Is your business interested in using social media? Are you struggling to understand the “best practices” for allowing your employees to engage in social networking, as employees?

1. Why Your Business Needs a Social Media Policy Take a Best Practices Approach to Turn Employees into “Brand Ambassadors” David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

2. Introduction Is your business interested in using social media? Are you struggling to understand the “best practices” for allowing your employees to engage in social networking, as employees? Many of our clients are asking for guidance on how to go about implementing social media as part of their online marketing strategy. This is intended to be a guide on how to approach incorporating social media into your marketing objectives. David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

3. Its Inevitable Understand that your employees are going to use social media with or without you and recognize it for the opportunity that it is. For example, there are over 75 Millions users of LinkedIn, a popular business–oriented social-networking site. For companies seeking to leverage the social media frenzy the question is not “How do I control these relationships” but, rather, “How do I leverage the value of all these relationships?” The answer lies in understanding how the content you and your employees contribute to the conversation enhances the value of the conversation. David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

4. It’s Your Social Reputation Understand that you are building your social reputation. You can’t afford to be frivolous or uninteresting. Simply put, “Just got on a plane to Florida” doesn’t add value. A very experienced business consultant whom I follow can seem to tweet about nothing other than his current location or state of nourishment. David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

5. Empower Employees Focus on strategies that empower employees: to become brand ambassadors increase product/service knowledge share ideas and information promote collaboration. Businesses should stay ahead of the curve and set some basic guidelines as to when, where, how and why an employee can appropriately discuss aspects of their job or the company. David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

6. Appropriate Guidelines Some appropriate guidelines include the following: Philosophy: how does social media fit into an employees job expectations and performance Behavioral Expectations: areas of expertise; respectful conduct; timeliness; perspective; transparency & judiciousness Channel expectations: Which sites (communication channels) are appropriate for which types of communications. Contextual Expectations: conversational style; perception; value Content Expectations: use of company proprietary information, including current projects, trademarks, names, logos David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®

7. About The Author David M. Adler, Esq. is an attorney, author, educator, entrepreneur and founder of, a boutique intellectual property law firm based in Chicago, Illinois. With over fourteen years of legal experience, Mr. Adler created his firm with a specific mission in mind: to provide businesses with a competitive advantage by enabling them to leverage their intangible assets and creative content in a way that drives innovation and increases the overall value of the business. Mr. Adler has an extensive private-practice and in-house background counseling and international cadre of clients on corporate and intellectual property law, including corporation, LLC and Limited Partnership creation and finance, contract interpretation, drafting, negotiation and enforcement as well as copyright and trademark registration and enforcement. Mr. Adler also specializes in advising artistic talent and creative professionals in the arts, entertainment, media and sports industries. He received his law degree from the DePaul University College of Law in 1997 where he wrote for the DePaul Arts & Entertainment Law Journal. He received a Bachelor of the Arts in English and a Bachelor of the Arts in History from Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. Outside the practice of law, Mr. Adler created and taught an undergraduate course on E-Business in the Arts, Entertainment & Media Management Department of Columbia College Chicago. He also chaired the Chicago Bar Association's Start-up and Entrepreneurial Ventures Subcommittee, frequently contributes as a “guest expert” columnist for numerous online publications in the areas of ecommerce, intellectual property and small business and periodically speak to industry and trade groups and associations on these topics. 203 North LaSalle Street, Suite 2550 Chicago, Illinois 60601 Phone: (866) 734-2568 Fax: (312) 275-7534 www.ecommerceattorney.com David M. Adler, Esq. Safeguarding Ideas, Relationships & Talent®