Your social media policy should be as short and encouraging as possible.
SOCIAL MEDIA RISK MANAGEMENT
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29 JUNE
08:30 – 11:30AM
Policy overkill
As someone who has advised a few companies on how to write their social media policies, I am often given first drafts that run into twenty or thirty pages. These are the combined work of legal teams and various communications departments, aiming to tick all possible boxes and foresee all possible eventualities.
They are unusable documents and a waste of everyone’s time.
Simple rules
It is of course the job of legal departments to protect a company from any kind of legal risk and uncertainty. But legal has never been tasked with motivating your people to deliver their best work in a creative manner.
A social media policy should not be seen and positioned as a legal document, but rather as an opportunity to inspire your employees to go do some great work.
It should of course include some simple rules and clear guidance on what kind of content or activity that will not be tolerated, but the bulk of the two- or three-page document should consist of illustrations of possibilities for growth and the accompanying responsibilities.
Power with responsibility
By focusing a social media policy on what to do, as opposed what not to do, you are encouraging responsible but powerful creative behaviour.
The opposite leads to insecure, fumbling thinking and a work culture dominated by fear and group-think.
An encouraging social media policy, or any policy, should allow your employees the room to grow with the task and the space to think for themselves what would be a desirable outcome.
Only by encouraging personal initiative will you discover and put to work the powerful potential that lies embedded in social media tools.
The three-part policy
I would recommend building a social media policy around a three part structure:
- Why the need for a policy?
Describe in simple language why there is a need for a policy – that the main purpose is to teach and encourage responsible behaviour - Principles and hints and tips for creative use of social media
List the key principles and the best tips for how to unleash creative but highly responsible use of social media - Content and type of activity never accepted
Finally list a short but wide-ranging list of the types of content and social media behaviour that will not be accepted.
Keep it short
A short social media policy will immediately highlight the company’s encouraging take on social media, at the same time as it is very clear about what will not be accepted. What you will have are:
- Clear calls to action
- Simple boundaries
The short policy is also easy to summarise in talks and presentations, as well as it is easily posted and read where and when needed.
You could sum it up as simple as this: do good and avoid harm.
But whatever you do, please at least avoid setting up an ‘us (management) against them (employees)’ document, as some commentators implicitly recommend.
That will only hurt all of you in the long run.
Want to find out more about social media risk management? Make sure you sign up to the DSMLF meeting on 29th June and join your peers for a lively debate on the matter.