The anatomy of a good social media policy

Whether your company is active on social media, your employees probably are.  So you should have a policy.  Over the course of the last few years I have been involved in writing and reviewing a lot of social media policies around the world.  It is becoming clear that social media policies have some kind of anatomy.

Of course, there is not “one fits all” solution since every company has its own needs and wants.  I would like to share with you what I am seeing as best practice components in social media policies.

Here are the different section one could have in a policy

1. Why do you have a social media policy?

In general employees do not like policies.  But protecting the reputation of your company is every employee’s duty and that is what a policy should attempt to achieve.  You can carve your policy in such a way that your employees are your ambassadors

2. What is social media?

Most of your employees have a limited view of what social media really is.  It is more than Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.  A good definition of what you as company understand under social media will help you set the scene.

3. Which social media and networks are we talking about?

It is good idea to name the major different social media platforms, what they are best used for and what the benefits and dangers are.

4. To whom does the policy apply?

Different types of people are working in companies.  Of course you have employees of which some are spokespeople.  Many companies also employ contractors or free-lancers and you need to decide whether your policy will also apply to these people.  You might need a subtract for them.

5. How to get access of social media?

In some companies you still need to ask permission to access the internet and/or social media. We tend to think that this practice is becoming extinct but still many companies block access to social media for the majority of their employees under the umbrella of productivity loss.  That is what the social media policy is trying to address.

6. Definition of Terms

In this section you will define the difference between policy and guideline, personal vs professional use, employee vs spokesperson, etc.

7. Social Media Policy

It is clear that some items must be policy (use of logo’s, spokepeople, disclaimers, creation and ownership of accounts, etc.)

1. For spokespeople
2. For employees
3. For contractors

8. Social Media guidelines

The social media guideline will help your employees protect their own reputation and thus also the reputation of the company.  In this section you will find items such as authenticity, correct errors, honesty, suggestion of identity and email addresses, etc.

9. Where can you your company on social media? And how are you using it?

Do not assume that your employees know what social media you are using as a company.  A lot of companies do not mention their accounts on website and leave it up to their employees to discover where they are.  This practice will make sure that all your employees know what the official accounts are.

It is also a best practice to tell your employees what you are using these social media accounts for.  Let’s call it leading by example.

10. How do you handle mentions (positive and negative)?

We all know that companies and people are talked about.  Many companies have some kind of social media monitoring but many more do not.  So if your employees who can be your eyes and ears in social media (provided they are your ambassadors) see any message, they need to know what the procedure is to handle these mentions or posts.

11. Where do you get help for your Social Media

As companies are gearing up for social media, it is also a good idea to setup a help desk or a social media help account (which could be any employee within the company).  Indicate in your policy who these people are and where you can get the necessary training.

12. Tips and tricks

Nothing works better to create ambassadors than provide tips and trick so you should include examples with tips and tricks.

I understand that including all these sections can lead to a long document that people might not read which brings me to a final point about a social media policy.  The key to success is the roll out phase. That’s the moment where you can create a simple hand-out or give-away that supports the introduction and announcement of the policy.  You can really get creative with this and get a lot of support for your policy.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.

Is LinkedIn running out steam for recruiters?

Over the last couple of weeks I have had many recruiters in my social media classes and every time they focus all their attention on LinkedIn as a recruitment tool.  When I come to Facebook, they seem to be shutting down. It seems they do not take Facebook seriously as a recruitment environment.  Maybe, they should think again.

One reason is that there are over 880 million people on Facebook vs the 147 million on LinkedIn.  Secondly, more and more companies are active through a fan pages on Facebook and using it for employer branding.  Fan pages allow much more flexibility and functionality to companies and recruiters than the LinkedIn Company pages.

And then there are several applications that have started to give LinkedIn a run for its money.  They listen to names such as Glassdoor, Beknown, Talent.me and BranchOut.  These apps bring LinkedIn functionality to Facebook making it the next best environment for recruitment.

Glassdoor is a free jobs and career community that offers the world an inside look at jobs and companies. Using the Inside Connection product lets you find companies and what connections inside you might have.  Additionally, you can find interview questions, salary ranges, company reviews, and job openings.  In true social media style the content is generated by the job seekers.

