Every organisation should have a Social Media Policy. Does yours? If not, we’ve got a great Social Media Policy Template that you can use.
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Whilst social media has proven to be a very effective marketing and communications tool, it is a ‘double edged sword’ and presents some unique challenges for organisations. Social media puts publishing power in the hands of the individual. Comments published online cannot easily be retracted from the public domain, potentially resulting in negative consequences relating to brand reputation, privacy, security or confidentiality. Accordingly, it is appropriate for organisations to put in place a set of guidelines for the use of social media by their personnel.
For clarity, the intent of a Social Media Policy should not be to discourage the use of social media by your business units or staff. The intent should be to establish a set of rules, to achieve a degree of control, and to ensure that your organisation’s social media activities are integrated and complementary.
I have written a couple of Social Media Policy documents for organisations and I thought I’d make my standard template available to you in case you need to write one for your own organisation.
Social Media Policy Template
The Social Media Policy Template is ten pages long and addresses three areas of social media usage by your organisation’s staff:
- Personal Use. This section of the policy provides guidance to individuals who use social media for personal reasons, where that activity does not pertain to their work at your organisation.
- Professional Use. This section of the policy provides guidance to individuals who use social media (or any other electronic publishing means) in a professional capacity, and where the individual’s connection to your organisation can be identified or inferred.
- Official Use. This section of the policy provides guidance to individuals who are responsible for publishing social media content and managing online communities via your organisation’s official social channels. This section also provides advice to business units that currently operate, or propose to establish, their own niche social media channels.
You’ll obviously need to tailor the template for your organisation’s unique circumstances, but I hope that the template contains much of the detail that you will require to deliver a quality Social Media Policy.