Here’s the roundup along with some of the main points.

7 Essentials of a Social Media Policy That’s Actually Useful

1. Identify the Purpose
2. Sync with Established Corporate Principles
3. Get Approval from Legal, IT, HR and the Executive Team
4. Write in Plain English
5. Conform to Your Company Culture
6. Make it as Brief as Possible
7. Direct Employees to More Information

Now, what specific sections should you include in a company social media policy?

Part 1: Individual Responsibility and Liability

Remind employees to use their best judgment, and that they are individually responsible for what they choose to publish and how they choose to interact with others online.

Part 2: Company Representation and Handling the Media

If the separation of a personal and professional online presence is important for your industry, state your company’s stance and encourage employees to interact accordingly. Encourage employees to use a disclaimer about their shared thoughts not representing those of their employer, and direct them an internal, official spokesperson who can handle media inquiries if employees happen to be contacted directly.

Part 3: Respecting Others

This section reminds employees to always be respectful to others on social media channels, especially when communicating with coworkers, talking about competitors, or conversing with existing or potential customers.

Part 4: Confidential and Private Information

Remind employees what company information is private versus public, but collaborate with your legal team to help you be specific in your definition. In the U.S., any prohibited discussion must make exceptions for activities protected under Section 7 of the NLRA.

Part 5: Copyright and Fair Use Laws

This section of a social media policy reminds employees to obtain the proper permissions and give credit where credit is due when sharing another party’s content. This can be as detailed as directing employees to more information on obtaining usage rights, or to Flickr’s Creative Commons search or Google’s Advanced Search for content that can be repurposed or modified.

Part 6: Industry-Specific Considerations

Depending on your company or industry, you may have specific legal or regulatory obligations that have to be translated into terms that apply to social media use.

For example, compliance, record-keeping and security are critical for the finance industry, so financial institutions typically have a section of their social media policy dedicated to informing employees how to abide by the FINRA rules governing communications with the public in social media.

Once you have a social media policy in place, how do you encourage its adoption by the whole company?

5 Tips to Ensure Employees Adhere to Your Social Media Policy

1. Incorporate it into Employee Training
2. Make it Accessible
3. Repackage and Remind
4. Revise as Needed
5. Regularly Review Employee Accounts for Compliance

For more information, download The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

We hope you found this series helpful. Comments or questions? Fire away below.

The post How to Craft an Effective Social Media Policy (Roundup) appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

Here are a few tips to help make your social media policy a successful one:

1. Incorporate it into Employee Training

The policy isn’t effective until understood by all employees, and that comes with training. To minimize unanswered questions, use specific examples to illustrate do’s and don’ts. Addressing what is acceptable is just as important as demonstrating what’s not going to fly.

2. Make it Accessible

Post the social media policy to the company intranet or social network, save it to the desktop of company-issued computers, or place it on your organization’s shared drive. You want the policy to be easily found when an employee’s in doubt. In the interests of transparency and accountability, consider sharing it externally by placing it on your website.

3. Repackage and Remind

Repackaging written excerpts into bite-sized tips, internal blog posts, short videos, or regular email reminders can keep the social media policy top of mind. The social media team at Salesforce used video and presentation slides to make the social media policy more interactive, accessible and shareable.

Humor’s not a bad idea either. To remind our employees how to be respectful, our Director of Community and Social Strategy, David B. Thomas, wrote a few fictional tweets and posted them to Chatter, our internal social network.

No: @BigAirline You’ve stranded me again! Why do I keep flying with you?! Never again!

Yes: @BigAirline I’m stuck in Tuba City and need to get to Pflugerville. Anything you can do to help?

No: @BigRetailer The idiots in your Poughkeepsie store can’t fix my flange arrestor. I want my money back!

Yes: @BigRetailer My flange arrestor is decombining at 25Mhz. Any suggestions or online resources?

No: @BigCPGBrand I can’t believe I paid $42 for an electric kazoo and it doesn’t have a spit valve! What a ripoff!

Yes: @BigCPGBrand You know what would make the XR50 Electric Kazoo perfect? A spit valve. #thingsthatneedspitvalves

4. Revise as Needed

Business goals and processes can change. So does the popularity and functionality of social networks. Your policies should adapt to ensure they continue to cover all the bases.

