Creating Social Media Guidelines for Your Employees

October 6, 2011

What would happen if one of your employees Tweeted something in poor taste, publicly… and then sent a Tweet promoting your company?

All companies, no matter what size, need to make sure social media guidelines are in place and understood by their employees in order to avoid such scenarios from happening.

When creating social media guidelines, make it clear to your employees that failure to follow them could not only harm the employee’s and the company’s reputation, but, in extreme cases, could be grounds for termination. Ask your employees to be cognizant at all times when using social media.

Below are some social media guidelines which the OpenView Labs’ People team has put together that may be helpful in crafting your company’s social media policy for employees.

Social Media Guidelines for Employees

Be Respectful

  • Do not use social media to berate others or display poor taste; if you have an opinion you would like to share, express it professionally and use facts to support your opinion.
  • Do not speak poorly of your firm/company or any of its employees.
  • If you are using intellectual property from someone else, get their permission to share it or cite your source.

Use Good Judgement

  • If you choose to use a social media network as a combination of your personal and your business contacts, determine what’s appropriate to share with these audiences.
  • Keep in mind that the content you post online can often come up in a search engine.
  • Bottom line: If what you are posting is not something you’d be comfortable showing your boss or your grandmother and having cited with your name on CNN, don’t post it.

Be Productive

  • Don’t let social media get in the way of the job you were hired to do.
  • Utilize social media to enhance your job; engage your customers, share your professional expertise, promote your company’s mission.

Protect Yourself

  • If you maintain a professional blog, post a disclaimer stating that the views expressed in your blog are purely yours and do not necessarily reflect the views of your company.
  • Always post information which is true to the best of your knowledge. If an error is made, be transparent about it and make the correction immediately.
  • If you feel unable to follow any of these social media guidelines, protect the information which you share. Set up your accounts so only certain users with granted permission have access to your Facebook wall, Tweets, etc.

Additional information on employee social media guidelines

VP, Human Capital

<strong>Diana Martz</strong> is Vice President, Human Capital at<a href="http://www.ta.com/">TA Associates</a>. She was previously the Director of Talent at OpenView.