Have you written social media guidelines for your staff to abide by?
Like it or not social media is a huge part of our lives now and 30% of our time spent online is spent using some sort of social media and this figure can surely only rise. As such it is important to let your staff know what is expected of them whilst using social media in order to protect your brand and customers perception of your business.
It’s probably a good idea to keep an eye on what staff are posting online particularly when it comes to issues that may affect or relate the workplace. One misplaced tweet or inappropriate hashtag could carry hefty consequences for the reputation of your business. To monitor your business’ presence online , you can search your company name on social media and this will highlight points in time where your business has been mentioned. You could also explore hashtags that relate to your business, like #payroll.
If you are to introduce a social media policy you may be wondering what to include in your guidelines. They should cover what standard of behaviour is expected when using personal accounts and you might also like to include guidelines for overall conduct and general online etiquette. Other points to put in may be how to talk about specific products and perhaps how to deal with any negative comments towards your business.
There should be something in your policy regarding accountability for comments and content and ensure that business assets remain confidential. In terms of accountability it may be an idea for staff to put a disclaimer along the lines of, “any views or opinion are my own…” on their social media pages. The policy should also clearly state what any disciplinary procedures that a breach of the policy may lead to.
While it is important to ensure control is kept over social media it is important to remember that social media can be a powerful tool. You can reach a whole manner of different people and attract business from global sources, after all you are using the World Wide Web.
