New marketing is about the relationships, not the medium.
- Ben Grossman, founder and chief strategist for BiGMarK.
If this is the case, then companies are bound to allow their employees to use social networking sites in order to develop relationships with potential employees. No matter how strict your rules are on the use of social media, if employees do not like something about your organization they will find a way to share it with the wider audience. On the other hand, if you encourage smart communications, and empower your employees to become active voices of your organization, you have a strong chance at recruiting best talent and attracting new customers.
Creating a Social Media Policy
Blog Smart
– This is blogging policy at Microsoft.
In their “Human Resources 2.0” study, Birkman announced that a clear majority of respondents (69%) indicated that their organizations don’t have an official social media and/or social computing policy. That being said, when asked about how they plan to increase or decrease Web 2.0 technologies, 64% plan to create content and publish it on social channels, and 57% plan to spend more time maintaining a profile in a social or professional network.
As more and more companies are trying to leverage social media, and as majority of your employees already have a social profile, it is necessary to set some expectations and even boundaries for your employees. When we help our clients write a professional social media policy, we always consult a corporate attorney as your policy has to cover technological and legal issues at the same time. Majority of the companies create two policies:
- First policy sets the expectations and boundaries for all employees, including a list of guidelines for the use of social media for personal use.
- Second policy is the set of guidelines for employees whose job function includes working on social media sites.
Since your employees are likely to use social media as brand ambassadors, and will do so representing your company, you have to clearly explain where the boundaries, while still empowering them to be creative. Lastly, get a buy in from your employees, and make sure they understand the policy and what it means.
SocialMediaGovernance.com analyzed 47 social media policies and found that 37% of them focus on upside instead of on risk. A good policy is not meant to limit, but rather to empower.
You can download our 1 Page Guide to Building-Social-Media-Policy in your organization. Call us today at 513-373-4216 to help you write a social media policy that helps you empower your employees through the use of social media.
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