Tips on Developing a Corporate Social Media Policy

The Best Practices Committee of the Society for New Communications Research spent a year investigating corporate social media policies. The Committee's research included compiling case studies on the blogging policy implementation, as well as development for companies managing both internal and external corporate blogs and other types of social media. As a result of this research, the Society for New Communications Research were able to compile a set of best practice policies to be adopted in implementing and developing corporate blogging guidelines and policies. From their research, six factors emerged as key to the successful implementation and development of corporate blogging policy.



1. Trust
It's important that company employees are trusted to communicate, and thus develop working relationships with the company's customers. The corporation is advised not to review employees' posts prior to posting, but to trust them as company communicators and have faith in their judgement.

2. Accuracy
Nevertheless, facts must be checked. It is down to the individual to check before posting content, particularly where those posts involve quotes other individuals. Where you are considering quoting others or writing about private conversations, it's always sensible to seek permission prior to posting.

3. Culture
The company should foster a culture of openness. The corporation should listen to, respect and value its employee's opinions as well as those of their customers and other institutions.

4. Transparency
Transparency and authenticity are key. Connections with customers together with commercial and personal connections should not be hidden.

5. Training
Before asking an employee to blog, it's vital that they're provided with adequate training. This includes reviewing legal issues and company policy. Employees should be given the option of participating in training rather than it being mandatory.

6. Comments
It is important to communicate your company's comment policy clearly, setting expectations and making it clear what and what isn't allowed on the blog. It's important that comments should be uncensored from a negative/positive point of view to keep the blog authentic, but where a comment is inappropriate the author should be contacted and the comment should be removed.



As a businessman, Tony Freeman knows all too well the importance of implementing a sound social media policy in terms of attracting new customers. Those who sell their goods and services to the public have a very good chance of meeting new customers through their online interactions. Social media is a relatively low cost-method of reaching out to a wide audience, and hopefully expanding the company's customer base. It's important to devise a corporate social media strategy, so as not to let this huge opportunity go to waste.

There are numerous examples of employees being fired for comments they've made on social media. From defaming customers to making negative comments about the boss, these incidents illustrate why it's necessary for the company to be clear with their employees what will and what will not be tolerated on social media.

Vivienne Storey, General Manager with Australian law firm Blandslaw recently pointed out the importance for any business with employees - no matter what its size - adopting a social media policy. Without one, how can the company monitor and manage what's being said about it on social media?

A social media policy sets down a code of principles and guidelines for employees communicating with the outside world as agents of the company. This policy can be the company's first line of defence in mitigating the risks for both itself and the employee. The employee may have already entered into a confidentiality agreement with the corporation but that might not be enough. Just a few lines on employee interaction on social media might be sufficient. It is sensible to have a specific document on file that employees can be provided with and retain for future reference.



A social media policy can cover aspects such as:

• Employee use of Facebook.
• Employee blogging disclosure.
• A code of conduct in respect of online communications.
• A code of conduct in respect of company representation in those online communications.
• Employee personal blogging.
• Employee use of Twitter.
• Employee use of LinkedIn.
• Company blogging and blog use.
• Company blog commenting.
• Company blog post approval process (if applicable).
• Company use of Twitter.
• Facebook brand page administration.
• Company Facebook commenting and messaging.
• Company passwords.
• Company YouTube policy.

Developing New Guidelines

It's important for the company to think ahead in terms of policies and guidelines. It's a good idea to include company bloggers in the decision-making process. Policies should be developed that extend to both current, and new and emerging modes of communications such as videos and podcasts. Once published, the reach of social media can vary greatly according to the stringency of the distribution guidelines adopted. Companies which facilitate wider distribution stand the biggest chance of their material going viral.

It is important to stay in compliance with the law, and it therefore makes good sense to have the policy looked over by the company's legal department, seeking their input in development of the policy. Confidential information should never be posted, and where the line is overstepped the information should be deleted immediately, together with an explanation of why it was redacted. It's imperative that privacy is protected. It is vital to communicate with employees what information is appropriate to be discussed online, and what information is not. The company should respect its competitors and others involved in the industry, and take care not to write about them in a negative stance.