Images for backgrounds, avatars, and cover photos should be in good taste and representative of the University. This requirement exists to minimize the spread of misinformation and content shared out of context. After drafting the policy, share it with the core team for feedback before finalizing it. As social media and your brand evolve, the policy will need to be revamped accordingly. In the following sections, we’ll detail what a social media policy plan should contain and why it’s a must-have for businesses navigating the digital realm. Let your employees know where they can find further training and guidance on social media best practices and remind them again of how the training may help their careers and professional brand.

Training sessions should cover the social media policy and highlight the importance of ethical online behavior in the employee handbook. Maintaining trust and providing timely updates during a crisis requires engaging with the audience. Regular communication reassures the audience and prevents damage to brand reputation. Designating teams for crisis response, message approval, customer service, and social engagement ensures all aspects of a crisis are managed effectively. To help you create a social media policy, we’ll share several examples of well-known companies and their policies.

This section should establish who can speak for your brand on social media — and who can’t. When you’ve got big product news or a message to share, it’s great to have your whole team on board. For example, the cybersecurity firm Action1 has instructions in its social media to be on the alert for phishing schemes. “Especially on LinkedIn, where attackers might pretend to be recruiters,” says VP of Product Strategy Peter Barnett. To define a purpose, think about the capabilities of each channel and how your brand has chosen to use them. For example, Instagram is a predominately visual channel, whereas LinkedIn is predominately used for sharing opinions, insights and information.

The safer your employees are with their social media actions, the more secure your business becomes. Regardless of whether or not your employees are speaking for you, the world might view them as a reflection of your brand. If your employees are acting questionably online, this raises suspicion about your business too. A successful social media policy reflects the needs and concerns of your workforce. Maintaining confidentiality regarding workplace issues on social media is essential to protect company interests and reduce conflict exposure. Proper privacy settings and awareness of location tracking features can help safeguard sensitive information.

Empower Employees To Share Brand Content Safely

Fortunately, your board can take steps immediately to prevent social media posts and comments from portraying your nonprofit in a bad light. Plan, schedule, and publish your posts for Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and more with Later’s social media management platform. This may go without saying, but it’s key to create your community guidelines with your community members top of mind. When it comes to building a positive and engaging online community, setting guidelines is key. While a social media policy is designed to guide and inform, there will be times when missteps occur. The procedures for addressing policy violations are the roadmap for how you manage these slip-ups.

Purpose Of The Policy

Unfortunately, the internet is forever, and the information your employees share on social media could reflect on them and the company. With a social media policy in place, you can protect the reputation of your business and your employees. One of the biggest reasons you need a social media policy is that almost every employee uses it. There is a chance that your employees may have multiple social media profiles on different platforms.

They therefore need to be accessible to everyone, easy to use and genuinely useful, containing lots of examples for best practice. Companies must implement clear social media guidelines to protect reputations, ensure employee behavior aligns with professional standards, and comply with legal regulations regarding online conduct. Remind employees that these rules apply to their personal and professional social media accounts, and outline the consequences of failing to abide by these standards. Adidas is notorious for its strong mission statement and inspirational marketing campaigns, and its social media guidelines reflect that. It reminds employees that they are responsible for the content they post on social media and goes out of its way to even provide examples. Another great thing about their guidelines is that it assumes right from the get-go that employees are always online, so Adidas encourages them to talk about their work.

You can do this by making your employees aware of these attacks and requiring them to use a 2-factor authentication or a VPN during work hours. Now, let’s look at the benefits of having a social media policy within your organization in more detail. Due to social media increase, many businesses have a digital media presence which they use to communicate with their customers and promote their products and services. Employees should always be cautious about sharing any proprietary information, whether it’s through posts, comments, or direct messages.