Online social communities can be a scary environment for businesses and the representatives of those businesses to participate in. Before embarking in social media marketing for your business, there are a few things you should know.

 

If your organization has a code of conduct, it should have a social media policy. 

With all the buzz around social media, it seems that companies jumped on the social media bandwagon so quickly that a social media policy was an after-thought. Many companies learned the hard way when their employees misrepresented the firm or revealed private information on social media platforms. In a web wired world, it’s crucial for businesses to create and implement a strategy to regulate the use of social media, and the way the organization or brand is seen by the world.

 

Whether you are blogging, podcasting, writing in forums, video sharing, or social networking (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) there are essentially three easy to follow rules of engagement: represent, responsibility, and respect (3R’s).

 

1. Represent

  • Don’t post anything that you wouldn’t want to be read by the CEO or the end consumer of the business you work for.
  • Consult your company’s privacy policy and code of conduct as a starting point for how you should behave online and what information can be shared.
  • Don’t comment on legal matters, crisis situations, or any other topics that are in the realm of the company’s public relations representatives. Letting them do their job, can help ensure that you keep yours.

2. Responsibility 

  • Be transparent about who you are (your role), and be open to questions and comments. Unless given permission by your manager, you are not authorized to speak on behalf of the company, nor to represent that you do so.
  • Educate employees about important terms and conditions of commonly used social media tools, which are often quickly overlooked during account sign-up but sometimes come back to bite the user who didn’t follow them.
  • For posting any company articles/blogs, it’s important to assign a moderator who is not the writer.

3. Respect

  • If you disagree with a point of view – do so politely and diplomatically.
  • Respect proprietary information and make sure to give credit where credit is due. Do not simply plagiarize others.
  • Be respectful to your employer, co-workers, and even competitors. Being a good sport is never a bad thing.

To get started, here is a sample of a blogging & social media policy.

Social Media Policy

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