With the social media revolution having exploded and then some in recent years, has your company put in place a solid social media policy that leaves no questions unanswered?
As more and more businesses address this matter, perhaps now is the time for your business to review its social media policy or put one in place should things have been left standing rather loosely on this matter.
Above all else, your company should be prepared to answer any and all questions regarding its social media policy should talk of a lawsuit come up either in-house or from an outside source who feels they were damaged by something someone in your company put out on Facebook, Twitter or another such site.
Whether you have social media guidelines in place and they might need to be revisited or you do not have a policy in effect, take a few minutes to consider the following:
· Whether you like it or not, many of your employees utilize social media on a daily basis, both during and before and after work. Even if you ban social media sites from office computers, individuals can still access them with their mobile phones, etc. So, is it not better to allow social media in the office with some guidelines in place when all is said and done?
· Social media can be an integral part of your company and effectively doing business. The ability to have real-time interaction with current and potential customers is never ending. To ban all social media in the office, both work and personal related, is something that could have repercussions for you in more ways than one.
· You could lose out on some good employees with too many restrictions in place. Let’s face it, we live in a 24/7 information age, both at work and outside the office. While you do not want your employees spending an endless amount of time tweeting and sharing personal stuff when they’re supposed to be working, cracking down on them day in and day out may lead to losing some talented workers. In the end, was it worth it having such tight restrictions in place that you drove away some good, hard-working people to other companies where restrictions were a little more lax?
· Make sure you separate an employee’s social media efforts between business and personal. While on the clock, the employee is representing your company and all it stands for. That being the case, it is important that they know what is and isn’t permissible with social media. Inappropriate language, images, bad-mouthing the company etc. should not be tolerated. Remember, however, each individual and their tweets or shares need to be looked at so that you’re not discriminating against someone’s freedom of speech. When looking at your social media policy, make sure whether or not you have given employees the permission to identify themselves as representatives of the business.
· Lastly, review your social media policy on a regular basis. Just as employees change over time, so do company policies. Be sure to update your SM policy to make sure it is relevant to the current times. Not updating the policy could open you up to employee issues, possible lawsuits and more down the road. Most importantly, make sure all current employees understand without question what they can and cannot do while working when it comes to social media.
Dave Thomas, who covers among other subjects’ home based jobs, writes extensively for www.business.com an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.
Social Media like FB if used effectively can boost business for organizations. It is imperative the companies review their Social Media Policy from time and time and employees should follow the guidelines laid down.
nowadays Every company promotes its brand in facebook and twitter
as most of the population hangs out there
Excellent article…really enjoyed reading it. Well, there is nothing like being antisocial here. I am allowed to access social media sites without any problem. We have been busy working on our social media strategy here and hopefully, we will reap the benefits of the same in the coming days. Still in the very early stage 🙂
To say more, we are not supposed to use this social media for personal pleasure at least not during working hours. While it is easy to come up with any such rule to disable your employees from accessing social media sites like facebook, twitter, you cannot stop it as a whole especially with the advent of gadgets like smartsphones and tabs…it seems highly impossible to let your employees adhere to your social media policy. Companies should get away from such attitude and should pave way for better employee management practices by opening doors to this online social media. Though I still feel, it should be limited and controlled.
The other day, I came across one interesting article which was all about inevitable dangers of saying anything and everything on social media sites especially facebook. The title went like this – Your Boss too checks your facebook profile – https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Your-boss-too-checks-your-Facebook-profile/articleshow/11145878.cms
It was really worth reading and I think it is worth following too. While companies are not supposed to peep into personal lives of others, what we must know finally is that we are not safe here on the internet and we (employees) must be wise enough to get away from things like badmouthing, bad imaging of oneself, etc…must know and avoid it any cost..!!
great, helpful advice, especially the bit about reviewing your social media policy on a regular basis, yes,.company policies do change all the time
nice read!
