What’s your personal social media policy?

Working through a social media policy for work is a good reminder of the issues social media can have for the individual.

We have all heard the horror stories – career-limiting photographs and postings that last forever. Employees facing disciplinary action, losing jobs or being screened out in interviews because of social media information. People being sued for defamation. Workplace bullying following employees home.

Here are some thoughts on defensive social media management.

1. Be clear about who each social media forum is for. For instance for me, Facebook is for friends, LinkedIn is for current and former work colleagues and Twitter is for anyone. I am very clear about this to avoid giving offense. I do not have work-related people on my Facebook site. It is too easy for an innocent comment to be misconstrued to relate to a specific work-related activity. On the other hand, I know people who do have work colleagues on their Facebook site. That’s fine too, but once you have made the decision you need to post appropriately. Remember who is there.

2. Make sure your privacy settings are high. This is basic common sense, but it never ceases to amaze the number of people who have low or no privacy settings. It’s a big world out there people, not everyone has good intentions!

3. Be aware that no matter what your privacy settings, information gets out. A friend does a screen grab of a funny picture or posting you have put up, shares a comment you have posted, you comment on a friend’s site only to find that some of their friends know you as well.

4. Be careful which Facebook groups you join – despite your privacy settings your comments on someone else’s, or a group’s, page might show up on a google search. Just “liking” a page sometimes shows up.

5. Alcohol and social media do not mix if you want a career!

6. Be careful about what you find humourous, including the postings you repost. Just because it wasn’t your writing or your opinion, having it against your name for reposting may look bad.

7. Google yourself from time to time and see what pops up. Mine generally covers work related activities (quotes in media, reports presented, documents authored and conference presentations, etc) and some recreational activities including notice boards I have left comments on. I did once find an obituary in my name – I have an unusual double barrelled surname so this was slightly alarming. Turns out to be an 82 year old woman who died in Texas. I believe in coincidence!

8. Do you have a common (ie: popular) name? Is there some way you can differentiate yourself from others with similar names – particularly if they are in unsavoury businesses or making ill-advised comments you do not want associated with yourself. You need to be either clearly identified as to which comments are you (if your strategy is to make your profile stand out online), or be anonymous in the crowd of people with the same name.

9. If you find defamatory comments about yourself, request that the user remove them. If that doesn’t work, request that the site owner removes them. And remember, libel is libel, even if it happens in cyber-space.

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social media for the risk-averse organisation

Introducing social media into a risk-averse organisation can be challenging. So much of what is reported in mainstream media about social media is negative – paedophiles grooming children, online bullying, sexting, brand sabotage. Why on earth would any sane organisation get involved?

The usual reasons proposed by staff relate to marketing and communication. Social media is a great way to reach out to people, spread your message – go to where your audience is instead of waiting for them to come to you (push communication is always more effective than pull). But this argument does not address the fundamental issue of risk. The conversation needs to be changed.

The real reason why risk-averse organisations need a social media strategy – and note the terminology has changed there – is to address risk. There is significant risk in NOT being involved in social media. The conversation will happen whether you are involved or not. Better to at least monitor and respond if appropriate than live in ignorance while your brand is being flamed. Social media does not stay online – it affects behaviour, as seen in recent middle east uprisings, and drives “old media” – newspapers, television and radio – with reporters sourcing and researching stories based on social media movements.

However – back to the change in terminology – it does need to be a social media strategy. Social media in all its forms is communication mainlined. There is no editor to go through. Anyone can do it – all it takes is a computer and a modem. Whatever you say – good bad, silly or unintelligible, libellous – will be out there for all to see.

So what are some of the aspects and risks that your strategy needs to consider?

• Be clear about what are you trying to achieve with your involvement in social media. This might be obvious for a sales-based organisations but less so for others. Know what you want and expect from this activity. Choose which social media you get involved in based on your goals.

• Don’t think one-way communication works in Web 2.0 and beyond. If you don’t give people the opportunity to converse with you, at best you become irrelevant. At worst, you send the message that you aren’t interested in their opinions. They will notice, and they will comment elsewhere, where you have less control and less awareness.

• Social media needs to be monitored and responded to quickly. If there is a negative or incorrect comment, you need to respond. If you get back in two days time or next week you might find it is 100 comments, or 20,000 tweets. There is a cost associated with live monitoring.

• What do you do if someone leaves a negative comment? You can’t please everyone, so it will happen. Ignore it and you look like you don’t care – it might inflame the issue. Delete it and it’s censorship. Answer it – could result in a good or a bad result. You need to have made the decision about what to do before it happens – not policy on the run.

• Be aware that if someone posts something that is incorrect, illegal or libellous on your social media or website and you leave it up there, you may be liable for it. All the laws that affect your business in real life also work in cyberspace. And you don’t have to have been the one who wrote it, if you allow it to stay out there, you are in the frame. Recent court cases regarding false advertising demonstrate this.

• Monitor other social media forms that you aren’t using. Just because you aren’t there doesn’t mean you aren’t being discussed.

• Don’t give the social media strategy and monitoring to the office junior “because they understand social media”. You also need someone who understands your business, the political and commercial sensitivities your work in and has authority to speak to the media on behalf of the organisation. This person does however have to understand how the various forms work though.

• How are you going to measure the outcomes? When everything else in the organisation is accountable against KPIs, it is important to ensure that your social media strategy is as well.

• For organisations subject to document retention legislation – how are you going to meet this requirement for your social media conversations? How will you index and cross-reference them?

Social media – as part of a planned and managed communication strategy – can achieve organisational goals. But conservative organisations are right to be cautious about how they enter the field and how they manage it.

For some entertaining and somewhat horrifying examples of corporate social media gone wrong, click here.