As a society, we live online and social media is a constant presence in all our lives. It's where we connect with our loved ones, our peers, and our communities. 

The online community allows brands to connect with their customers like never before, but it has risks, too. 

Social media also has an influential presence in the workplace. For many, being active on social media is a core part of our professional success as, more and more, the lines between our social and professional lives intertwine. 

Your company's brand reputation and even trade secrets can be at risk in a world where every detail of our lives seems like fodder for our feeds. 

A social media policy is a must-have tool that helps guide your organization and protect your brand from these risks, as well as helping you maintain a positive brand image through things like employee advocacy. 

What is a social media policy?

In short, a social media policy is a set of guidelines for your employees that sets boundaries and rules for using social media. It defines how your company uses social media while also setting boundaries for employees' professional and personal use of social media. 

Your social media policy will set out rules for using social media, guidelines for security, and explain the consequences of violating the policy. 

Why is a social media policy important?

The ultimate goal of a social media policy is to protect your brand from reputational and legal risks. 

A social media policy defines both company use of social media and extends to your staff's personal social media use. That's because individual actions, like sharing a negative experience from work, can still impact your brand. 

Social media policies specific to employees' use of personal accounts are sometimes included in your company's code of conduct, while brand guidelines might live elsewhere in your employee handbook. 

A best practice is to merge these into one comprehensive social media policy that covers all company and staff personal use of social platforms. 

The internet is a fast-moving machine with a long memory, and even a seemingly mild social media faux pas can have lasting ramifications for your business. 

Protecting your brand’s reputation

If your brand is caught up in an online scandal, your business could face boycotts, loss of trust, and reputational damage. 

Online sentiment can shift quickly, and proactive policies help guide your employees and stakeholders to ensure your social media channels represent the brand values you hold dear. 

Legal risks posed by social media range from privacy laws to copyright infringements and almost anything in between. Social media posts have led to claims of racial or sexual discrimination being levied against organizations. Careless social media posts of images or company information can breach confidentiality and data protection laws. 

Regulations around the claims that medical, legal, and financial institutions can make in their public communications have tripped up companies, too. Your social media policy helps protect against these risks and ensure that your social channels remain compliant. 

It's wise to include legal counsel when you're drafting a social media policy to cover these risks. 

Preventing security risks and data breaches

Social media is a major avenue for hacking attempts — especially for employees who have single-sign-on access to corporate accounts or applications. Your corporate social media policy might require mitigation steps like two-factor authentication to help secure your data. 

Improving consistency in messaging

This one is especially true for staff members or contractors, including influencers, who have a public profile connected to your brand. By setting guidelines for their content on social media when they talk about your brand, you can craft a coherent and consistent public voice. 

Supporting employee advocacy responsibly

Just as your social media policy can help unify your organization's voice and perception, it can also help expand your reach and increase brand awareness. Social media is a great tool for promoting your brand, and your employees are natural advocates. 

A social media policy ensures responsible employee advocacy that promotes your company effectively without damaging your brand. 

Pro Tip

Brandwatch has partnered with Sociuu to provide an integration that makes it easy to implement employee advocacy alongside your social media management activities. 

What are social media guidelines?

Social media guidelines guide staff members and partners on how to represent themselves and the brand on social media platforms online. 

This includes a list of best practices as well as dos and don'ts for interacting online. 

What to include in a social media policy

A company social media policy should clearly define the following: 

  • Who the social media policy applies to and when
  • Why the policy is in place
  • What the overall goal of the policy is
  • How to comply with the policy
  • How the policy will be enforced 

You can use the sections listed below to form a social media policy template. 

Roles and responsibilities

The social media policy will highlight the roles and job responsibilities each staff member has when it comes to executing the company's social media strategy and content. 

This section of your policy should set out an approval process for content on social media and any relevant brand guidelines. 

In the case of personal use for employee advocacy or customer contact, it should clearly define any review process, approval process, and expectations for appropriate behavior when engaging online. 

Personal social media use vs. professional use

The line between personal and professional use of social media can be difficult to manage. 

For example, many marketers have strong personal relationships with colleagues and counterparts from stakeholder companies that require them to connect online. 

In industries like real estate or sales, an employee's personal social media account may be used for legitimate business use. In these cases, it can be tricky to navigate relationships between personal opinions and corporate image. 

Depending on your business, you may need to write separate sections that apply to different situations, for example: 

  • Social media guidelines for the brand accounts and pages 
  • Social media guidelines for employees or partners using personal social media to promote the brand 
  • Social media guidelines for personal social media account use 

A good social media policy will define appropriate personal use and help define the boundaries between company and personal uses.

Tone and voice

Social media guidelines will reflect your company's core values, and that includes defining the way you want your business to communicate its messages and interact with its target audiences. 

They will explain the online demeanor you expect from stakeholders. For example, using inclusive language, maintaining respect, and never participating in hate speech or discriminatory language. 

A social media policy should give examples of acceptable and unacceptable types of language. 

Brand representation

These guidelines will also reflect how you want your brand to be represented online. This will apply both to what your brand accounts publish and what employees post about your brand on personal channels.

For example, you might set rules for how your company name should be written and ask employees not to use abbreviations or modifications of that spelling. 

