Social Media Policies

These days, a company’s corporate secrets can be stolen by spy agencies through social networking sites if these spies win employees’ trust over the Internet. As a result, Porsche’s headquarter prohibits its employees from accessing Facebook and other social networking sites with the company’s computers. I believe in today’s business world, almost every company has a Facebook page --- Porsche itself also has one. Even though Porsche’s policy does not apply to its North American locations, this case reminds me the importance of establishing a social media policy for businesses.

Here, I would like to emphasize that no matter if a company chooses to get actively involved in social media or not, very likely, it already has an “image” in social media. People share information of almost everything on Facebook, which has become the No. 1 visited website in the U.S. and is the website on which Americans spend the most time. Actually, we have briefly discussed a company’s social media policy and cell phone policy before. However, it is necessary that we revisit this topic.

If you agree with me on the importance of setting up a social media policy for businesses and you are planning to create one, you may refer to Inc.com’s detailed recommendations on how to write a social media policy. In my opinions, a good social media policy needs to answer the following questions: What social media tools does a company use? Who should and should not have the access to these tools? Under what conditions may employees access social networking sites? What information can be shared and what cannot? How does this social media policy agree with a company’s existing regulations (i.e. copyright, cell phone, privacy, and other policies)? How does a company implement a social media policy? What are the results if an employee violates the policy?

If your company has already established a social media policy, what is it? Any suggestions you want to share?

References:
USANews.com: http://tinyurl.com/linchikwok10132010
Picture was downloaded from http://syracuse.porschedealer.com/

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