Last year Manpower Group released a study in which they gathered responses from more than 34,000 employers in 35 countries about company social networking policies.
Here are some of the results:
- 3 out of 4 employers indicated that their organizations had no formal policy regarding use of external social networking sites
- 5% of employers indicated they were unsure their organization did, in fact, have policies regulating the use of social media by employees
- 1 out 5 employers said their organization did have policies in the place to regulate social networking
- 4 out of 10 employers indicated policies were effective in helping protect intellectual property
- 2% employers indicated their organizations’ social networking policies were not effective
Granted, this study is from last year and the numbers have probably changed since the data was gathered, there are many companies still adjusting to this new need. Brian Solis recently posted an article in which he covers this hot topic and the importance of training employees once the policies and guidelines are in place. If you’d like to see examples there is a list of 164 policies on Social Media Governance that includes policies from companies such as Coca-Cola and H&R Block.
Brian put together his Top 25 Best Practices and here are some of them:
- Define a voice and persona representative of the brand’s purpose, mission, and characteristics
- People expect to interact with people, be personable, consistent, and helpful
- Keep things conversational as it applies to portraying and reinforcing the personality and value of your brand and the brand you represent
- Add value to each engagement — contribute to the stature and legacy of the brand
- Respect those whom you’re engaging and also respect the forum in which you participate
- Ensure that you honor copyrights and practice and promote fair use of applicable content
- Protect confidential and proprietary information
- Business accounts are no place to share personal views unless they reinforce the brand values and are done according to the guidelines and code of conduct
- Be transparent and be human yes, but also do so based on true value propositions and solutions
- Represent what you should represent and do not overstep your bounds without prior approval
Does your company have social media guidelines in place?
Have all employees been trained on the importance of following the guidelines?
How often does your company review the policies to make sure they’re up to date with current trends?
We just put up an article with our social media guidelines here: http://www.creatingskies.com/2011/blog/words-to-live-by-social-media-rules-for-companies . It’s the first time we ever came up with one, and it’s still quite new — but we’re slowly trying to implement it in our organization. It’s a pretty straightforward list of dos and don’ts, expectations, and aspirations that the whole team contributed to.