Policies, policies! Bureaucracy, yada yada. The whole point of social media is to get away from the old ways of doing things, right? Sure, and we all know a business without a social media presence is—as the song says—like a horse with no name. A strong page, lots of interaction, focused purpose and use of best social media marketing practices gives the business a significant amount of free advertising and access to countless potential customers. 
The flip side of social media in business, however, is the lack of guidelines about what can and can’t be done. While courts continue to try to define boundaries with regard to control and content of this relatively new form of communication, protect your business with the following social media policies.
Taking Names
One of the quickest ways to have social media backfire is to have no one in charge. Social media addicts and spammers whip into a shark-like frenzy once they discover no one is steering the ship. In a matter of hours, potential clients can be driven away from your business if it is targeted by comment writers with an axe to grind. Conversely, potential customers will follow your site if you regularly update your statuses, Tweets, etc with fresh and interesting information.
Whether it is changing statuses, monitoring comments and doing damage control or seeking out relevant articles and photos to link to the page, have a policy in place about who does what. Define how often duties are required and what the backup plan will be if someone on the team cannot fulfill their commitment.
Cell Phone Silliness
Decide right upfront whether cell phone photos will be allowed on the site and include that decision in the policy. Make it part of the social media policy that photos are put through the software before being placed on the site. If you do not want photos uploaded from cell phones, include other methods for getting great shots up and out there. Make uploading to social media from cell phones a specific point in your mobile marketing policy.
Location, Location, Location
Because of geotagging, photos taken and uploaded from cell phones often note the date, time and the exact location of where the photo was taken. This may not be to your company’s advantage as it could provide information you’d—um—rather not share! There is software available that will strip the photo of all geotagged information.
Take a Stand on Brand-Jacking
Brand-jacking is when others make a social media account that looks identical to yours and then posts false information as it if came from your company. Have a policy in place about how the company will deal with it. Will posts on your official site denounce the jacker? Is somebody going to approach the imposter on behalf of your business and ask them to stop? Thus far, brand-jacking has remained a legal activity so be sure your social media policies define how your business will react if it happens to you.
Promote (Some) Personal Involvement
Most employees have personal social media sites. Your policy should define what restrictions are placed on their use of the business site and on their personal sites with regard to discussing the company. To date, courts have not allowed employers to forbid employees to share their opinion of the companies they work for in public forums.
There are things you can restrict your employees from sharing on social media, however, such as:
- trade secrets
- non-public financial information
- company or employee locations
On the other hand, encouraging employees to spread the word about your brand is a positive use of social media, which helps to attract visitors to your site. You cannot make it a requirement but you can encourage it as part of social media policy.
Prioritize Privacy
Remind your employees regularly and often that legal privacy regulations are in place whether the employee is offline or online. This means HIPPA, fair employment, FERPA and others must be upheld regardless of the venue. For example, employees of a diabetes treatment center can’t post on Facebook or anywhere else that a named celebrity just purchased a special pair of shoes because he has diabetes that cause foot sores when he dances on stage! Reinforce these laws by having employees read and agree to the company’s complete list of social medial policies.
Get Ahead of the Game
Social media policies need to be written before a problem arises. Once they are decided, you should gather your social media team together every six months to re-evaluate them and determine if they are still relevant or need to be changed.
*Image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net