The ability to have real-time interaction with your customers is is a must for us all , ,social media is the way foreward in this day and age
You can’t blame some companies for being anti-social because they’re probably more concerned about security. Besides, if they wanted to be social, they could have a facebook account. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt to be social but it is not worth the security risks.
As far as company blogs go, you definitely shouldn’t be posting anything personal on there that could get you into trouble with the law. I’d strictly limit it to company and industry-related news that enhances your website and engages with your visitors.
I am a private teacher at a private institution. Where I teach is forbidden to open a social media site at the time of study time effectively. Because it makes the students and teachers are not productive. But outside of study time, allowed to open the social media sites like facebook and twitter.
Institution where I teach assessed that social media provide a major influence on student’s learning interest.
Good info regarding social media policy. Thank you for sharing incredibly valuable information. We need more writing like this on an issue which has so many different opinions. I’ve never been to this site before but I just bookmarked it so that I can keep coming back.
Google is beginning to make a larger emphasis on social media buzz when ranking in the search engines. Social media sites are very important for bringing traffic to a site. Thanks for the post.
Like it’s been mentioned before me coming here, Social Networking isn’t a BAD thing, and can actually help your business. Allowing your employees to take a minute or two to check their own social activity is alright, but maintaining that they need to stay on task for the VAST majority of their time at work should go without saying – but say it anyways.
Google now gives a more preffernce in a social media.so it will be good to post your story or blog in a social media sites like facebook,twitter etc.social media helps to increase a traffic on a site.
We have found it tough for SMBs to get a Social Media plan together let alone it being anti social. I think because it takes time and commitment they don’t want to put forth because they don’t see the immediate results vs a Google campaign.
Great social media policy. Well drawn! I loved it and I’m sending the link out now. This is a must read for anyone who has ever tried to understand this issue. I knew the information was out there but I had never found it until I saw this article. See us for Steve Daines Views
Most business owner promote their business on social media like twitter facebook since their are a lot of people used facebook, twitter to socialize others..
So many companies are stuck in the STONE ages when it comes to this stuff..unfortunately this is often due to stubborn higher-ups who are out of the loop, but think they still know-it-all.
Initially, a lot of companies went about approaching social media the wrong way and did more harm than good but by now, it seems like almost every major and minor company has grasped the concept of social media quite well and are making good use of it.
-Jean
I think social media is one of the best way to promote our services and products,facebook is a best social networking site now a day.
Good to see such a awesome and valuable post, and i agree with you that social media is one of the best way for promoting ideas and services to more people around the world and Facebook, Twitter, LinkIn, Digg, Myspace, is one of the best social media site for communicating ideas and services.
That’s one great social media policy you got there. Nowadays, a lot of companies are engaging in social media sites especially in Facebook since a recent study indicated that Facebook is contributing a lot to a companies revenue.
It feels very good when we can see this kind of post. This is one of the most priceless and also very important site i must say. I completely agree with your point of view which you say in your article . Social media is a really helpful to provides the new thoughts, ideas and service about networking threw to face book and all that.
For our company we don’t encourage social media. We have our own group that takes care of that. We don’t want any false information from our staff leaking out.
Great idea! you can take advantage of this being connected to the wired world 24/7 by having your employees help you in promoting your business. Of course, good employees need not to be told of this.
Social media is a very important aspect of your business. Employees should be mindful of consumers from all different backgrounds and cultures, telling them to maintain a “world view” when engaging in conversation.
Yes! Social media is very important for marketing.
This is very nice post I throughly read the article and urderstand about social media policies.
Thanks for sharing.
I think social media plays the most important role in SEM. I think even that has to be done in a proper way like have the social media with many users.
This is pretty interesting, but at times you have to get anti social specially when you deal with people as a agent or as an agency. getting social can leak up your contacts and can hit your business. this might sound stupid but guys it does hurt when this happens practically, i think those who are into agency or trading biz might understand me better 🙂
Being a internet freek is good and social networking too.. but you need to be carefull at times