inform the employee of what is expected in relation to this activity and to highlight some of the pitfalls where the use of the sites may fall foul of employment obligations. In short, employers must have a comprehensive social media policy in place.
Unfortunately, most Australian businesses do not have a social media policy in place. Consequently it can become problematic, no matter how serious a social media blunder may be, to terminate employment within the law.
Please note, this is a guest post, co-authored by Danica Leys and Andrew Bland of BlandsLaw
Is Your Social Media Policy Legal?
John McTigue has written a great article about a case first published in the New York Times “in which an employee was terminated for criticizing her supervisor on her Facebook page”. As he comments, most of us would think here’s yet another example of a foolish employee making silly comments about their employee in a public forum.
But is it? Or is Facebook “the equivalent of getting together around the water cooler” to “talk about working conditions”? Which, in the USA, may be perfectly legal under the National Labor Relations Act.
This case perfectly highlights the questions as to how much, and what, an employer can (as opposed to should) control in terms of their employees activities on social media.
Some of the issues that need to be considered include:
- What is “reasonable” in terms of what you can expect of your employees involvement in social media?
- Where is the boundary between public and private use of social media – ie can an employee talk about their employer on their private social media sites and can an employer restrict this? This is a really tricky one as the boundaries between public and private are increasingly blurred.
- What is “reasonable” in terms of private social media use at work – employers often ask us to write restrictive policies with regard to social media use during work hours.
- Content – what can employers restrict in terms of employees content on social media? Obviously anything illegal is easy but what about type of language or the definition of “confidential information”?
- Conflict of interest – how do you deal with employees writing their own blogs or setting up their own networking forums? Can an employer be restrictive about this?
As well as the arguments about “what is reasonable” in these instances, employers also need to consider “what is legal”?
To quote some great advice from John McTigue, it is imperative that employers / companies seek legal counsel “before you develop, circulate and enforce your social media policy”.
Implementing a Social Media Policy – Great Example
If you’re looking for a creative and inspiring way to get the message in your social media policy accross to your employees, look no further than the Department of Justice, Victoria. They have put together this absolutely brilliant, yes brilliant, YouTube informational video for their staff. Love the soundtrack. So great to see such an institution leading the way in social media.
Australian Organisations Lack Social Media Security
This information was taken from the Rust Report via Tom Capling from Netbox Blue. Please note the recommendation for a comprehensive social media policy.
“A new survey on social media risks suggests a dangerous gap in Australian corporate social media security. The survey conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by content security provider Websense, is believed to be the first study that determines what IT and security practitioners throughout the world think about the security risks that are associated with employee use of social media. The use of social media in the workplace is growing at a rapid pace. Savvy businesses are using blogs, social networks, wikis and other vehicles to quickly share information with their target audiences. The result can be greater brand awareness and an enhanced image in the marketplace. Social media also can play an important role in gathering intelligence directly from an organisation’s target audience to help improve products, services and other areas of their business. As social media technology and the security for these tools continue to evolve, organisations will realise even more benefits. Along with these benefits have come risks. ISACA has identified the following as the top five risks of social media: viruses/malware, brand hijacking, lack of control over content, unrealistic customer expectations of “Internet-speed”, service and non-compliance with record management regulations. The challenge remains how to ensure the use of social media vehicles does not jeopardise the security of their organisations’ networks. To achieve the right balance Websense recommends the following:
- Understand the risk social media tools create in the workplace. Conduct a risk assessment to understand what practices may be putting the organisation at risk.
- Educate employees about how their social media usage could impact the company. For example, how posting something inappropriate could breach company security and hurt its reputation.
- Create a comprehensive policy (including detailed guidelines) for all employees and contractors who use social media tools in the workplace. The policy should address the risks and the security procedures that should be followed.
- Improve the ability through expertise and enabling technologies to detect and prevent attacks.
- Consider the use of time quotas, bandwidth management and coaching to allow employees the freedom of the social web with policy controls to keep productivity and resource utilisation in check”
Redirecting…
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
MySocialPolicy now has a Facebook page dedicated to….you guessed it…social media policies!
Via www.facebook.com
Social Media Policy & Employee Communication
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Our team has been detailing an on-going list of questions clients at 123 have regarding the functional models of employee communication.
Via 123socialmedia.com
Facebook firings: check your social media policies before it’s too late – Human Capital
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
The increasing number of complaints brought before Fair Work Australia (FWA) has put increased pressure on employers to get their social media policies in order – and to continually update the procedures to stay aligned with current case law.
Via www.hcamag.com
Employees are Happier When Accessing Social Media at Work [Infographic] – SocialTimes.com
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
The infographic shows the exact numbers and percentages of professionals accessing social media during their working hours according to a survey conducted by British job site Reed.
Via socialtimes.com
Rules For Social Media? | Worcester Business Journal
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Do you need a social media policy?If your employees are mature, responsible, ethical and always think before they write, then the answer is (If you’re considering a social media policy for your company, here are eight things to keep in mind:…
Via www.wbjournal.com
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Research: More than 3/4 of Financial Execs Lack a Social Media Policy (Research: More than 3/4 of Financial Execs Lack a Social Media Policy – PRNewser http://t.co/grWaMy8L via @prnewser…)…
Via www.mediabistro.com
Social Media Sees Enterprise Growth, Lacks Policies
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Another social media governance story, another indication that companies still haven’t developed the necessary compliance and risk policies and procedures needed to support their growing social media marketing presence..
Via www.cmswire.com
Social media and its associated risks – Grant Thornton LLP
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Social media policy, social media risk, corporate views on social media (RT @DanSchawbel : 76% of companies do not have a clearly defined social media policy via @grantthornton http://t.co/xh10BGhf…)…
Via links.visibli.com
2011 in review
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 5,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 5 trips to carry that many people.
Via Scoop.it – Social Media Policies in the Work Place
Social Business News provides insights, analysis and opinion about the social organization and its customers.
Via www.socialbusinessnews.com