5. Regularly Review Employee Accounts for Compliance

Have the social media team in your company keep their eyes and ears on the way employees are talking about your company online using social media monitoring software, and ensure someone is responsible for occasionally auditing the way company information is listed on employee social network accounts.

Once you have your social media policy written and adopted, everyone across the company can stop worrying about accidentally embarrassing the company, and instead feel the freedom to explore the wonderful world of social media.

Did you miss previous posts from our series on creating a successful social media policy? Find all the info you need in our recent ebook, The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

The post 5 Tips to Ensure Employees Adhere to Your Social Media Policy appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

This is the sixth and final chapter of our latest ebook, 

Each industry may have specific legal or regulatory obligations that have to translate for social media use you might have to include in your policy.

To illustrate:

• Expressing impartiality toward political and religious parties is of utmost importance for some news publications.
• Protecting patient information in social media is vital for the healthcare providers.
• Compliance, record-keeping and security are critical for the finance industry.
• Automakers are required to disclose certain consumer safety information under the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation (TREAD) Act.

How the Affinity Health System words it:

Remember, disclosing confidential patient Protected Health Information (PHI) in an inappropriate manner is a federal offense.  The penalties include significant fines and/or arrest.  Ministry employees should never publicly make comments about the care of a specific patient, especially online.  Even acknowledging the care of a patient is an unacceptable disclosure of PHI.

How the BBC words it:

Impartiality is a particular concern for those working in News and Current Affairs. Nothing should appear on their personal blogs or microblogs which undermines the integrity or impartiality of the BBC. For example, News and Current Affairs staff should not:

• advocate support for a particular political party;
• express views for or against any policy which is a matter of current party political debate;
• advocate any particular position on an issue of current public controversy or debate.

Stay tuned for the our last post in this series — tips to make sure your social media policy actually gets adhered to. Or, jump ahead by downloading The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

The post Crafting a Social Media Policy Part 6: Industry-Specific Considerations appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

This is the fifth chapter of our latest ebook, 

Remind employees that using any images, video, music, or documents found on the Internet, make sure you’ve looked for and understand the copyrights on that piece of work. Look for images that are under a Creative Commons license, purchase stock photos with limited use rights, or request permission from the copyright holder.

It’s additionally important to understand the rights of online written content. Just because you found it on Google does not make it free. Using short excerpts of content with a link to the original piece is generally accepted, but it’s a good idea to get permission for long quotes or excerpts.

How Coca-Cola words it:

Give credit where credit is due and don’t violate others’ rights. DO NOT claim authorship of something that is not yours. If you are using another party’s content, make certain that they are credited for it in your post and that they approve of you utilizing their content. Do not use the copyrights, trademarks, publicity rights, or other rights of others without the necessary permissions of the rightsholder(s).

Respect of copyrights, trademarks, rights of publicity, and other third‐party rights in the online social media space, including with regard to user‐generated content (UGC). How exactly you do this may depend on your particular situation, so work with your cross‐functional teams to make informed, appropriate decisions.

Stay tuned for the rest of this series on creating an effective social media policy for your organization. Or, jump ahead by downloading The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

The post Crafting a Social Media Policy Part 5: Copyright and Fair Use Laws appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

This is the fourth chapter of our latest ebook, 

Include Privacy Reminders

In the words of social media strategist and author, Christopher Barger, your social media policy must include “a privacy reminder that the Internet is forever and that whatever gets posted is usually searchable and findable by someone, so employees should exercise discretion in what they post” (The Social Media Strategist, p 126, Kindle Edition).

To prevent potential lawsuits, set clear boundaries around what information is private versus public, and be specific in your definition. In the U.S., any prohibited discussion must make exceptions for activities protected under Section 7 of the NLRA.

