Whether you love it or loathe it (or feel ambivalent about it), social media is now one of the most common ways we communicate with each other. As a form of communication, it is used by organisations as a marketing tool and by individual employees for both professional and personal reasons.
As a result, social media is a complex area for any company or organisation, as many organisations including the BBC have found, and it is essential to have a policy that provides guidelines and clarifies the company’s expectations of how it will be used.
Table of Contents
What is a Social Media Policy?
A corporate social media policy is an official company document that details how the company expects employees to use social media. A social media policy:
- usually applies to every single employee, including senior leadership
- covers brand channels used for marketing purposes and individuals’ professional and personal accounts
- forms part of the employee handbook and reading it should be part of the onboarding process
Why is it Important to have a Social Media Policy?
There are several benefits to having a social media policy, including:
- maintains the brand reputation and voice across different sites
- mitigates against risks such as legal issues, security breaches and reputational concerns
- ensures there is a plan of action for dealing with issues if they do arise
- clarifies expectations and responsibilities for all employees
- support diversity initiatives by clarifying appropriate language, reiterating what constitutes discrimination, demonstrating how to avoid stereotyping, providing examples of how to celebrate different voices and promote awareness
What to Include In a Social Media Policy
A good social media policy is a comprehensive document that takes time to put together. Senior stakeholders will need to be involved at the start of the process of writing the policy to decide what the company’s expectations are with regard to individual employee’s personal accounts.
The following headings are a social media policy template that you can adapt.
1. Purpose of the policy
- Clarify that the policy is to promote the responsible and effective use of social media and is designed to protect employees and the brand from potential risks.
- Include details on who the policy applies to and how often it will be updated.
- Explain that the policy refers to both professional and personal use, and what the company’s expectations are regarding personal use.
- Mention if there are local rules or regulations that are specific to the company.
- Reiterate security and confidentiality procedures.
2. Define Social Media
- Clarify what social media sites and activities the policy covers. For example TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter (X), LinkedIn and Instagram; and posting, commenting, sharing, liking, direct messaging and blogging.
- Consider including details on any differences in communication for different sites or activities. For example, some companies use a more relaxed form of communication for shorter-form sites.
- It can also be helpful to clarify what an online community is (for example, is a group on WhatsApp considered an online community where employees need to consider how they communicate?).
3. Guidelines for Professional Use
This section focusses on providing clear rules for employees who post on behalf of the company. It should cover:
- tone and language (brand voice)
- accuracy and not sharing confidential and proprietary information
- approval process
- copyright
- details of how employees should respond to customer communication, especially if they are dealing with complaints
- what to do if an employee comes across a news leak, confidential details, misinformation or any other content that they are worried about
- expectations around ‘social listening’ and how the company will keep track of what is being said and shared about the brand on all channels
4. Guidelines for Personal Use
This section focusses on clarifying the company’s social media guidelines for individual employees using their own online accounts. It should cover:
- the balance between an individual employee’s right to use social media for their private and family life and when they are representing the company they work for
- when employees need to be clear that they are expressing their own views and not those of the company
- appropriate language: no hate speech, profanity or anything that is discriminatory or harmful to the organisation’s reputation
- what counts as confidential information
- expectations around content in personal posts (for example, does the company expect employees to be grammatically correct and avoid slang in their personal posts?)
- guidelines for sharing or reposting content (for example, is there an expectation that employees check facts before sharing someone else’s post?)
5. Prohibited Activities
It is a good idea to spell out the actions that are not allowed and the relevant sanctions and disciplinary action that will be implemented if employees are found to be involved. This could include the following:
- sharing confidential or proprietary information
- posting defamatory, offensive or inappropriate content
- online behaviour that includes harassment, bullying, or discrimination
- spreading false information or misrepresenting the company
- copyright infringements
Details of how professional accounts will be monitored and if personal accounts will be regularly reviewed to check for breaches of the policy should be included here.
6. Security Protocols
While cyber security may be included in other policies, it is a good idea to outline the expectations around the safe use of online accounts in the social media policy. These may include:
- clarity over which department is responsible for the company’s social media accounts
- guidelines for creating effective passwords and how often to change them
- how to respond if you suspect there is a security issue on social media accounts
- activities to avoid online that may make accounts more open to hacking (for example, quizzes)
7. Legal Considerations
Including a specific section on legal considerations ensures that employees understand that there are legal ramifications to how they behave online. This section should include information on:
- laws related to discrimination and harassment
- data privacy
- copyright and intellectual property
8. Crisis Management
One of the key reasons for having a social media policy is to clarify what individual employees should do if a crisis arises on one or more of the accounts, including both brand and personal accounts. In this section of the policy, it is essential to:
- define what constitutes a crisis and when issues need to be reported
- clarify who to contact if an issue arises
- expectations around responding (or not) to negative comments
- provide details on how internal communications will be handled
Tips for Creating a Social Media Policy
To create a social media policy that is fit for purpose, we suggest using the following guidelines:
- engage key senior stakeholders as early as you can in the process to ensure you are clear on what the company’s expectations are and how these should be supported
- talk to IT or cyber security and the public relations teams to ensure you have the most up-to-date information for the policy
- consider working with social media consultants to help you with the crisis management element of the policy
- when launching or relaunching a social media policy, invest time in workshops with key employees to ensure everyone is engaged with the policy and what the company’s expectations are
- ensure the policy is easily accessible, written in Plain English and that line managers understand how important it is
- search online to find social media policy examples to get ideas of how other companies handle the issues of personal social media accounts
