What is good social media policy?
The other day, a client and I decided to do some research to see what kind of social media policies similar organizations had. What we ended up finding looked really thin, a brief description of what social media was and that it was only to be used on break. There was no focus in the policy on how the organizations would actually engage and use social media, and the type of organization I was developing the policy for definitely needed more than just a brief descriptor of what social media is and when employees could use it.
Good social media policy defines not only what social media is or when employees may or may not use social media. It defines how the company will use social media, what sites the company will be on and who has the authority to post information related to the organization, as well as handle positive and negative commentary.
The reason a good social media policy focuses on all of these details is because they are essential to understand, in order to successfully integrate social media into the rest of the marketing and outreach efforts the company engages in. Good social media policy asks who is responsible for what message and defines how social media will be used and what forms of it will be used. Without that kind of clarity, a social media policy doesn’t begin to effectively address where social media fits into the marketing strategy of a business. A good policy allows a business to begin allocating resources and personnel for their social media effort, while channeling that effort into productive outcomes that generate more traffic and leads for the business.
It will become more important for businesses to develop a social media policy that isn’t something you would find in an employee handbook. While what’s in an employee handbook is useful, businesses need a more sophisticated outlook and awareness of social media and how it fits into their overall plans and goals.