Beknown is a Facebook application by Monster.  There is a lot similarity between Beknown and LinkedIn: create a profile, you connect with people, get recommendations, find jobs, and follow companies. Beknown will let you see the 1st and 2^nd line connections like LinkedIn. As you accept people in your network, you earn badges like in Foursquare.

Talent.me is a professional networking app on Facebook which answers the questions where your friends worked and who your inside connections are at companies.  The goal of Talent.me is to help you leverage your friend network and make it work for your career advancement.  You can also endorse your connections and build communities around specific talents.  This social media network seems to be very US focused.

And finally, there is BranchOut.  On BranchOut, users leverage their Facebook friends to find jobs, find sales leads, recruit talent, and setup relationships with your professional contacts. BranchOut also operates the largest job board on Facebook with over 3 millions jobs in 60 countries.  Recruiters from all over the world are joining BranchOut and taking advantage of lower priced recruitment packages to find and attract new talent.

Of course, LinkedIn is still the standard when it comes to recruitment, but I am convinced that Facebook will take over very soon.  Today, it seems that BranchOut is the forerunner but it is still early days.

Do you know any other tools?  Feel free to share through the comment field.

Why the political parties have no Social Media Policy?

2012 is an election year. This is not only the case in the US, but also in many other countries including my own, Belgium. There will be local elections and union elections this year. But I am looking forward, with a lot of anticipation, to how US politics will be using Social Media to rally to victory. Four years ago, Team Obama surprised everybody, but this year, many politicians and candidates will be fighting back and use the same weapons.

What I can not stop wondering about is whether the Democratic or Republican party has a Social Media Policy. I do not think so and in all honesty I am not sure they can make one that sticks. In reviewing the database of social media policies (http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php), there are a number of elements that always show up in such a policy. Maybe this is a good time to benchmark some paragraphs of these policies versus the political world. It will become apparent why it would be close to impossible to create a Social Media Policy (that would stick to) for any political party: Here are some clauses and further meaning:

• Respect your Audience: One should show proper consideration for other’s privacy and topics considered inflammatory.
• It is a Conversation: it is supposed to be a two-way conversation and not just shouting out to the audience.
• Respect your competition, do not pick fights or launch personal attacks: Seems very obvious and does not really require any further explanation.
• Be honest and transparent: do not be sneaky or devious. Do not have others go out there and say good things about you and bad things about others. Stay away from ghostwriters.
• Be yourself and respectful: Voters will see through your marketing tricks and talk. Be passionate and let that show through your personality.
• Get your facts right: Separate your opinions from your facts. How often is this not forgotten?
• Admit mistakes, apologize and correct your mistakes: do not be afraid to say that you were wrong. Admit to those mistakes and correct them.
• Think twice about posting: Before you post think about how it will be perceived since that is what people will see as the reality. The internet does not forget easy. Make sure you are allowed to post this content.
• Do not lie: Obviously since you are personally responsible for “speaking” on a public platform.
• Add Value: People’s time is valuable so do not waste it with.
• Aim for Quality and not Quantity: Offer your contribution with content and in context.
• Do not spam your audience: Respect people’s time.

As most companies and organizations are urged to create good social media guidelines and policies, I think politicians should set the example. However, I know that politicians stand on the barricade when they see these types of policies, but just like marketers they feel that their hands are tied. So I wonder if any of the political parties are even giving this any thought and would love to hear from them. Any thoughts?

The Social Media Policy undercover

Social Media Policy is more than a document; it is a process and an attitude.

More and more but still too few companies are thinking about creating a social media policy. This however only the beginning. From experience I can say that within companies that have a social media policy less than 10% of all employees know about its existence. Even worse, earlier this year I even encountered HR managers (from ICT companies) that were unaware of their own policy even though it is publicly available on the internet. So there is a need for more than just a document.

The implementation of social media must be seen as an implementation of an ICT application. Remember, social media platforms are true Cloud Computing applications and require thus a good implementation plan. The creation of the policy document is only a little step in this process. Additionally, you can use the social media policy to create the necessary awareness of social media for all your employees. They can learn about the who, the what, the benefits and the dangers of social media. It is important to show them that the individual’s behavior cannot only influence the perception about them but also the company in both positive and negative sense. The guidelines mentioned in the policy will enlist your employees to be your best ambassadors. A benefit that is too often forgotten.

