Announcing Corporate Social Media Policies: Pros, Cons, and Ways to Handle
The following article has been posted on
The Actionable Ideas Blog by
Julie Huang, President of
Kaimen Company.
Tweets and blogs lit up the World Wide Web with the word that Reuters announced its social media policy. Meanwhile, other articles hit the Web about the State of California's social media policy. The Pentagon came out with one, too. Blogs also reported that Carnival Cruise Line had, after public criticism, issued a brand new policy to replace the old one.(Note to readers: I could not find this. If you have links to the new or old social media policies by Carnival, I'd appreciate if you could send them to me or post them in the comments box below.)
So what do the news agencies, the Department of Defense, a U.S. state, and a cruise liner all have in common? These institutions made their social media policies public.
Not every company publicly announces its social media policy. In the past, these kinds of policies were presented as internal notices for employees.
Before your company makes its social media policies public, here are some pros and cons to consider:
Pro:
1. It shows that your company is taking social media seriously.
2. It gives your employees and the people of the world notice of what they can and cannot do with your brand.
3. You can expect the social media network of reporters, bloggers, and Tweeters to spread the word about and comment on your new policy. It's going to happen.
4. You will get unsolicited feedback that you can use to make your social media policy better.
Cons:
1. Your public announcement may prompt investigative types to speculate...Did something happen inside your institution? Why go public with this as news? Is this about control?
2. It gives the world notice of what they can or cannot do with your brand. Sometimes, people outside your company don't like to be told.
3. Members of the social media network will find things about your policy that they like and don't dislike, and they will gladly share these views with the world. These views can spread fast and impact a reputation before the company even gets a chance to revise it. (Note to self: Look at Carnival Cruise Lines)
4. You get unsolicited feedback with which you may or may not agree.
How should you handle this?
1. Determine with your legal team or corporate disclosure committee to consider if you need to make your social media policy public. What needs or requirements will be satisfied if your social media policy is made public?
2. If you must make it public, then make sure your corporate communications teams and legal team review as many social media policies as possible, preferably issued by companies from across different industries. A collection of these, not news articles, are housed here. Are there others? Do you have one that should be listed? Feel free to suggest them in our comment box below.
3. Consider presenting your social media policy to the public as draft guidance. You can give your policy a chance to change, if necessary.
4. Invite the public to comment without committing a response to each individual comment.
5. Be sure to offer a date by when to receive comments.
6. Consider putting a date out there stating, when you will issue the final guidance.
In today's review-driven participatory economy (think Yelp, Amazon, Twitter, star-ratings system), every web user has an opinion on anything that is on the web - even if they are not stakeholders.
To these web users, publicly announcing draft guidance gives them a chance to participate.
To companies, publicly announcing draft guidance enhances the transparency of companies and gives companies a chance to hedge their bets.
@2011 Kaimen Company.