Earlier this week, my colleague, Kate Rush Sheehy, posted about the importance of implementing corporate social media policies, and I couldn’t agree with her more. Policies should be firmly in place before a company attempts any internal or external social initiative.
Over the past two years I’ve analyzed every policy I could get my hands on to identify important buckets of necessary information. Those with corporate policies know that there are non-negotiable points every policy must communicate. For example, you must remind employees to respect each other, keep proprietary facts confidential, and handle mistakes transparently.
An often-overlooked point is the importance of accurately capturing and reflecting your company’s unique culture in the policy’s language. There are a few good examples of social media policies that many have borrowed from (IBM, Intel, and Oracle, to name a few). There is nothing inherently wrong with using one, or a combination of those policies, as a solid starting point. However, what I seefrequently is a lot of “copy-paste” action. Herein lies the issue: If you take a close look at these companies’ policies, you get a good glimpse of their corporate culture in the wording. Not yours.
In the same way that not every company is the same, not every company is in the same place when it comes to embracing social tools. Your company may be more or less open, more or less transparent, or more or less ready than the companies whose policies you are using to craft your own. There are also important implications to consider based on your industry and your client base.
If you currently have social media policies and guidelines in place, I would recommend pulling them out and carefully evaluating where the policy stands in comparison to where your company stands. Does the policy accurately reflect where you are, as a company, today? Are you a “can” or a “can’t” organization?
Don’t get me wrong. You should definitely plan for where you want to be, but you should also be realistic about where you are. Baby steps. Don’t try to go from zero engagement to social business in one move. As your corporate culture becomes more socially minded, your policy can adapt to allow for increased engagement.
The beautiful thing about social is that it is ever changing, as your policy should be. Your policy today should not be the same as your policy in a year, or two years from now. As your organization gets up to speed, revisit your policy often to make sure it continues to promote the right amount and kind of participation.
I really agree with your point about copying and pasting social media policies. I also wrote about this here, over on the Headshift blog last year, focusing on the importance of how these guidelines are developed and why staff should be involved in that process:
Zen and the Art of Social Media Guideline Maintenance
http://www.headshift.com/au/2009/05/zen-and-the-art-of-social-medi.php
One question to ask yourself, before publishing your social media policy, does it offer balanced guidance about the use of social media tools?
My point: most are written from the point of view of “damage containment” — with little, if any, mention of the upside potential of embracing these tools to engage your stakeholders.
Therefore, if your policy objective is to outlaw social media activity in your organization — by making novices very fearful of participation — then consider the predictable outcome as a mission-accomplished scenario.
Realize that most policy documents don’t contain one sentence of encouragement. Some actually insult the intelligence of the employees that are mandated to read them.
So, if you already have a policy in place, then read it again — this time looking for these “overly negative” perspectives. Ask yourself, if you (being a novice) would risk engaging in social media activities as a result of this guidance?