Social Media & Your Staff – How to Minimize Risk & Maximize the Advantages

Most people today are involved in social media in some way to create and share information with the Web community at large – whether they know it or not. More often than not, they have established their own online presence on social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or their own personal blogs. Through these they are tied to others online in virtual communities as they create and consume videos, comments, opinions, news articles, updates, etc.

As a company, you need to acknowledge that your employees will likely use social networks and it is crucial that you establish some policies and best practices so that employees can properly handle their online presence as de facto brand ambassadors to your organization as they go about their personal lives. Organizations that put up restrictions and firewalls around the use of social networking and media sites are fighting an uphill battle that they will ultimately lose – and in the meantime they miss out on the benefits this networking and information-sharing can bring. Whether it’s condoned at work or not, the fact is that more and more of your staff is engaged online through one or more social media or networking sites.

Kristin Simonson recently wrote a piece for Baseline Magazine on recognizing and managing the potential risks of social media for your company. These include:

• Leaving your company open to legal liabilities
• Leaking proprietary information
• Tarnishing your company’s reputation with false and disparaging online activity

Through recognizing and managing risks involved, you can take advantage of the benefits of social media for your organization. Social networking for business purposes should not be written off completely, as it can offer new connections, market research opportunities and competitive insights. Employee adoption of social media is inevitable – rather than sticking your head in the sand, take advantage of this as an opportunity to spread your corporate vision and put a face to your brand.

Before jumping in headfirst, you would do well to set a policy in place to minimize and manage legal risk. Simonson highlighted the necessary steps:

1. Create a written policy – Highlight how social media communications may be used in the office and clearly state how proprietary information may or may not be handled.
2. Communicate and train – Once you have a policy in place, educate and train employees on the ins and outs. Simonson notes that, “Technology fosters rapid response and widespread dissemination of communications. So employees should be trained not only to follow the company policy, but also to step back from—rather than contribute to—escalating situations.” Training really can’t be overvalued — going through possible scenarios with employees ensures that they will know what kinds of behavior and communications are off limits when they encounter them.
3. Observe – Make sure the policy is being followed.
4. Enforce the policy – Set and stick to consequences to reinforce that employee actions are vital to the organization’s well-being.

So now that you know you should have a policy in place, what should it include?

Well, your policy should really act as a set of guidelines rather than rules that can scare and workers from taking advantage of social media. In your training, go over examples of good and bad social media anecdotes from other companies so that each individual can see the real value and risk inherent in the medium. Show individuals how they can help or hurt the company through their online presence with real world examples such as the scandal involving an executive who inadvertently insulted his company’s client via an update on his personal Twitter account, to demonstrate how important it is to need to stop and think prior to posting online.

Bring your marketing or PR team into the mix by educating employees on the language used to convey the corporate vision to the world though traditional media channels, and show how this language can be used by employees as they live their own lives online. Note: we are not suggesting that you contrive a way for your employees to push the company agenda in their personal lives, but your employees should know that they are brand ambassadors that represent your company online just as they would at a friend’s cocktail party. Explain that their presence online needs to reflect well upon your company to manage company risk, but also to manage their personal risk – it’s of no value to an individual to create a risky online persona that future employers will certainly see.

The bottom line is that if you have your ducks in a row in terms of guidelines and clear communication, you should be able to empower your staff and encourage them in their use of social media while avoiding the accidental missteps that can have costly repercussions for your organization.