Add a social media style guide to your corporate social media policy that explains how employees are expected to represent the brand online. 

Content sharing

Content shared by the company page will need to align with your company's brand identity and values. That includes sharing from approved accounts, not sharing divisive material, and may even include setting rules against favoritism. In some cases, brands need to manage competing or difficult relationships with partners, vendors, and other sales channels. Your social media strategy will need to account for this. 

The content employees share on a personal account can affect the brand they work for, too. You might want to ask employees not to share speculative content from unofficial sources about future products and projects, or ask them to refrain from posting competitor content on social pages. 

Engagement etiquette

Social media can be a difficult place to navigate. Online communication on social platforms can sometimes devolve into personal attacks and bullying behavior. 

It's important to define the guardrails for employees so they know what won't be accepted when they're engaged in online discussions. This is particularly important when the online discussion centers around the brand. 

Show clear examples of appropriate online behavior and discourage employees from responding to negative comments or messages on brand pages. 

Different industries are governed by different regulations and legislation. For example, finance companies are limited heavily on the language they can use when talking about their products. Lawyers are restricted on what advice or information they can give in certain instances. 

Your social media policy should clearly identify the relevant legal considerations for your company. Common legal issues that arise from the use of social accounts include intellectual property and copyright law violations as well as privacy breaches.

You should list other legal guidelines and regulations, including policies from governing bodies in your industry, in your manual. 

It's wise to have legal counsel advise you on this section of your policy. 

Consequences for violating the policy

Consequences for social media policy violations are important to maintain compliance and keep social media users accountable. 

Your company policies should explain the procedure for responding to any violation. How will you respond to/investigate customer complaints? What disciplinary action will apply to a breach, and how will it be implemented?

A clear social media policy with well-defined consequences is easier to enforce.  

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How to implement a social media policy

A social media policy is a living document that evolves and changes to account for changes in technology, trends, and in response to experiences across social platforms. 

The first step in implementing a new policy is to write one. Involve staff, partners, and stakeholders early in this process to get their input and feedback. Your team will likely have different insights and ideas you might not have thought of. 

Once a social media policy is written, it should be reviewed by your executive team and legal team. Then, once the document is approved, present it to the company. You may even consider building a short learning module to help train staff on the policy. 

Your social media policy should be stored in your employee handbook or on your intranet and accessible by all employees at any time. Remember to update training materials if changes are made to the policy.

Social media policy examples

Some organizations publish their social media policies online. 

The University of California in Santa Barbara policy includes a list of security protocols for social media use. These protocols help secure the organization's accounts and protect against possible data breaches. 

Research and review policy documents from trusted companies and organizations to help improve your document. 

Clear policies protect brands

Social media is one of the most powerful ways for any company to engage its customers and target audience.

But the incredible opportunity that social media offers is paired with significant risks, both legal and reputational. A strong company social media policy helps protect your brand, unify your voice, and streamline your social media marketing efforts. 

Brandwatch has a range of social media management tools to help you manage your brand's social media presence and even track how your customers and the public are responding to your company online. 

The best protection against legal or public relations issues caused by social media misuse is a robust, comprehensive, and up-to-date social media policy that your employees are engaged with and believe in. 

FAQs

Can employees use personal social media accounts during work hours?

Appropriate use of personal social media accounts is very much a case-by-case issue. Different roles, different industries, and even different workplace cultures all impact what this rule should be. Safety considerations for laborers and warehouse workers will dictate a different social media policy than one that a PR firm might use, for example. 

A best practice, according to many HR professionals, is to limit personal use but not ban it outright, as draconian measures may decrease employee retention and satisfaction, leading to lower productivity. 

The key thing is to make sure that you address this question in your social media policy. 

How often should a social media policy be updated?

Any social media policy is a living document that changes over time. These changes may be triggered by new technology, the rise of new platforms, evolving legislation, and regulatory challenges, or even a reaction to a PR event or HR issue that highlights a deficiency in the policy. 

A best practice is at least an annual review of this policy. It's also a good practice to retrain employees on your company's social media policy annually. 

Is it necessary to have a social media policy for every employee?

Yes. Your social media policy is an important guideline that protects your company from a variety of legal issues. 

How do I handle negative comments or complaints on social media?

Negative comments and complaints are par for the course online. For most brands, social media is your most obvious point of contact for the public, and so you'll see a lot of feedback. Your social media policy will offer guidelines for reacting to these comments online. Best practice solutions for handling negative social media feedback include: 

  • Read the complaint or negative comment fully
  • Respond genuinely to reasonable complaints
  • Maintain your brand voice when answering comments or complaints 
  • Ensure the right team is involved in responding to the comment or complaint, and have a plan for escalating serious incidents

Brandwatch's tools allow you to proactively listen to feedback your brand is receiving online as well as helping you build appropriate workflows to deal with those messages.

Can a social media policy help with crisis management?

A social media policy is useful both for preventing crises and reacting to them. Your social media policy will help you craft a more effective and responsible communications plan in times of crisis. 

In the rare instance of employee misconduct online, your social media policy gives you an avenue to respond meaningfully, issue appropriate action, and communicate that breach of company policy to the public. 

Your social media policy also helps control messaging and protect your brand from escalation or amplification that might make a crisis worse.