While Social Media grows, companies are learning to use it to their advantages. However, one TikTok or tweet can cause a fiasco, so, companies are issuing social media policies to their employees to keep a positive public image. Learn everything you need to know about social media policies and their benefits.
Have you ever noticed when someone adds to their Twitter bio: “all opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinions of my company”? That’s all because of social media policies.
Social media has become a growing concern for companies, especially since the pandemic started. While it has become an important tool for promotion, without rules for employees, one simple TikTok video or tweet can become a PR nightmare. To prevent this from happening, companies are issuing their own social media policies in order to keep their image positive online and make sure that classified information makes it out into the public.
What is a Social Media Policy?
Social media policies basically outline how both the organization and employees should conduct themselves online. Not every policy is written the same, but they should include different categories to cover all of their bases. These include:
Rules and Regulations, which is pretty self explanatory.
Confidentiality, which outlines information that is confidential and what can be talked about publicly.
Legal Risks, which details what is considered illegal, guidelines on how to properly credit external sources, and when disclaimers need to be issued on certain posts.
Security Risks, letting employees know how to make secure passwords and what to do if there is a security breach.
Brand Guidelines regarding visual content
Rules and Responsibilities, discussing who is in charge of different roles.
Accountability, detailing the consequences of breaking any of the rules.
Starbucks encourages their workers to post on social media because they want “partners” to be passionate about their jobs. However, there are limits on what they can post. For example, in posts, employees have to have a disclaimer saying that they are an employee and are not a spokesperson for that company. Another rule that they have is that they cannot share future promotional activities, trade secrets, reports and other confidential company information. While, many companies outline what happens if they mess up, Starbucks instead offers their employees channels where they can go if they make a mistake.
Now that you know what social policies do, why are they beneficial for companies?
Benefits
The main benefit of social media policies is to protect the reputation of the company, sometimes one bad social media post can make the entire company look bad within days or even hours. Not only that, these policies help with brand cohesion, creating standards for appearance, tone, and proper use of images and videos in company posts.
These policies are also used to keep their employees’ social media etiquette in check, ensuring that they know how to properly promote the company, and make sure that they follow company standards. It also ensures that the company is not liable for what their employees do on social media and allow them to remove posts and issue consequences for the employees that do break the rules.
Now that you know more about social media policies, does your employer have one that you have to follow? Let me know
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