Do I need a social media policy?

You may be wondering how to strike the balance between giving your team the freedom to make the most of new social media whilst still retaining an appropriate degree of control. The potential benefits may be obvious but there are plenty of horror stories about dodgy posts on Facebook to give pause for thought. The newly published Online Database of Social Media Policies is a great way to learn from other organisations that are grappling with this dilemma.

Some larger organisations are still in lock-down mode, denying even the most senior staff access to Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. At the other extreme are small consultancies where the people blogging ARE the business. it's natural for them to be presenting a public face and it's 100% authentic so it doesn't need any rules.

Somewhere in between is the sort of organisation that needs a set of guidelines, both to encourage staff to get the most from social media and to clearly identify the expectations when they're using it.

The social media governance database lets you see how other organisations manage this balance. As well as practical examples to help your own thinking it also provides a glimpse of different cultures at work. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for example, reminds staff that their sources are not their friends...

The BBC has an online document running to several pages, including guidance for bloggers which explains that if they are is contacted by the press about posts on their blog that relate to the BBC they should "talk to their line manager before responding. The relevant BBC press office must be consulted."

I guess it would be odd for a media organisation to be anti-blogging, so this seems to be pragmatic, but also demonstrates that the organisation controls the message, not the individual.

Contrast this with the one pager from the Headset Brothers, online retailers of electronic goods whose guidelines apply to a small number of people and are brief and to the point.

It opens with: "Sign up for any and every social media service to reserve our name (headsetbros). Identity theft is easy. Don't let it happen to us." And a few lines later it closes with "Word of mouth is extremely important to us. If you can make the experience better than expected, do it." It would be hard for an employee to claim they didn't understand what they were expected to do.

Somewhere in the mix may be something to suit your organisation. There is little to distinguish commerical and not for profit organisations but maybe they're the same size as you, or have a similar culture.

I haven't looked at them all but as a starting point I'd check out Sun Microsystems Guidelines on Public Discourse I like the fact that it is less about the specific sites and more about the potential value of maintaining conversations with people outside the organisation - although maybe change the name?.

There is a lot to be won and lost as social media networks become key channels of communications for you and your customers. These policies show the different ways that organistaions are trying to harness the good stuff and avoid the bad stuff.

Online Database of Social Media Policies.