Every policy contains both traditional guidelines and policies about the use of social media during and after working hours. It is also good to include the different platforms and profiles where the company can be found. This often forgotten and leads to employees making all kinds of groups and profiles without any coordination or approvals. Another benefit of your social media policy is that you clearly state what training (platforms where the company is active sounds like a good rule) is made available to all employees to make the most of the platforms. Let’s be honest, who reads a book on how to set your facebook privacy settings?

And then there is the distribution of the policy within your organization. Do not just send an email or put it on the intranet. This is the quickest way to go into hiding and thus not to be understood or known by the employees. A personal presentation or creative approach will reap benefits and create excitement. Creating a video (Ministry of Justice of the state Victoria), a commented PowerPoint (Salesforce.com) or a cartoon strip (Adidas). Reaching the employees individually is key especially since you are handing them useful guidelines to protect their (and the company’s) reputation.

Now your policy is effective! Successful companies are those where the social media policy promotes ambassadorship and people are made aware through training and induction programs. If you have any questions or comments, please react via the comments field in this blog!

Have you joined or left Google+?

In July Google announced its newest addition in terms of social media: Google+.  This was Google’s next attempt to make a big splash in the social media world.  At that time I was really questioning the viability of such a new network and I think looking at where we are today, I still stand by my views.

Yes, I ranted and raved about the fact that I was not able to get onto Google+ but with thanks to a few friends I finally succeeded.  The frenzy Google+ was looking for did not miss its target.  The number of users grew to 20 million in no time.

Over the time I have been using Google+, I have not seen any (good) reasons why I would drop my other social media platforms and again I have been proven right.  Today, Google+ might claim to have millions of people but like I many have created an account, seen what the buzz was about and then left account inactive.  My point is that if all my friends are on other platforms, why should I switch…

Even worse, I ran across a post (http://mashable.com/2011/10/12/eric-schmidt-google-plus/) about Google senior management not being on Google+.  It seems that they were not eating their own dog food.  Since the public announcement of this fact, Google management has decided to join.  Now let’s see how their activity levels will be in the next months.

Looking at the stats for Google+, we can see that about 40 million accounts exist but it seems a boy’s network and a lot of them are working the field of social media.  Lately, posts have been showing up that Google+ is declining and/or loosing active users.  The main reason behind this is Facebook and the other social media platforms are taking the “new Google+” functionality on board quickly to re-establish their lead.  So what Google+ is accomplishing is to keep the competition on their toes, which is not bad!

Now that Google+ has opened up to the public, I am wondering if the adoption rate by “real” people that will actively use it, is going to go up.

If you just joined I would love to hear your experiences.  If you left, why?

CEOs lack time to take part in Social Media

Close to a billion people are using social media platforms today.

Most, of them are doing it for personal use but more and companies are jumping on the bandwagon.  Though some CEOs are embracing social media most of them despise it and stay away as far as possible.  This brings up a lot of challenges for the social media champions and social media addicts to convert and convince these people.

Most CEOs do not (want to) see the benefits of social media because their mind is set on other things such as return on investment.  Social media can reap a lot of return but unfortunately, it takes time and most CEOs and executives do not have that time (to wait for results).

In a recent survey done by Vanguard Leadership, we found that a remarkable number of Belgian CEOs are present on one of the major platforms (89%). However, less than 25% are active.  So what are their reasons not to be active:

• Lack of time – CEOs do not spend, like most of us, time in front of their PC, ipad or even smart phone. Let’s be real they are not paid to do the legwork.
• Lack of peers and interaction – This is a continuation of the above point.  Since they are not taking time to read, comment or contribute to social media there is no interaction between them and others (peers or not).  No interaction means no incentive to contribute.
• Information overload and quality – Having a lot of information is good for decision making but we all know that social media provides too much information. And if you do not control it properly (and that takes time) it creates overload.  Too much (unqualified) information leads to confusion and bad decision making.  Not what a CEOs is waiting for…
• Lack of knowledge and understanding – Most CEOs are not digital natives.  So social media is not part of their DNA. Time and energy are needed to learn about a multitude of platforms.  And the speed of evolution of these platforms brings on another big problem for them when trying to keep up with these evolutions.  A challenge CEOs do not really need or want.  Additionally, they only hear the bad stories because good stories are less told so why should they invest their valuable time.

