Creating a Social Media Policy

Now that more and more companies are adopting social media for their communications needs, they are also coming to the realization that their employees are using social media for personal use. This realization has led many companies and will lead many more to construct social media policies and guidelines.

There are a number of questions companies should ask when building a social media policy:

• What is your company trying to achieve through social media?
• How much internal manpower and resources are available for social media needs?
• What legal restrictions are there regarding messaging?
• Are there social media advocates present in your employee base already?
• What content will you be producing?
• Where are your target audiences most prevalent?
  

Most companies I have spoken with are quick to go the conservative route. They create policies that say employees can't use social media to talk about work and can't use social media during work hours.

Before you fall in line with the conservative mindset, I would urge you to consider the power of your employee base. Your employees present an army of company advocates that can spread messaging in a rapid fashion. Each employee has their own personality; therefore they will have their own network of social media friends on varying platforms with which to promote your company's initiatives.