Why your organization needs a social media policy

Reina Communications was featured in this week's Inside Business! If you didn't catch the article, "Social media can get you fired," you can find it online. The article offers several suggestions from Reina Communications for creating employee social media policies. Some snippets from the interview:

"A company cannot control the conversation taking place through social media. It's a good idea to have a social media policy in place so that your employees as well as the company's reputation are protected."

"Never identify yourself or the company you work for in a way that could be construed that you are a spokesperson for the organization, unless you're designated as one."

"Employees who have personal blogs or profiles on social media sites that reflect personal opinions should not identify their employer or discuss their work. An employee should not update their personal Twitter account with a complaint about a new policy at work. That also underscores common sense and judgment."

"It's also helpful to have employees from across various departments represent the company online. It gives the company more online presence and offers transparency by allowing actual employees to be the face of the company, rather than controlling everything through the public relations department."

If you are considering an organizational social media policy, here are some additional tips:

• Find some sample policies from other companies willing to share and use that as a starting point.


• Form a committee to get input from different employees who are active online.


• Have a plan to communicate the social media policy to employees.


• Offer employees hypothetical scenarios so they can discuss the social media policies and practice making decisions.

If you need more help creating an employee social media policy, you know where to find us.