However, there are some good reasons why  you need to convince them to join.  More and more CEOs are doing it and seeing the benefits:

• By taking part in social media the CEO demonstrates his leadership in adopting new technologies and thus more members from the executive team will join.  A great starting point to get CEO buy-in is to implement social media internally first.  By using social media internally not only does communication improve (less distance between management and employees) but lessons are learned internally and no mistakes are made when social media is externalized.
• When CEOs use social media with customers, suppliers and  employees, it makes the person and company more human and you get the benefit of more opinions and easier accessibility
• It is clear that a CEO can boost the brand by using social media.  Many US examples have shown the way here.
• Finally, when the CEOs is on social media, the company is able to attract easier young people since the company is seen as a dynamic operation.

The conclusion is really that today’s CEO is far from joining actively social media because of the lack of time but once convinced he will be the motor that can shifts the company into a higher gear.

Are you being kept awake by circles, hangouts and sparks

Two weeks ago Google announced it latest effort to get involved with social media, called Google+.  Today, Microsoft leaked its efforts for yet another social media network.  Are these two efforts too late to battle Facebook and Twitter?

Google+ will offer a high degree of integration with its other social media platforms and this will be the USP to fight Facebook and Twitter.  The stream, which looks a lot like the one in Facebook, will be complemented with circles (groups in which you put people), hangouts (your favorite online places) and sparks (bits and pieces of information).  And Google claims this is only the beginning.

Microsoft leaked the story about its social network (Tulatip?) built around the Bing search engine to create a social search.  However, from the limited information available, Microsoft will not be inventing the network but use bits and pieces from Facebook and Twitter which might be a smart idea.

Back to Google+.  As it is fitting for social media platforms, memberships are handed out in small amounts which has lead to a frenzy to get access in the first week or so.  Many people were looking for such an “invite”.  Getting such an invite meant you are someone in social media land or had the right friends (what a good time to test the “give and receive” attitude).  I did not get one till 3 weeks into the process thanks to Roland Legrand from De Tijd.

Though I was disappointed that I did not get an invite, it made me think and ask a number of questions.  First of all, is this not just another gadget which we are not waiting for?  We are already part of so many social media platforms and networks.  Why add another?  After which we will complain that we have a lot of work to keep our social media profiles up to date… How much can we kid ourselves?  It seems we are looking for more work.

Second, all those people that are looking for such a special “invite” will not be the users of tomorrow.  These people are going to “test” Google+ to either break it down to the ground or praise it into the heavens but few will be (active) users in 6 months.  Many profiles will die very quickly even if Google claims they have 100 million profiles in less than a month.  Who wants to rebuild his/her Facebook/Twitter or even LinkedIn  network again on yet another platform.  Not me!

As far as I am concerned I am really waiting to see where Google+ will be making the difference with Facebook and the others before I switch.  The integration with tools such as  Tweetdeck and others will define if and when I switch to Google+.

So I will let Google convince that switching to Google+ will be worth my while and bring VALUE rather than just more work.

Are you ruining your business reputation?

When it comes to business networking, LinkedIn has been the trusted platform of choice. A large number of members are conscious of the fact that they need to have a professional profile. A further reduced number is making the most of the “Status update” to bring value to their network and drive traffic to good content. Over the last weeks and months, the level of professionalism of the “Status Updates” has dropped considerably. When you were looking for people that said that “hated their job” or “were bored”, you needed to do this on platforms such as Facebook. We all remember the “OMG, I hate my job post on Facebook”.

Well, today you can find similar posts on LinkedIn with compliments of Twitter.  Thanks to LinkedIn Signal search option, these messages now become very apparent and public.  I am even convinced the people who have these types of posts are no longer aware of the fact they linked their Twitter account to their LinkedIn account.  So messages such as below are now regulars on LinkedIn reducing the level of professionalism of certain people.

On another note, we all know the name calling of Facebook, but say welcome to similar expressions on LinkedIn!  Here are some examples.

Do you really want your professional reputation tarnished by these types of comments?  Your co-workers are listening to you on business networks… not to mention your current and future employers.

