It is hard to imagine life without social media in it. This online phenomenon seems as though it has taken over the world, and most of us will find ourselves scrolling through one platform or another at some point in the day.
However, despite this massive invasion into our lives, many businesses have yet to fully address what it means. To further explain, Suze Moore the Creative Director at The New Fat, shares her insight into social media policies and whether your business needs one.
What is a social media policy?
A social media policy should look at the way your employees use social media in the workplace. It should act as a list of guidelines outlining how employees should conduct themselves on social media, both in a professional and personal capacity.
Once something is posted online, it almost never disappears, even if you think you have deleted it, and this can come back to bite you in the future. You can also never be sure who will see what you have posted, even with privacy settings in place, and so it can become hard to control your own narrative online.
Businesses are now bringing in social media policies to stop their brands from being brought into disrepute by those who represent them. The policy allows an employer to set out the expectations of appropriate behaviour on social media from staff and when and where it is appropriate for them to identify themselves as working for the business.
What should a social media policy include?
A social media policy is now becoming more and more necessary as businesses start to worry about their reputation online. It is not, and should not, be possible to regulate everything that your employees do on their own social media channels, however, it is worth acknowledging that what they post online can impact on the business.
Employers need to enforce policies regarding posting negatively about colleagues, their employers, customers or any contractors that they work with, and encourage staff to bring any workplace grievances to the appropriate manager rather than airing them publicly. This can also apply to other policies on bullying, harassment and equality. It is also important that employees respect the law and also do not contravene any copyright or data protection laws.
Your policy should also cover whether employees can use social media at work, in what capacity and at what times. If they are using it for business-related purposes, then it should be clear who owns the channel and how it can be used.
As well as outlining expectations, it should also talk about the consequences of failing to adhere to the policy and any disciplinary outcomes that can be expected.
Does my business need a social media policy?
If you have staff who use social media, either inside or outside of the business, then it is probably appropriate to put a policy in place. This not only helps to protect the reputation of the business if the employee can be identified as being a member of the team, but also helps to protect against abuse and misuse. It can ensure that all confidentiality and data protection rules are followed so that the business, its employees and its customers are all protected. This also gives the business the right to take disciplinary measures if it feels that any of these guidelines have been breached.
Much like any other workplace policy, and social media policy is necessary to protect the people within the business, the people who work with the business and the business itself and is now a necessary addition as the use of social media only continues to grow.
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