As an advisor, you have enough social media concerns to keep your head spinning, let alone having to worry about employees spending too much work time on social media sites or posting confidential information online. To reduce these risks, it's important to create a comprehensive employee social media use policy.

Employers tried blocking these sites, but this can actually decrease beneficial networking and also cause missed sales leads. And, even if you still have Facebook or Twitter or other sites blocked, chances are your staff is logging on through their phones.

Here are some tips from the Workforce of Central Florida when developing a social media policy:

Guidelines should represent the company in a positive manner. The WCf recommends considering these topics when outlining your policy:

  • Workplace rules. Can employees use social media for personal and professional networking? Or just for company outreach and networking? Can they talk about your brand online?
  • Representing the organization online. Remind employees that they are always representing the organization, even in personal accounts and that online content can live online forever, even when deleted.
  • Responsibility. Employees are personally responsible for any content they publish online, whether they publish on blogs, message boards or sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.
  • Respect confidential information. Provide clear guidelines about what is appropriate to share about your organization and what is not.
  • Educate on copyright and plagiarism laws. Encourage employees to cite sources for quotes, photos and videos.
  • Be respectful. Employees should avoid getting into heated debates and posting personal, political or religious comments.
  • Encourage honesty and authenticity. Employees must identify themselves as such when talking about the organization on any sites.
  • All company policies apply to the use of social media. This includes ethics, conflicts of interest, electronic communications, harassment, etc.
  • Discipline. Outline what the repercussions will be if policies are not followed.

Include other departments and employees. If you have a legal or communications department, ask for their input, recommends the WCF. Also, ask employees foor feedback. Getting them involved early will help them adapt to the policy.

Train employees. Include your social media policy in orientations and make it part of professional development opportunities.

For more on social media ethics, see:

Source: PR Log, Workforce Central Florida

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