Though it is simple to connect your social media accounts, you really need to think this through.  Do you really want people to see where you are eating (Foursquare to Twitter to LinkedIn)? What you are doing in the garden or what store you are at?  If you are a frequent Twitterer, the constant status updates will annoy the hell out of your contacts and you will soon be stopped being followed in professional networks achieving the opposite of what you were aiming for.

If you want update your status on multiple networks, consider using tools such as tweetdeck or hootsuite where at least you know where you are posting the messages.  And remember to disconnect all post-through actions.

Can a serenity prayer help social media marketers?

We all know that marketers are a strange breed. I am also one of them.  We are the people with the latest gadgets, following the newest trends and do the fun things in the company.  So social media is like a gift from the gods.  Every day a new tool or platform emerges.  It is hard to keep up with the newest technologies.  Never a sad day again!

We have also discovered that these social media fit our toolbox perfectly. We can get close to our customers; create more visibility for our company; built more interactive campaigns; and send out more messages to the world.

As marketers we know we have to listen to what is said about us.  We soon find out that we are not alone sending out messages about our company, products and people.  These messages also come from our co-workers.  We get upset since we consider ourselves the only one that can speak in name of our company.  We are losing control of the brand and it makes us furious.

Company management also have gotten the fact that people, including their own employees, are speaking about them.  So they are requesting that a social media policy be created to guide the employees when using social media.

The job is often given to HR or IT to come up with such a policy. With a little bit of luck, marketing gets called to chip in (from my personal experience more and more).  However, it freaks us out to live by all these rules.  We feel caged by these rules and they limit our creativity.

Our skepticism stands in the way of us seeing how such a policy can actually help us turn these employees into great ambassadors.  We keep on saying that there should be only 2 rules: “people have to use their good judgment” and “we are the only one to speak about the company”.  But every day we see examples in the newspapers of how people are using their good judgment.

Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter blunders happen all over the world every day!  We should really understand that we should contribute to a positive social media policy rather than fighting it.

I want to offer the marketers some advice I heard from some self help groups.  We have to accept that there are things we can not change (loss of control of your brand); have the courage to change the things we can change (contribute to a policy); and have the wisdom to see the difference between these two (share our social skills to make our co-workers become our ambassadors).

Trade Unions and Social Media Policies: an explosive mixture

I am looking with a lot of interest at the actions of trade unions when it comes to social media policies in companies.  Over the last months several court cases, which I do not care to mention (just Google “social media policy union”), have made the news and have spread via different media across the world.  It is true that currently most of the controversy is coming out of the US but I am sure in time we will have similar discussions in Europe.

There are 2 points that intrigue me:

• Trade Unions about Social Media policies
• Social Media policy in Trade Unions

I know that I am touching on very sensitive points.  So I think we need to face this topic before more discussions end up as social media cases.

Trade Unions about Social Media Policies

As more and more companies are seriously beginning to look at creating and implementing a Social Media Policy to control their employees, it raises more attention with the trade unions.  We all know that controlling social media is impossible!  So what am I seeing?

• Some companies have realized that rather than creating a strict policy it is better (for company ambassadorship) to provide guidelines to the employees.
• More and more companies are involving different functions and departments during the creation phase of a policy. We see HR, marketing and IT collaborate on such policies.

My recommendation, however, is that you make the trade unions part of your project team to create the company social media policy.  Daring?  Impossible?  Not!  Speaking from experience, it can be done!

Social Media Policies in Trade Unions

Source: Alexwhite.org

Trade Union members are active on social media, let’s not deny this.  While most are there from a personal point of view, some are their as a trade union member.  This brings me to wonder if trade unions have their own social media policy or even social media guidelines since they are a brand too. What guidelines or policies are in place for trade union members to react via social media?  Just imaging how much damage the trade union brand and reputation could suffer from not having these guidelines. So far, I have not found one trade union that has published a policy but it would be interesting to see what their guidelines/policy looks like.

My recommendation is that Trade Unions should create, implement, communicate and publish their social media policy so their members do not hang out the trade union’s dirty laundry.

Conclusion

My business mantra is that you can complain about a problem but you need to come up with at least one solution.  So if trade unions are going to fight social media policies, they need to have one themselves and companies must include the trade unions in their social media project creation and delivery teams.

I would love to hear your comments and feedback.