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.

A comment about comments

One of the biggest fears PR people have about social media is negative comments. First, everyone assumes the worst when it comes to interacting with stakeholders on the corporate  blog, YouTube, Facebook or other online social networks. When I'm consulting and the topic comes up, there's typically push back about trusting the community to police itself.

It's okay for people to write bad things about your brand online. While it can be intimidating to know that someone can write malicious comments about your business, you have to remember that there is a greater world of participation. If your organization is doing what's right, there will be far more positive comments to follow the negative prick who wants to vent and spread lies about your brand. If your organization is doing what's wrong, monitoring social media will offer you a red flag warning before the situation gets out of control. There are far greater benefits than risks when it comes to opening comments on social media (e.g., obtaining feedback, sharing information, improved customer service).

Even still, I find that argument is not enough to convince executives to consider opening comments and relinquishing their perceived control over the Web presence. Perhaps then, an alternative approach is to post a "Code of Comments." One of my favorite blogs, The Consumerist, posted a Code of Comments this week, and I think it's a great example. I've shared it with my clients in hopes that with a little time, I'll gain their buy-in and we can start getting them to participate in social media the way it is intended.