Social media today is different than it was 10 years ago.
Increasing usage, increased awareness and other signs of platform success also mean brands are taking higher risks when using these channels. A social media policy is no longer a “bonus.”
A well-crafted social media policy uses clearly defined rules and best practices to guide employees and those who visit your brand’s profiles to use social media platforms effectively and appropriately.
Everyone involved in the brand's public image needs to have a clear understanding of what is expected of them.
Policies help you understand how to act in a way that aligns with your brand’s values, mission, and goals, and moves your company forward.
It also allows you to better avoid security breaches, legal issues, reputational damage, and PR crises.
Launch of social media policy
Before creating a comprehensive social media policy, you need to understand that it’s impossible to prepare for every possibility.
However, talking to others in your organization can help you take into account needs and issues that you might not have considered otherwise.
For example, customer service teams understand how their audience perceives the brand, how they use social media, and what they want from the brand’s channels.
IT teams know what is available to manage channel security and how to manage security issues.
Therefore, you should assemble a social media policy team. Not everyone needs to have a say in every element of the policy, but representatives should be able to offer input and ideas.
Your social media policy team should include representatives from:
- Human resources department.
- leadership.
- customer service.
- Social media team.
- Employees from other teams.
- Design team.
- IT or website administration teams.
- A brand advocate or spokesperson.
- Marketing team.
- Loyal customers.
Once you have your team in place, you can start creating a social media policy for your brand.
7 steps to creating an effective social media policy
The actual writing is completed in seven steps, followed by four steps for implementation, but keep in mind that the last four steps are just as important as the first seven.
Omitting even one step — failing to implement, update, or enforce your policy — could mean your social media policy fails to guide your team and protect your brand.
We have provided some explanations to help you craft your policy.
You can also find a downloadable PDF here that includes a list of questions to ask at each step to get started.
1. Scope and Objectives
The first step to creating an effective social media policy is to understand why you’re creating the document in the first place.
Making the purpose of the document clear to everyone will increase policy usage and make it easier for team members to understand who should use the policy and when.
While social media policies generally cover all social interactions and platforms, such as company blog comments and social platforms, listing these locations specifically will reduce confusion and serve as a documented list of platforms that are approved and owned by your brand and that employees and team members can use.
Determine what situations should be covered by insurance and who should be covered. Identify what situations will be covered and what will not.
2. Identify risks
There are many risks associated with using social media, and many specific risks (including risks that brands may not be aware of) are unique to each individual.
For example, if you're in the financial industry, you may need to comply with FCC and other rules and regulations, and if you're in the healthcare industry, you may need to comply with HIPAA and other laws and guidelines.
Apart from that, you will also face standard risks such as PR crises, security risks, and intellectual property infringement.
To determine what to include in your social media policy, list as many common risks as possible.
3. Cover the basics
With your list of risks in mind, begin to outline the various processes and guidelines for your team members to follow.
Outline what content can and can't be shared through your company's accounts. Determine who can access these accounts and what security features you need to put in place.
Decide whether to allow comments on all updates, what is and isn't allowed in comments, and how to handle deleted comments or posts.
Develop a process for granting and revoking access to your account.
Also, determine the rules and guidelines that employees and others must follow when sharing brand-related content (or otherwise revealing an affiliation with your company).
4. Define who is responsible
Often times, errors happen or problems get avoided not because employees don't know how to deal with them, but because they don't know who is responsible or what process the company should follow.
For example, determine who will be responsible for monitoring, listening, responding and managing your social media profiles, promotions and paid advertising.
Determine and outline the approval process, reporting mechanism or system, posting limits, and other details.
Also, don’t forget to consider processes outside of your regular social media processes, like what happens if someone goes on vacation or who is responsible for social media training.
5. Address legal considerations and regulations
It's unclear whether they will be regulated by industry regulators such as the FCC, but they will certainly have to comply with data privacy laws, intellectual property rules, and advertising regulations.
Your social media policy should outline the general ideas of these rules and what people who use social media need to know.
NoteSome of these rules may seem obvious to you, but they may not be obvious to everyone.
Don't leave out anything important. Provide more comprehensive documentation (written in plain language and easy to use when you're in a hurry).
6. Voice and Style
Branding is a delicate thing, so be sure to detail the voice and style your company's channels should have so your updates and content stay consistent.
Provide your users with plenty of examples of acceptable and unacceptable updates, and you can also include links to official style guides.
Finally, make sure the purpose of your social media channels is clear: does your brand respond to audience inquiries or provide customer service through social media?
7. Crisis Response
No matter how careful and prepared you are, the worst case scenario is inevitable. A crisis will happen eventually, so you need to be prepared.
What happens if I violate advertising or intellectual property rules?
What happens if a PR disaster occurs or other rules, regulations, laws or guidelines are violated?
You should also have a clear process to follow if an account or user is compromised. Include links and email addresses to support each network so they can be contacted immediately.
You also need to consider PR issues outside of social media.
For example, if a tragedy occurs, how will you communicate with vendors, customers, and the public? Who will be responsible for crafting that message and who should approve it?
Social Media Policy in Action
This process doesn’t end with the final draft of your social media policy.
Even the best social media policy is useless if it isn’t implemented, used, maintained and enforced.
8. Implementation of Social Media Policy
If you want your employees and team members to adhere to your social media policy, it needs to be easily available and available for distribution to everyone.
Send it out via email, announce it through internal company channels, and provide a video to explain the details of the document. Make sure everyone knows the document is complete and available.
Store it somewhere that is easily accessible to others, and also add it to your onboarding package and provide it to anyone who may communicate on your brand’s behalf or promote it.
(You can also create an external version for customers, target audiences, or other external parties.)
9. Resources and Assets
One of the easiest and most effective ways to encourage employees to share company news and information while avoiding issues is to make approved assets available.
Provide everyone with logos, approved images, discount codes, and other resources in one easily accessible place.
To make it even easier for employees to share updates, consider having an internal communications channel to keep everyone informed of news, newly published information, and new assets.
10. Maintaining a Social Media Policy
Social media and your customers' needs change rapidly. While your social media policy doesn't need to be updated daily or weekly, it does need to be updated regularly.
Being outdated can do more harm than good.
For example, imagine you have outdated security protocols in place when one of your accounts gets compromised.
Set a schedule to ensure your social media policy is updated. This is also a great opportunity to remind everyone of the document and refresh their understanding of its processes and guidelines.
11. Use a social media policy
An effective social media policy starts with proper training.
Not every employee needs to understand the entire process, but everyone should have a basic understanding of the guidelines in the policy and how it applies to them.
Finally, make sure the policies you've invested time and effort into creating are enforced.
Schedule regular searches and audits to ensure compliance, and take appropriate action if there are any non-compliance with the guidelines.
Conclusion
A social media policy requires upfront investment and time, but it’s essential in today’s world.
This simple policy document will help prevent and prepare for a crisis, as well as provide your brand with the resources and knowledge it needs to deal with issues when they arise.
Done well, this will help encourage employees to promote your brand on social media by helping them understand what is and isn’t allowed.
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