Is your company trying to decide what kind of social media policy to follow? You’re not alone.

As companies harness the power of social media, it’s important to have a policy in place to support and protect the integrity and reputation of the company.

So here are some tips to incorporate in your social media policy.

Build a team.

Having a team that handles your company’s social media strategy is important. It cannot be done by one person alone. With a proper team in place, it will be easier to make sure risky areas and topics are managed properly. In addition to staff members, other team members you should include on your team can include the CEO, HR director, IT director, marketing director, and maybe a lawyer specializing in social media.

Create a culture.

Creating a culture around your social media policy facilitates idea sharing, problem-solving, and creativity. Social media is ever-changing, so your policy needs to be ready for changes. This takes proper training, frequent meetings, addressing problems and challenges that arise. So when writing your policy, foster an environment and culture of learning and evaluation, acknowledging your policy values consistency, transparency, and emphasizing training, support, and evaluation.

Consider legalities.

This is where a social media lawyer comes in handy. Because social media takes place online, there are different protections for employees. Communicate policies and policy changes to your lawyer ensuring there won’t be any repercussions from employees.

Have two policies.

To help with the legality end of things, create two policies — one for when employees are at work and one for when they’re not at work. The job-related policy should cover things like job-related activities, roles, and responsibilities, branding guidelines, and should be clear on what policies should be complied with and when.

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The second policy should focus on the expectations of employees when they use social media in their personal lives. It should be clear on what employees are and are not allowed to say about your company on their personal sites. Typically forbidden items include client information, trade secrets, and more. Consult with your lawyer while writing this bit of your policy.

Focus on the big picture.

As said before, the social media landscape changes daily. Don’t focus your policy on only one social media outlet, like Facebook, because they’ll eventually be out of date. Stay focused on the bigger picture by deciding the roles and responsibilities in the policy, a general overview of what can and cannot be done, and why the company has the social media policy. This helps your team stay on track, no matter what social media platform is addressed.

Provide training.

Set up training sessions once your new social media policy is established. Give them the guidelines, and reinforce Internet safety practices for good measure. This helps prevent social media mishaps and protects your company’s online reputation.

Keep it relevant.

Review the policy often, about every six months or so should work. Ask if each item is still relevant? Does it help us do our jobs? Have any legal issues changed? Has the social media environment changed? Keeping your policy relevant helps your company’s online reputation ensuring your company doesn’t hit legal problems.

 

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Ronn Torossian is the Founder & Chairman of 5W Public Relations, one of the largest independently owned PR firms in the United States. Since founding 5WPR in 2003, he has led the company's growth and vision, with the agency earning accolades including being named a Top 50 Global PR Agency by PRovoke Media, a top three NYC PR agency by O'Dwyers, one of Inc. Magazine's Best Workplaces and being awarded multiple American Business Awards, including a Stevie Award for PR Agency of the Year. With over 25 years of experience crafting and executing powerful narratives, Torossian is one of America's most prolific and well-respected public relations executives. Throughout his career he has advised leading and high-growth businesses, organizations, leaders and boards across corporate, technology and consumer industries. Torossian is known as one of the country's foremost experts on crisis communications. He has lectured on crisis PR at Harvard Business School, appears regularly in the media and has authored two editions of his book, "For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results With Game-Changing Public Relations," which is an industry best-seller. Torossian's strategic, resourceful approach has been recognized with numerous awards including being named the Stevie American Business Awards Entrepreneur of the Year, the American Business Awards PR Executive of the Year, twice over, an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year semi-finalist, a Top Crisis Communications Professional by Business Insider, Metropolitan Magazine's Most Influential New Yorker, and a recipient of Crain's New York Most Notable in Marketing & PR. Outside of 5W, Torossian serves as a business advisor to and investor in multiple early stage businesses across the media, B2B and B2C landscape. Torossian is the proud father of two daughters. He is an active member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and a board member of multiple not for profit organizations.