However, use of social media also presents certain risks and carries with it certain responsibilities. To assist you in making responsible decisions about your use of social media, we have established these guidelines for appropriate use of social media. This policy applies to all associates who work for [Employer], or one of its subsidiary companies in the United States [Employer].
Managers and supervisors should use the supplemental Social Media Management Guidelines for additional guidance in administering the policy. In the rapidly expanding world of electronic communication, social media can mean many things.
Social media includes all means of communicating or posting information or content of any sort on the Internet, including to your own or someone else's web log or blog, journal or diary, personal web site, social networking or affinity web site, web bulletin board or a chat room, whether or not associated or affiliated with [Employer], as well as any other form of electronic communication.
The same principles and guidelines found in [Employer] policies and three basic beliefs apply to your activities online. Ultimately, you are solely responsible for what you post online. Before creating online content, consider some of the risks and rewards that are involved.
Keep in mind that any of your conduct that adversely affects your job performance, the performance of fellow associates or otherwise adversely affects members, customers, suppliers, people who work on behalf of [Employer] or [Employer's] legitimate business interests may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination. Inappropriate postings that may include discriminatory remarks, harassment, and threats of violence or similar inappropriate or unlawful conduct will not be tolerated and may subject you to disciplinary action up to and including termination.
Always be fair and courteous to fellow associates, customers, members, suppliers or people who work on behalf of [Employer]. Also, keep in mind that you are more likely to resolved work-related complaints by speaking directly with your co-workers or by utilizing our Open Door Policy than by posting complaints to a social media outlet.
Nevertheless, if you decide to post complaints or criticism, avoid using statements, photographs, video or audio that reasonably could be viewed as malicious, obscene, threatening or intimidating, that disparage customers, members, associates or suppliers, or that might constitute harassment or bullying.
Examples of such conduct might include offensive posts meant to intentionally harm someone's reputation or posts that could contribute to a hostile work environment on the basis of race, sex, disability, religion or any other status protected by law or company policy.
Make sure you are always honest and accurate when posting information or news, and if you make a mistake, correct it quickly. Be open about any previous posts you have altered. Remember that the Internet archives almost everything; therefore, even deleted postings can be searched. Never post any information or rumors that you know to be false about [Employer], fellow associates, members, customers, suppliers, people working on behalf of [Employer] or competitors. Refrain from using social media while on work time or on equipment we provide, unless it is work-related as authorized by your manager or consistent with the Company Equipment Policy.
Do not use [Employer] email addresses to register on social networks, blogs or other online tools utilized for personal use. Any associate who retaliates against another associate for reporting a possible deviation from this policy or for cooperating in an investigation will be subject to disciplinary action, up to and including termination. Associates should not speak to the media on [Employer's] behalf without contacting the Corporate Affairs Department. All media inquiries should be directed to them.
Let our Employee Handbook Builder assist you. The template could be particularly helpful because it is highly situational. Each bullet point is specific but also points employees to other resources that can guide social media actions.
These include the Code of Conduct, employee handbook, HR department, spokespeople and more. Dell has always been a leader in using technology to directly connect with our customers.
Social media is another platform you can use to build our brand, just be sure you do it the right way. This straightforward document stands in stark contrast to something like the social media policy from the US Office of Personnel Management , complete with appendices, required disclaimers, direct message guidelines and more.
You definitely want to be clear about your social media policy. But sometimes less is more, and simple is best. Adobe references its social media guidelines in its main employee code of conduct document. This section is short, so there is likely a dedicated internal document. It also sets clear boundaries of how employees can or cannot conduct themselves. For example, Adobe states that employees do not represent the company or speak for it unless they are authorized to do so by Adobe Public Relations.
Edmunds offers an effective way of presenting your social media policy. You can take a visual approach that clearly segments each part of the policy such as confidentiality and discretion. The interesting thing about ESPN is that its public-facing employees e. Pfizer operates in waters heavy with regulatory oversight, so it like ESPN maintains a more cautious and granular social media policy.
Like Adobe, Pfizer summarizes the main points of its social media guideline in its main code of conduct document so that every employee is aware. This summary establishes clear rules about how an employee can represent themselves and when to disclose their affiliation with Pfizer. How can your employees use social media while complying with the rules and regulations that govern our organization? Collaborate closely with your compliance team to understand the latest regulatory compliance policies and stay in the loop for any ongoing changes.
In return, you can also share details on the latest changes across social media marketing and your corporate social media strategy so they can identify any potential risks. By aligning both departments, you can align on a crystal clear social media policy that fosters the right behaviors for employee advocacy. You must be logged in to post a comment. For Marketing. For Sales. For Human Resources.
For Channel Partners. Customer Success. Case Studies. About Us. Resource Center. Cheat Sheets. Featured Content. What is Employee Advocacy. A social policy makes sure you have an emergency response plan in place. A Tennessee judge was recently sanctioned for sending inappropriate messages to women from accounts that showed him in his judicial robe. The reprimand letter states:. A clear social policy helps employees know what they can and should share on social, and what they should skip.
Who owns which social accounts? Who covers which responsibilities on a daily, weekly or as-needed basis? It can be helpful to include names and email addresses for key roles, so employees from other teams know who to contact.
As mentioned above, there are a lot of social media security risks out there. In this section, you have the opportunity to provide guidance on identifying and dealing with them. One goal of your social media policy is to prevent the need for a social media crisis management plan. Consider whether these should be two separate documents, especially if your social media policy will be posted publicly.
Being prepared in advance will improve your response time and reduce stress for those directly managing the crisis. Details will vary from country to country or even state to state. The requirements are much stricter for organizations in regulated industries.
Be sure to consult your legal counsel for this section. Especially if there is no way for a casual observer to identify them as an employee of your company.
And your official spokespeople are ready to answer tough questions on the fly. But what about everyone else? Employees who are excited about their work can be some of your best advocates on social media. But they may not always know exactly what is appropriate to say and when. Once that feature goes live, though, you want them to have all the tools they need to share it with the world. After all, this policy affects all of them. But do get input from team leads, union reps, or others who can represent groups of employees to let you know about any ideas, questions, or concerns.
For example, greater consultation with staff journalists could have saved the BBC plenty of headaches when it released its new social media policy.
Among other rules, the policy states:. But the National Union of Journalists said they had concerns:. This could likely have been resolved before the policy came into play rather than playing out publicly after the fact. The nitty-gritty will inevitably change, and fast.
Focus on the big picture. We highly recommend adding your policy to your employee handbook so that new hires can work through it during onboarding.
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