One of the first risks points for social media at your company may be your employees. Do you have policy, and have you trained them?

1.
Managing Social Media Risk:
Employee Policy and Training Drives Social Media Culture
Three things to keep in mind when developing or revising your social media employee policy:
1. Understand the employee behavior that is desired related to their use of social media
2. Make employees aware of any monitoring activity and by the company
3. Support policy with training including use of real world examples to provide context, gravity
With 900 million users globally, nearly every company has employees using social media. A
successful policy and training encompasses several elements: 1) helps employees better
understand the dangers related to social media, 2) eliminates ambiguity around company
expectations, 3) reduces overall risk for the company by preventing potential issues and having
a process in place should one arise, and 4) reinforces related policies already in place.
The following are some key elements to keep in mind related to a social media Policy. We
recommend that any policy have a signed acknowledgement and that training be provided.
Policy Tone Sets Expectations
Even before addressing the specifics of a policy, it’s important to note that the tone is critical to
communicating the company’s perspective on the use of social media by employees. Some
companies, for example, encourage its use seeing their employees as “ambassadors” for the
brand. These policies tend to take more encouraging view of social media. Others have banned
it outright from the workplace and clearly discourage mention of the brand or workplace even in
personal postings by non-authorized personnel. These policies are more direct in emphasizing
personal accountability and potential actions for adverse content postings.
What Employees Must Understand
At a basic level, every company wants to avoid the same issues: adverse
discussion of employees, the workplace, and the company overall. The
policy should therefore reinforce any “golden rules” the company has in
place for its culture, and should draw linkages between social media and
the anti-discrimination and harassment policies already in place.
Cultural expectations are best backed up with training, and real world
Employees should
examples of issues should be offered to help employees understand the understand that
context and gravity. One message in particular to reinforce through training use of humor can
backfire.
is to be very careful about the use of humor. What is funny is not universal,
and it can backfire against individuals and companies that have used it. This is particularly the
case with Twitter, where we have seen a number of high-profile issues. A retail company’s CFO
was recently fired for comments via Twitter that moved the company’s stock.
Truventis.com | 617-680-3117 | info@Truventis.com | Waltham, MA | New Bedford, MA
Digital Strategy | Site Monitoring & Management | Employee Policy & Training | Compliance

2.
Privacy Expectations and Accountability
The concept of privacy and social media is gray for many reasons, among them: 1) employees
often “friend” fellow employees on their personal Facebook page and other social media sites,
and 2) these sites are notorious for changing their privacy settings or selling data – sometimes
without notice. Employees should be made to understand that they are responsible for what they
post on social media. The Federal Stored Communications Act and fair labor practices provide
only limited protection, and because social media blurs personal and private communication in
an unprecedented manner, the law is unsettled in this area.
Example: In Massachusetts, a profile case occurred when a public school teacher made disparaging comments
about parents and students in August of 2010. The teacher stated she believed her privacy settings precluded
others beyond her Facebook “friends” from seeing the post. She resigned her position. This is a dangerous belief for
employees. Even if privacy settings are set, content often becomes known because they have “friended” colleagues
form work, the site changes its privacy settings, or social monitoring tools pick up on key words, etc.
Using Company Time & Equipment
Each organization needs to make a decision regarding the use of company
time and equipment to access and participate on social media sites. Some
companies have simply chosen to allow employees full access, some have
blocked certain sites only, and others have blocked all access to external
social media sites and instituted a “no use at work” rule.
The approach depends on the company, its culture, and whether social
media is needed for work related activities. The risk to keep in mind is that Include mobile
when an employee posts from a company asset, including a mobile device, devices as part of
the policy.
and it becomes and issue – the company can be subject to e-discovery
which can be costly and time consuming to defend against.
Company and Employee Transparency
If your organization utilizes ‘social listening’ tools, it is recommended that employees be made
aware of it. These can pick up on key words such as brands. In addition, if your company
regularly checks candidate Facebook sites or Googles them, this should be made known as part
of the recruitment process. Also, employees who post (in accordance with company policy)
related to products, services, competitors, etc. should disclose their relationship with the
company and potentially even their job title. This is particularly critical in regulated industries.
A well-developed policy may not end all employee social media issues, but it will reduce them.
Truventis (www.Truventis.com) helps companies optimize social media and reduce risk. The firm
provides social media strategy, creative execution, site monitoring, content moderation, employee policy
and training for regulated and non-regulated industries.
Truventis founder John Theriault was a management consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Dove
Consulting in Boston, MA. He holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and writes a social media
column for the New England Business Bulletin. Contact: 617-680-3117 or info@truventis.com.
Truventis.com | 617-680-3117 | info@Truventis.com | Waltham, MA | New Bedford, MA
Digital Strategy | Site Monitoring & Management | Employee Policy & Training | Compliance