A study published in 2010 surfaced a startling statistic, "75 percent of employers say their business has no formal policy instructing employees on the appropriate use of social networking sites on the job." The report, "Employer Perspectives on Social Networking," compiled date from 34,000 businesses in 35 countries.
Does your organization have a formal policy regarding employee use of social media? Perhaps better asked, does your organization offer training, guidelines, and insights to help employees excel in new media on behalf of your business?
In the same study, 63% of employers that employed social networking policies reported that those policies improved productivity. More than a third also stated that social media policies helped protect intellectual property.
Social Media represents the democratization of information and the equalization of influence. Therein lies both the challenge and opportunity for organizations. Nowadays, anyone can create, publish, and distribute ideas, observations, news, and information. Content can now travel around the world through a myriad of connected channels and people faster than the time it took you to read this sentence.
While many businesses are attempting to figure out the potential of social media and their voices and roles within relevant networks, many confuse effective engagement with everyday chatter. At the same time, Instead of establishing leadership and investing in communities, a fair share of organizations relegate the important task of social media to the most junior people on staff with some placing interns in charge of representing the brand online. Why you ask? According to brand managers, it's because they understand how to use Twitter and Facebook already. These "Twinterns" as they're called, literally hold the fate of the brands they represent in vibrant and influential networks, where years brand reputation can erode in a matter of minutes.
In order for businesses to maximize the opportunity present within social networks, we must place engagement in the hands of those representatives qualified and trained to do so effectively and strategically.
Training Day
Social media is a critical enabler of engagement, connecting businesses with customers and the people who influence their decisions and perceptions. If we look at other important customer facing functions within the organization such as customer service or sales, training on procedures and company-specific value propositions and solutions in a variety of applications is part of the regiment. Social networks present opportunities to reach a variety of important segments that complement the structure of any organization and as such, in addition to standard community management, delegation is necessary to engage on all fronts combined with the wherewithal to do so.
Everything begins with defining the rules of engagement and then providing the necessary training to prepare qualified representatives for the predictable and also unforeseen circumstances that await them.
For example, if we review the oft-cited incident involving GreenPeace and Nestle's Facebook Brand page, one could argue that the community manager representing Nestle was unprepared for such a hostile engagement. Unfortunately, not everything in social media is sociable. In this case, GreenPeace targeted Nestle over its use of Palm Oil in certain products. Personal beliefs and opinions aside, this is a very real confrontation that took place in a popular social network because of its visibility. But, what works against us can also work for us. These public forums also represent our opportunity to steer perception, conversation, and action in our favor. Without training and preparation however, even the best will fumble.
The careful selection of capable officials combined with coaching is only the start. The pairing of training with the productive policies and guidelines provides the boundaries for fostering performance and governance. In the case of Nestle, even though the representative acted in a questionable manner, I would bet that the actions did not fall outside of any rules of engagement as they were most likely ambiguous or undefined.
With Social Media Comes Great Responsibility and Opportunity
Going back to 2009, BusinessWeek shared a series of examples where companies were caught by surprise over the stories and updates shared by employees on social networks. The article offered simple advice to help businesses shape their presence rather than react to it, "To prevent information leaks and other liabilities, companies are drafting guidelines for social media interaction."
It is paramount that every company, regardless of size, industry, or location, immediately draft and circulate guidelines and policies - whether or not social media is practiced officially or unofficially within the organization. The larger the company the greater the imminent risk and drafting policies and providing the training necessary to representatives and employees alike, will prevent unwanted details from spreading. Accordingly, it will encourage the propagation of desirable information.
Employees are enraptured with Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social networks and the sense and sensibility that governs self-restraint and judgment is, for the moment, circumvented by the public recognition that ensues after pressing the "publish" button. In some regards, social media clouds our gift of inner monologue and common sense exchanged in part for instant recognition.
This is more than publishing and it's far more important than empowering employees with the ability to chat online. It's our responsibility to contribute to the increase of a significant, tuned, and strategic signal over noise. I assure you that in doing so, you will earn a place among the elite in the ranks of social, new, and emerging media practices within your organization.
Establishing Policies and Guidelines
When writing Engage!, I reviewed countless examples of Social Media policies, many of which are available online for your review.
One of the most universal rules I encountered in my research was to "not be stupid" or to "use common sense." To assume that common sense is common, however, isn't applying common sense at all. It leaves actions open to interpretation and not everyone will approach the same instance equally.
Perhaps the biggest mistakes committed by businesses, personalities, and brands in Social Media are those that jump into social networks blindly without a plan of action, a sense of what people are seeking and how and why they communicate.
To help, I assembled a list of best practices for guidelines based on published policies I reviewed. Use them as a framework to provide specific instruction of what to do and what not to do in your branded profiles, outside communities, and also when acting on behalf of the brand or the individual's personal brand.
Once completed, holding formal workshops around these guidelines for spokespersons and general employees provides a foundation for a formal understanding of the circumstances, objectives, hazards, and nuances associated with community building. Doing so also introduces the governance necessary for rewards and reproach.
The Top 25 Best Practices for Drafting Policies and Guidelines
1. Define a voice and persona representative of the brand's purpose, mission, and characteristics
2. People expect to interact with people, be personable, consistent, and helpful
3. Keep things conversational as it applies to portraying and reinforcing the personality and value of your brand and the brand you represent
4. Add value to each engagement - contribute to the stature and legacy of the brand
5. Respect those whom you're engaging and also respect the forum in which you participate
6. Ensure that you honor copyrights and practice and promote fair use of applicable content
7. Protect confidential and proprietary information
8. Business accounts are no place to share personal views unless they reinforce the brand values and are done according to the guidelines and code of conduct
9. Be transparent and be human yes, but also do so based on true value propositions and solutions
10. Represent what you should represent and do not overstep your bounds without prior approval
11. Know and operate within the boundaries defined, doing so protects you, the company, and the people with whom you're hoping to connect
12. Know when to walk away. Don't engage trolls or fall into conversational traps
13. Stay on message, on point and on track with the goals of your role and its impact to the real world business in which you contribute
14. Don't trash competition, spotlight points of differentiation and value
15. Apologize where applicable and according to the established code of conduct. Seek approval by legal or management where such action is not pre-defined
16. Take accountability for your actions and offer no excuses
17. Know whom you're taking to and what they're seeking
18. Disclose relationships, representation, affiliation and intentions
19. Refer open issues or questions to those most qualified to answer
20. Practice self-restraint, some things are not worth sharing
21. Empower qualified spokespersons to offer solutions and resolutions
22. Seek the approval of customers and partners before spotlighting their case studies
23. Take the time to interpret the context of a situation before jumping in with a response
24. What you share can and will be used against you - The internet as a long memory
25. When in doubt, ask for guidance