At the Employee Advocacy Summit this afternoon, Jim Dudukovich, a lawyer from The Coca-Cola Company, gave us a rare glimpse into the world where social media and law intersect. He brought simplicity and clarity to a number of issues that arise when planning an employee advocacy program.
This is one of a series of posts recapping the day and key comments from speakers and guests.
Speaker: Jim Dudukovich, Senior Marketing, Digital & Social Media Counsel, The Coca-Cola Company
When creating an EA program, there will be a wide variety of legal issues that are going to arise. There are going to be issues with clear lines of distinction of what's possible for employees/employers to do, as well as those in a gray area. HR, Comms, Legal, Marketing and more need to work together on clarity for advocates in the program.
Legal Issues to Keep in Mind
- Transparency
- Factual accuracy
- Honesty
- Mandatory vs. optional
- Protected activity
Designing a Social Media Policy
Social media policies can't be designed in a vacuum and can't be written it stone. It's important to know going into creating it that it's going to change. Don't let marketing write it alone. Don't let legal write it alone. Don't let HR write it alone. A successful policy not only needs to be "instructive and comprehensible," but also a team effort. The only thing that's worse than having no policy is having a bad policy. It should lay out on a high level the things employees need to think about.
"Go to the scene."
You'll never learn everything you need to know about social media unless you're involved in it. All departments that may be involved in creating a social policy or EA program, including legal, need to be well versed in social media. There are complex issues that may arise from an EA program, so legal departments must have credibility with those involved in managing an EA program.