Confidential or private information might include:

• Product releases and updates
• Acquisitions
• Internal financials and forecasts
• Proprietary product knowledge or trade secrets
• Private employee HR information
• Employee and customer contact information
• Ongoing legal cases

How Nordstrom words it:

Do not publish, post or release information that is considered confidential or not public. If it seems confidential, it probably is. Online “conversations” are never private! Do not discuss numbers and other sales figures (non-public financial or operational information), strategies and forecasts, legal issues or future promotions/activities. Do not post any merchandise pricing information or comparisons.

How Volvo words it:

Volvo Car Corporation’s relationship with our customers, employees and partners is our most important asset, and it is important that we always protect this relationship. You cannot cite or disclose customer names without their approval. Protect your fellow workers and our customers, dealers, and vendors by refraining from sharing any of their personal information, statements, or photographs unless you have their written permission to do so. Bringing someone else into the conversation without their permission can be destructive to relationships, cause misunderstanding, or violate the law (including privacy and defamation laws), commercial contracts, or confidentiality agreements.

Stay tuned for the rest of this series on creating an effective social media policy for your organization. Or, jump ahead by downloading The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

The post Crafting a Social Media Policy Part 4: Confidential and Private Information appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

This is the third chapter of our latest ebook, 

This section of the policy reminds employees to always be respectful to others on social media channels, especially when communicating with coworkers, talking about competitors, or conversing with existing or potential customers.

For safety reasons, discourage employees from sharing other’s personal information such as current location, schedules, and email addresses or phone numbers. Encourage employees to respect one another by requesting they ask each other permission before posting their picture or anything about them online.

Let employees know that it’s okay to disagree with other employees, but encourage them not to use their personal blogs or other social profiles to express their differences.

Include Prohibitions on Hate Speech and Ethnic Slurs

Hate speech is any communication that threatens, insults or ridicules any person or groups based on their race, religion, gender, disability, or other characteristic. It’s illegal in many countries, and can expose employers to criminal or civil penalties.

This section of the policy should strongly discourage employees from using such offensive language or initiating personal attacks.

However, a heavy-handed squashing of free speech can generate backlash as well, making your company appear overly controlling. Employees shouldn’t be forbidden from engaging in political, religious or social debate, as long as it’s conducted respectfully.

Clearly defining and prohibiting hate speech can prevent avoidable discrimination, damage to your brand’s reputation, and impaired customer relations.

How Salesforce words it:

Respecting others is addressed at 3:05 in this Salesforce social media policy video.

Stay tuned for the rest of this series on creating an effective social media policy for your organization. Or, jump ahead by downloading The Building Blocks of a Sound Social Media Policy.

The post Crafting a Social Media Policy Part 3: Respecting Others appeared first on Salesforce Marketing Cloud.

While you might have roles that are “officially” social media related, every person in your company is now a potential spokesperson. And if they’re active online in any way at all, you want to be prepared for those inevitable interactions with customers, as well as help people understand what’s acceptable, what’s encouraged, and what’s frowned upon when they’re engaging in social media on behalf of your company.

In addition to thorough and continuous training to immerse your teams in the culture and practice of the social web, having a clear set of guidelines can make things a heck of a lot easier. They don’t have to be complicated (many are less than a page), but they do have to touch on a few key areas.

I’m a fan of having a set of “policies” which are the more rules-y type items, and then a set of principles or guidelines that can help give your teams the spirit and flavor of your participation in social media. While policies by their nature tend to spell out the legal and procedural stuff, the guidelines can talk more about why social media matters to your organization, and all of the potential it holds to get people excited and motivated to participate.

Let’s have a look at the basic elements of social media policies and guidelines.

Policy

1. Expectations Realistically, you know you’re going to have people contributing to social media. What are your expectations for that, and what should employees keep in mind? This is a good time to point to your code of ethics or code of conduct as a company and reiterate the applicable bits around social media.

2. Disclosure Help your employees understand the importance of identifying themselves in social media, with something as simple as their name and company in blog signatures or their social network bios when they’re interacting on behalf of your company.

3. Required Training If completion of education or internal training is required in order to participate in social media on behalf of your organization, spell that out. Also, point employees to resources, a social media governance council, or other people and information that can help them do so properly.

4. Confidential and Proprietary Information It’s a good idea to remind folks what constitutes confidential or proprietary information inside your company, and that they’re not to share that via social networks or in public online forums at any time. This can be an extension of the policies you lay out in your employee handbook.

