Reputation is everything in business, and the truth about social media is that it’s a really great way to get your message out there, but it can also be a really fast way to see all your hard work undone if what you post, or how you respond to what others post, doesn’t go well.
One of the most important and most often overlooked steps in getting your social media channels humming is making sure you have a clear social media policy in place.
You want to make sure every one of your employees is clear on how you want your social media channels to operate.
Did you know that nearly three quarters of businesses do not have a social media policy? That is truly just leaving yourself open to all kinds of pain. It doesn’t take much to create your policy, but clear guidelines are absolutely invaluable to your business.
So, what should be in your social media policy?
There are five key elements to a good policy:
- Goals. What are you even trying to achieve in social media? Articulating this will help your team get it right.
- Access to accounts. There may be different levels of authority. Who can create, maintain, delete or post to official company accounts? What approvals are needed?
- Enablement. While you need to set some boundaries, you should encourage people to get involved. No one knows a company better than the people that work there. Get people to create and share content!
- Restrictions. Be clear on the absolute no-noes, including:
- Plagiarised content
- Offensive imagery
- Photos you do not have the rights to use
- Obscenity
- Racism
- Inappropriate jokes
- Confidential content like company performance, sales and business plans.
- Enforcement. Describe how you plan to monitor employees’ social media pages, and what will happen if they break one of these guidelines. For example, “violation of this policy can result in disciplinary action, up to and including termination.”
If you get stuck building a social media policy for your business, large or small, get in touch with us and we’ll be sure to help! [email protected]
Alex Williams