Social Media Policy for Business
Every company needs a social media policy. This helps prevent posting of company-related information, clarifies employee behavior, and reduces communication chaos.
Social media policies vary in purpose. Some policies define how the company social media marketers are to represent the company. Some policies define how all employees represent the company. This document addresses the employee who is charged with posting company-related information and the employee who is an unauthorized poster.
Personal Responsibility
- Employees are responsible for content published on social media dissemination platforms, including Twitter, blogs, wikis, YouTube, and other forms of user-generated media.
- Employees will identify their name and job function when discussing company-related matters.
Company-Sponsored Content
- Do not provide company confidential or proprietary information, including, but not limited to, email and chat transcripts, sales data and/or plans, company finances, strategies, product launch information, unannounced technology, etc.
- Do not discuss company clients, vendors, partners, trade secrets, management changes, lawsuits, shareholder issues, layoffs, and contractual agreements, etc.
- Be careful when linking to other content. Redirecting to another site may imply an endorsement of its content.
- Content, comments, and discussion will maintain a professional demeanor as is expected within the company.
- Disclose sources through credits, links and trackbacks unless the source requires anonymity.
- Obtain permission before posting pictures of others, copyright information, or when identifying clients, vendors, etc.
- Never take action contrary to company boundaries, terms and conditions, and community guidelines.
Authentication
- Employees will specifically clarify which posts/comments are their own opinions vs. official company statements.
- When posting content containing company information, that is not authorized by the company, provide a disclaimer that clearly states that the content does not reflect company positions, strategies, or opinions.
- Content that does not mention work-related topics does not need to mention the employment relationship.
Etiquette
- Adhere to copyright, fair use, and financial law.
- Respect the audience. Discriminatory statements are not allowed or tolerated. Behavior that is not acceptable within the company is not acceptable online.
- Avoid online arguments. Maintain a professional demeanor and think before posting.
- Spell and grammar check the content before posting.
- Correct inaccurate or misleading posts in a timely manner.
- Delete those posts that violate company policies.
- Mark changes and provide reasons for changes within the posted content.
Get the entire Social Media Policy document here.
