What is a social media policy?

A social media policy is a code of conduct that sets rules and creates guidelines for how your employees must conduct themselves on social media, personally and professionally. The policy helps in creating principles of communication in the digital world. 

Apart from this, most of your employees may use various platforms, which adversely affects productivity and increases the risk of security and information breaches. 

An effective social media policy ensures employees are aware of the implications and repercussions of misusing social channels. A strong policy also gives your employees guidelines and instructions on posting content and responding to comments on different online platforms.

Related: Tips for Business Communication During the COVID-19 Crisis

Benefits of using a social media policy

Here are a few compelling reasons to craft social media policies for your employees:

• Safeguards brand reputation: an internal social media policy spells out what’s acceptable and what isn’t appropriate for social media, safeguarding your brand’s reputation.
• Assist in branding: a social media policy provides details on your company’s reputation that gives employees insights on language to use on social media. This helps employees reflect your brand values in their online behaviour.
• Protects sensitive information: using social media via the workplace network makes the network susceptible to malware attacks and sensitive information leakage. A social media policy guides your employees and restricts social media usage, which prevents mishaps.
• Sets expectations: this policy sets expectations for employees from induction. When your employees are aware of the guidelines, they will not post confidential information.
• Outlines what’s considered private information: a dynamic policy clearly outlines and defines what confidential information is. It helps employees understand the difference between public and private information.
• Increases employee satisfaction: when your company adequately documents information and crafts detailed policies, it results in employee satisfaction.

Related: Employee Satisfaction Surveys

Components of a social media policy for employees

Here are some of the components of a social media policy:

• Social media definition: clearly defines what constitutes social media for your company. It may be social media platforms, online videos, blogs, forums and other apps for communication.
• Personal account guidelines: set clear guidelines and define boundaries for the personal use of social media.
• Legal compliance: give details on safeguarding customer privacy, sensitive business information or legal compliance directed by your company.
• Response to outside posts: your employees may like to post comments on topics involving your company. This section guides your employees on how to respond to outside posts.

To create a dynamic social media policy, ensure it’s concise and to the point. Otherwise, employees may overlook it. For ensuring compliance with the social media policy, create a short policy for using social media for personal communication. This policy is different from the overall social media policy of your company. It helps employees scan through the dos and don’ts when using their personal social media accounts.

How to develop a social media policy

Here are a few steps to develop a dynamic social media policy for your employees:

1. Define the policy’s expectations

The first step involves establishing and defining your social media policy expectation. Clearly define what employees can and cannot do using their personal social accounts when talking about your company. Seek inputs from all stakeholders, including your legal team, HR department, PR team and employee representatives. For example, establish protocols on what an employee must do on encountering a negative comment or post about your company. Give guidelines on whether your employees are eligible to respond or they must report the incident to your marketing or PR team to take the necessary action.

2. Delegate roles

For example, you may report social media incidents and misconduct by fellow employees to a compliance officer. Or your IT specialist restricts and grants access to your company’s social media accounts. Provide contact information of every employee involved in managing the social media policy.

3. Establish security protocols

Establish a clear set of security protocols related to password sharing, using personal accounts during office hours, file sharing and protocols for using assets like laptops, computers, intranet and company-issued mobile phones.

4. Create a plan for dealing with conflicts

Conflicts escalate on social media, so you need an action plan for dealing with conflicts and social media crises. Conflicts arise when employees unknowingly share information about a product launch or a leaving employee posts derogatory comments about your company. Therefore, it’s essential to create a plan that clearly defines various social media crises, guidelines on how employees must respond and an approval process to manage the crisis.

5. Ensure compliance with laws

Consider reviewing official guidance related to privacy, copyright, and confidentiality to help align your policy with applicable requirements. 

6. Develop guidelines of personal use of social media

Set clear guidelines and expectation on using social media for their personal communication, primarily if your employees use company-issued assets. Give them details on how a single post can affect your company’s brand name.

7. Give employees some flexibility

Ensure your social media policy is not entirely restrictive, as it may prohibit employees from using social media effectively. Offer some flexibility and show support when they use social media for online communication.

8. Share the policy

Once you finalise the social media policy, share the policy with your employees via email and include it in your onboarding handbook. Upload it on your website where it’s easily accessible.

Sample template for social media policies

Use the following social media policy template as an inspiration for creating your policy:

[Date and Version]

Purpose

[Briefly describe the reason for implementing the policy and what the policy aims to achieve]

Definition

[Define what constitutes social media for your company]

Social media policy

The social media guidelines for employees of [company name] are:

• [Authorised users]
• [Content posting guidelines]
• [Editorial controls]
• [Personal use guidelines

Policy enforcement

[Disciplinary actions or consequences for violating the policy]

Social media policy example

Every company is different and so is their social media usage. There is no one-size-fits-all social media policy. Here is a policy example for your reference:

August 19, 2019

Version 5.2

Purpose

This social media policy aims to outline and establish guidelines for the social media usage of ABC Limited, employees, volunteers, stakeholders and affiliated groups. The policy clearly defines all rules that apply to personal and professional use of social media and disciplinary action for policy violation.

Definition

Social media includes all forms of open online publishing, discussion and communication, including but not limited to blogs, online videos, forums, open communication apps, user-generated audio and social networking platforms.

Social media policy

Social media guidelines for employees of ABC Ltd. are:

• Authorised users: ABC Ltd. manager must authorise all employees to engage in social media sites based on their work responsibility.
• Content posting guidelines: copyrighted, sensitive and confidential information requires approval and authorisation before publishing online. Employees must attribute this information. All content must conform to the privacy laws, must be respectful and maintain the brand’s voice.
• Editorial control: ABC Ltd. is authorised to remove a comment, post, blog or video that is offensive, illegal and doesn’t comply with the above rules. Removal of such information is done without prior intimation or warning to the original author.
• Personal use rules: the company doesn’t allow personal use of social media during office hours when working on the IT assets or intranet of ABC Ltd. Employees may use social media during their lunch break only on personal devices.

Policy enforcement

This example illustrates how organisations may describe potential outcomes if policy expectations are not met. This is for illustrative purposes only and may vary depending on internal procedures. The severity of the disciplinary action will vary based on the seriousness of the violation.

Effective Social Media Policies for Employees Templates for PDF & Word

Use these social media policy templates to show employees what’s acceptable and what’s not appropriate on social media.

For further information

If you have questions about social media policy or witness your team members misusing social media, please get in touch via email or phone at xyz@abc.com or +44 7911 123456. For further clarification, contact James Evans, HR Head, at +44 7912 123456 or HR@abc.com.

Related: How to Find Good Employees