In today’s hyper-connected world, what your employees say at 9PM on their personal social media profiles is just as important, and probably more visible, as what they say at 9AM in the office.
Given this, it’s important for employees to have a set of social media guidelines explaining what is and isn’t appropriate to share on their social media accounts.
Of course, you want them to be free and able to express themselves online, but you don’t want their posts to implicate the company and potentially damage our brand.
Contents
Why Do You Need a Set of Social Media Guidelines for Employees?
What Should Employees Not Post on Social Media?
Recommendations for Encouraging Employee Advocacy
How to Conduct Yourself Online
Why Do You Need a Set of Social Media Guidelines for Employees?
It's important to make employees aware that, if they are posting publicly, their words, videos, or images can get back to their employer. Depending on the content of the post, this can lead to disciplinary action or, in extreme cases, termination, so it's prudent to think before you post.
This is especially crucial if posting on LinkedIn, where professional connections are made and companies build networks of high profile voices who can get the word out about their company. But if journalists, prospective employees, fellow CEOs, or competitors notice a trend of inappropriate, crude, disrespectful, or even incriminating content coming from employees, they may think twice about partnering or featuring you in an article.
Read more about LinkedIn management, turning your employees into LinkedIn superstars, and employee advocacy
Having social media guidelines for employees will help you:
Protect reputation
We’ve seen it before. An employee reveals inside information (whether intentionally or unintentionally) or is disparaging toward a customer on their own social media account and it naturally creates an uncomfortable and high-stakes issue for the employer. Sometimes even a message posted with good intentions, such as an employee brand ambassador defending their company during a crisis, can have negative implications for the brand.
Take this scenario: a company is involved in a scandal and has yet to comment, but an employee has taken to Twitter to respond to the scandal. This can look like an official response and won’t necessarily fit with the message the PR team wishes to relay, but it could easily be mistaken for a company-sanctioned response.
Tip: Learn how to manage a social media crisis
Sets standards
By setting guidelines, our employees can be held accountable for their social media activity. They will know exactly what is appropriate and what isn’t, and they'll know the proper way to refer to various products or announcements. This way they can continue to post and contribute authentic content that elevates and promotes our brand, without jeopardizing its reputation or their careers.
Top tip: Prevent a crisis from developing over what an employee has said online by using a social listening tool to track brand mentions. If you can spot a potential brand-damaging mention by an employee or member of the public you can take steps to rectify it before it gains more life. Learn more in the Ultimate Guide to Social Listening.
What Should Employees Not Post on Social Media?
Here are a few examples of the types of things employees should not share on social media. This will of course vary between companies.
- Sales figures that haven’t been published externally
- Unreleased product information
- Technical information about how products are made
- Client information
- Proprietary information such as quarterly reviews
Remember to be very specific in your social media guidelines about what they should not share. This way there’s no room for confusion. See an Employee Social Media Guidelines Template
Recommendations for Encouraging Employees Advocacy
Despite the potential issues we've cautioned against above, it is actually very good practice to involve your employees as brand ambassadors to spread positive news stories, boost executive social media posts, and generate excitement around product launches or new hires. Employees are great brand ambassadors and their personalities can help display your brand authenticity.
Tips:
- Create a hashtag for employees to use when posting content that references your company. This will also make it easier to track these brand mentions with hashtag analytics.
- Announce content you'd like employees help to boost, using an internal messaging system like Slack, or through an internal newsletter. These could be things like job ads, press releases, social media competitions, awards and more.
- Create an incentive program to encourage your staff to become powerhouse brand ambassadors for your company.
How to Conduct Yourself Online
Even when employees are not openly discussing your company, they can still create negative sentiment for you. Potentially offensive opinions can cause issues that impact your reputation, so think about whether employees should have a disclaimer in their social media bios:
Also, create a set of rules of do’s and don’ts for general conduct online.
A few rules we would recommend:
1) Do think before you post.
2) Do check with your managers and / or legal team if you are in any way unsure about the content of a post
3) Do make it clear you work for the company if your post mentions them in any way
4) Don’t post fake reviews about your product or brand
5) Don’t post abusive content
6) Don’t post misleading claims about your brand
How to present social media guidelines
Once your employee social media guidelines have been approved, you need to figure out how to present them. Here are a few ideas:
Video
A video is a quick and easy way to inform employees of important news and rules.
Infographic
Present your rules in a visually appealing way to help employee ambassadors to quickly get the gist. Infographics are also easy to display around an office.
Source: The Steel Method
Newsletter
Sending an internal newsletter is a great way to curate and communicate team news and achievements that you'd like to amplify on social media using employee brand ambassadors, and it provides a quick and direct way to remind employees of the social media guidelines before doing so.
PDF document
You can also send a PDF with all the guidelines to employees via email. The other option would be to update your Employee Handbook and send it as a PDF for employees to keep handy.
It might be a good idea to use a video as well as a written document for maximum impact and visibility across your organization.
Want to learn more about how Meltwater can elevate your social media marketing workflow? Complete the form below and we’ll be in touch!
