Avoiding a $40M Tweet: 7 Tips for Making a Solid Social Media Policy

On August 7, Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent out what may have turned out to exist the most expensive tweet ever. Following his tweet, in which he said he was considering taking Tesla private, Musk stirred up a storm among investors. The tweet acquired the share price of Silicon Valley-based Tesla to drib dramatically and attracted a series of lawsuits from enraged investors. But Musk's tweet likewise attracted the attention of some other group that business organisation leaders cantankerous at their peril: the U.s. Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC). Following almost two months of consideration, the SEC sued Musk and Tesla. The resulting settlement cost each party $20 million, and Musk was forced to resign equally Tesla'southward chairman.

IT Watch bug art Clearly, Tesla needed a social media policy, i that Musk should have abided by. While y'all may non exist Musk and your company may not be Tesla, this incident shows exactly why your visitor needs a social media policy--and why it needs to make sure that its employees follow those requirements. Fortunately, help is easy to find as executives at other companies are happy to help.

For example, it's of import to know what role you want your employees to play when they're using social media, according to Cheryl Snapp Conner, CEO of public relations firm SnappConner PR. In some cases, for instance, you may want them to represent the visitor on Facebook and Twitter. All the same, in other cases, you but desire to make certain they don't say annihilation that would hurt the visitor. Snapp Conner too classifies blogs every bit social media and said that yous need to include them in your policy, too.

Snapp Conner said that it'due south important that your social media policy be written down. "It's of import that information technology be part of the employment contract," she said. "Information technology should be part of the full general employee handbook."

She also said that information technology's of import that you lot discuss the social media policy with your employees so that they can come across the reason for it, and understand why they can't just say annihilation they want on social media. "It can bring upwardly things that people might not take idea most," Snapp Conner added.

When you're deciding what to include in your social media policy, information technology's important to think well-nigh all the means your employees can correspond your company. Just it'south also of import to think of the ways that your employees volition interact on social media when they're not representing your company.

"Information technology'south been my experience that, nearly of the time when these policies go sideways, it's because employees have no thought what the policy ways," said Ryan Schram, Main Operating Officer (COO) of online media marketing company IZEA. "Lawyers practice what lawyers do best and put court language effectually the policy." That can be hard for laypeople to interpret.

Schram said that ways you need to explain the policy to your employees. "A little is common sense," he said. "It'south about transparency and about what nosotros look of our team members."

7 Social Media Policy Must-Haves

Then, what actually goes into a social media policy? To some extent, it depends on the company and on what y'all look of your employees. Just here are seven points that are common to most policies:

Transparency: Employees need to get in clear when they are speaking on behalf of the company and when they're speaking for themselves. Just having a personal Facebook page frequently isn't enough to make that distinction clear.
Protection of company information: You can't allow employees discuss the inner workings of your visitor, disembalm trade secrets, or discuss information that may exist helpful to competitors. You may demand to explain to them what this means. For example, engineers dearest to discuss technology online, peculiarly new and emerging applied science. That'southward fine, simply discussing how your company is using that engineering by describing projects you're currently working on is not.
Don't break the law: If your company or profession has a code of conduct, then follow that, too. This may mean that employees should be able to confirm that what they're saying passes the test with your company's legal staff.
Be professional and responsible with others: You tin't afford to take your employees be rude to others, to disparage your competitors or your visitor, or to deport themselves in similar types of negative behavior. Backlash from these kinds of activities can easily spill over from an individual to the system, and that can hurt the visitor.
Don't steal or misappropriate intellectual property (IP): This means don't plagiarize the work of others, post copyrighted images, or employ others' IP without permission. Yous may need to explain that this limits the utilize of memes on social media, too.
Be accurate: Edit your piece of work for typos, spelling errors, and factual errors, and correct whatsoever that turn up later. And if you're making an arguement, make sure yous can back up claims and that you're able to cite sources if required.
Make social media account ownership articulate: If employees are using an account created by your visitor, then make sure they know that the company owns the account and the followers that go with it. The company also owns any content that's created on such accounts, and they own responsibleness for it, also.

Consequences of Not Following Policy

Once you've created your company'south social media policy, you need to require that all employees receive a copy of it, that information technology's inserted into the employee manual, and that all employees (including the CEO) sign for information technology, acknowledging that they have read and understood it.

And so y'all need to explicate to your employees what will happen if they don't follow the new social media policy guidelines. Best Purchase is very clear nigh what the consequences are in its social media policy:

"Simply in case you are forgetful or ignore the guidelines above, here's what could happen. You lot could: get fired (and it's embarrassing to lose your task for something that's so easily avoided), get Best Buy in legal trouble with customers or investors, or cost us the ability to get and keep customers."

This is most as clear equally it can be, and information technology'south like to the consequences that other companies should list. When you implement such a policy, information technology needs to employ to anybody across the lath. Y'all can't make exceptions for some people, and you have to accept human resources (60 minutes) procedures in place for deciding what steps to take if the policy is not followed.

One great manner to exercise this is to build or buy a short employee training course that covers appropriate social media behavior. This could be worked in during your annual harrassment and workplace ehtics preparation. Providing real-world advice and workshop examples is key to helping employees empathise not only what y'all're trying to get across but also how important it is to the company.

Social Media Policies: Benefits and Examples

But, before yous decide to swear off social media, too remember that it can be a powerful means of telling your company's story. How powerful? Snapp Conner explains by taking a look at the great job T-Mobile CEO John Legere (@JohnLegere) has done with raising his company's profile through Twitter. This wasn't Legere acting on his own. Information technology was a concerted social endeavor, probable backed by several professionals and powerful marketing automation tools focused on social media.

In addition to Best Buy'south social media policy just discussed, there are other good examples of social media policies that you lot tin use as inspiration to craft your own. Recruiting software firm Workable provides a social media policy template, which is a set of general guidlines that you can customize for your ain company. Social media recruiting platform HireRabbit discusses actual social media policies from companies such equally the GAP, Hewlett-Packard, and The Los Angeles Times. And employee advocacy and social selling platform EveryoneSocial discusses seven more than social media policies, including ones from Coca-Cola, Dell, Ford Motor Company, Intel, Nordstrom, and the US Air Force.

Without proper guidance, social media can be a real minefield. Properly utilized, however, information technology's a powerful marketing tool that's indispensible in this solar day and age for virtually organizations, peculiarly smaller businesses. Crafting a working social media policy is fundamental to ensuring your company leverage'southward social media'southward benefits and not its pitfalls; nevertheless, getting a solid policy created may start with IT, legal, and HR, but in the end it needs back up form the organization as a whole in order to part.