6. The Law As social media goes mainstream, you’ll see more things like the FTC’s Endorsement & Testimonial Guidelines cropping up, in addition to any communication regulations that affect your particular industry. Keep your employees informed about where they can find those, and how they might affect their participation in social media on behalf of the company.

7. Company Time Can employees blog, tweet, or use LinkedIn on their company time if they’re not part of an official social media team? How are you hoping that they’ll do so, and what are your caveats or conditions? Your employees are likely using social media during work hours anyway, so helping them understand what’s acceptable is a constructive, progressive way to keep everyone headed in the same direction.

8. Account Ownership If people have social media accounts when they join your company, they’re going to have a reasonable expectation that they still own those when they leave (much like their rolodex or personal email contact list). If there’s *any* gray area here with employees that tweet, blog, or have forum accounts that are for the purposes of representing your company in an official, branded capacity, it’s best to discuss that up front and determine how to transition, close, or amend those accounts should there be a separation of employment.

9. Escalation If someone runs into an issue, question, or confrontation that they can’t individually or personally handle, what’s the appropriate path for them to take? Is there a contact chart or other procedures they should follow to report that information or take it to another member of the team? Check out the Air Force’s flowchart that helps them assess their online responses.

10. Consequences Uncomfortable as it may be, articulate potential consequences for employees that violate your social media policy or guidelines so that, in the unfortunate event that you have to take disciplinary action for something, you’ve got that in writing somewhere.

Guidelines:

1. Purpose Give your employees an idea of why you as a company are participating in social media, and what your overall goals and expectations are for that participation. Giving everyone a shared sense of purpose can help them self-govern their participation, and know whether what they’re doing is aligned with your organization’s goals. Point out what your “official” company social media channels are and where people can find them, as well as what role they serve and what individuals or teams are behind them.

2. Your Social Media Voice Is your social media participation irreverent and fun, like Moosejaw? Are you helpful and friendly like JetBlue is on Twitter? Are you more official and conservative? Share with your employees the spirit and attitude behind your social media participation, and the personality that you’re hoping to portray as a company. That can help them find an individual voice that feels comfortable for them but that fits right in.

3. Taking Part If your employees are interested in social media but new to it, help them understand what good contribution and participation looks like. Do you have a team of “social media mentors” they can go to in order to learn about specific tools? If they’re interested in blogging for the company, where are your best posts, and how can they be considered for participation? Are there training courses or education classes provided, and where can they be found?

4. Response Guidelines Do you moderate comments? Do you respond to every mention, or just those that suit certain criteria? Do you treat Twitter differently than LinkedIn Groups or Facebook, and what are the basics of participating in each of those communities? Do you have guidelines for response times? These questions are usually more suited to your official teams and individuals responsible for social media engagement, but even sharing them with your employees at large can give them more and better information to guide their own participation.

5. Disagreements & Negative Commentary They happen. Whether it’s a grumpy person that’s having a bad customer service experience to one of the infamous “internet trolls” out to get a rise out of someone, educate your teams about what that looks like, and how you’re expecting them to respond. It’s one of the biggest fears of most social media participants, but one that can be handled well with some teaching and guidance.

6. Responsibility Explain to your employees about the potential of the web, but why that means that every individual is responsible for their part in creating a positive, constructive social media environment. Talk about everyone being a brand ambassador, and what you’re hoping each person can help your company do and be through their participation. Keep it positive, and full of potential while reminding them that they can and do play a pivotal role all on their own.

7. Idea Sharing If your employees are enthusiastic about social media, that’s a good thing. Give them forums and avenues to share their ideas, to contribute to something larger, and to feel as though they can make a positive contribution to your efforts. The more you help guide their participation and encourage their efforts, the more likely they’ll be to become a true asset to your social media endeavors.

Want some examples of social media guidelines? Dave Fleet (client) recently posted a list of 57 of the ones he’s found, and Social Media Governance has a long list of policies and guidelines from a number of different companies of all sizes and shapes.

So what would you add? Do you have policies for your organization, and what challenges are you having putting them in place? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.

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