America's Best Business Practices

Very useful Mike. I agree it’s smart to have some kind of social media policy although the simpler the better. Why, because social media empowers individuals and I wouldn’t want to be perceived as someone trying to disempower them. Thanks for providing that example list.

In reaction to your article: Yes and no.

The advice on monitoring social media to find instances in which amends need to be made with unhappy customers, contractors, etc., is very good.

The idea of monitoring employee’s social and personal lives, however, is not so good. In fact, very bad in my opinion.

As employers, we must never begin to think that we can or should have influence over our employees personal and social lives. We pay them for their performance on the job. Period. We must not set ourselves up as parental figures nor as arbiters of morality, for we are neither.

The excuse that some potential customers may not do business with our company if they see, to use your example, wet T-shirt contest photos of our receptionist on her Facebook page strikes me as a reach, as grasping at a highly improbable scenario to justify imposing my own sense of propriety.

By the same token, I would not allow a customer to apply his or her personal sense of propriety on my employees’ personal and social lives. The moment we do that, we open the floodgates to all manner of discrimination.

Will we then begin to allow our customers’ personal prejudices to run our companies? Will we fire the gay employee when some religious fanatic objects to his or her presence? Will we refuse to hire people from whichever ethnic/racial/religious minority group is subjected to the most bigotry in our area or our industry?

When we begin to allow prejudices to dictate our practices, we suffer not only moral diminishment and potential legal losses, we deprive our companies of the skills and richness that diversity offers.

For too long, the brain power, imagination and productivity of half our population were denied to our nation because of our chauvinism. For too long, the brain power, imagination and producitivity of huge segments of our population were denied to our nation because of ethnic, racial and religious bigotry. Our military’s anti-gay policies are a fine example, as our main military missions of the past decade have been extremely handicapped by the loss of gay soldiers, particularly in the ares of language interpretation and intelligence gathering.

Social media policies are a perilous swamp, and me must move with great caution to avoid having them become thinly disguised tools of any one or more of the countless prejudices that plague our species.

Check out Creating an Ironclad Social Media Policy. Free download at docstoc.com http://www.docstoc.com/docs/45894330/Creating-an-Ironclad-Social-Media-Policy

Social Media Policy is surely the need of the hour!

With the amount of business that online fraternity brings in and the time that an employee spends on social media … a policy is more of a necessity and less of luxury.

In India using Social Media is picking up only now as more and more companies are realising its importance and so envisaging a policy seems to be a little away. Still only today Infosys one of the biggest and most professional IT Indian company has announced that they are looking at having a social media policy in place. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/news/software-services/Infosys-issuing-social-media-dos-donts/articleshow/6165804.cms

Thanks Susan for giving basic pointers.

Russell,

WOW. Either I totally missed the mark with my article or you drank way too much coffee (smile).

I agree that agree that employers should not interfere with the personal lives of their employees, set themselves up as parental figures or arbiters of morality. That was not where I was headed with this article. In fact, I tried to make it clear in my article that employers need to check with a labor or employment lawyer before taking any action against employees who have questionable online behavior.

The sole purpose of a social media policy is to protect the company’s brand. A social media policy can make it very clear what employees can or cannot do online concerning the company in order to protect its brand. In addition, companies need to make sure that they protect confidential information such as customer lists, trade secrets or intellectual property. Most companies already have policies for accounting, customer service and other areas of employee conduct such as sexual harassment. If a company encourages employees to participate in social media on behalf of the company, they should provide guidelines for such participation. A good social media policy should state that employees who jeopardize the company brand online will be subject to disciplinary action, including termination.

The gray area that I addressed in the article (and the one that obviously sent you into a frenzy) addresses employee behavior relative to their personal brand (see my article titled “What’s Your Social Media Avatar”) including Facebook photos and messages written on walls, Tweets, etc. No, employers do not have a legal right to mandate how employees express themselves personally online unless it violates a company policy. Many companies have policies stating that employees may not utilize company equipment to conduct personal business.

Your point about customers is an interesting one. No, companies should not allow customers to dictate employee behavior. However, customers are the only reason a company exists! So, monitoring how customers treat customers only makes good business sense. On the other hand, a company may be liable if they (or their customers) violate one of the Federal laws prohibiting discrimination based on gender, race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual orientation (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act) they are risking prosecution.

As to why I used the examples of employee behavior in the article, let me be clear. I did not include them as an excuse for companies to violate employee’s rights. I included them to help readers imagine some situations where the online behavior of their employees could negatively impact a company’s brand.

This whole social media policy “sauce” can be boiled down to one simple rule of thumb. If a company is going to encourage their employees to use social media to help the business be more successful, they need a social media policy. If a company does not encourage their employees to use social media, then they may not need one.

Saloni,

Thank you so much for commenting! In my opinion, one of the big issues with online communication is that some people don’t realize the impact of what they say and do online. Unlike hard copy communications, images and messages communicated virtually cannot be shredded. What’s my point? Online business communication presents enormous opportunities to build a brand, but just as many to tarnish it!

Social media can be a useful tool in promoting your brand, cause, or presence when used properly and in the right context. Thus, it s necessary to have a social media strategy for your business in place. But does this mean that you should allow employee access to social media sites in the workplace, knowing that employees might – or rather, will – access them for personal use? This is where the importance of having a company social media policy comes in. Accessing social media sites poses risks to your network security and privacy – a huge problem for IT managers. To help you make informed decisions about whether or not to use social media to boost your business, and whether or not to block social media sites in your office, check out: http://bit.ly/d2NZRp

Every business would benefit from having a social media policy in place, but it should not be an all or nothing approach. Instead of having a policy in place that blocks social media completely or doesn’t block social media at all and expects employees to follow policy rules, why not block some pieces of social media and keep some parts of social media accessible? Social media is growing in the business world and companies would be missing out on its benefits if it is blocked entirely. Palo Alto Networks might have found a solution to this problem, they have a new software that has the ability to do thing such as a read-only Facebook. I think companies could really benefit from something like this, what do you think? Here’s a link to new whitepapers they have created: http://bit.ly/d2NZRp http://bit.ly/brno0T

Marlon and Kelly,

Thank you for taking the time to comment! You make excellent points. It is impossible to keep employees from accessing social media. Hense, the need for a policy.

Although I haven’t had time to read the white papers on the sites you referenced, I am sure the information is valuable. SCORE recommends another excellent Palo Alto product to clients when they are starting a business and need a business plan, “Business Plan Pro”.

Susan

Progress is a double-edged sword: sure, you can multiply your marketshare, create your own buzz, have cheap advertising (free!), and become a monolith in your industry by competing intelligently using social media…

But as you aptly pointed out, disgruntled workers can use the same tech for subterfuge.

Great post, I’ve RT’d it – in a positive way, no less!

James,

Thanks for taking the time to comment!

Susan,

I understand the opportunities for knowledge that internet tracking opens up, as well as the benefit that is a potential in using social media for promotion. I was in the industry for awhile.

My opinion is that policy-making, monitoring, and “brand protection” are a far inferior strategy to the creation of a company culture that keeps the morale and positivity of your employees and vendors high. Protectiveness often results in bad morale. Who wants to be told what they can or cannot say, on or off the job?

Love rules over rules any day.

Jonathan

Jonathan,

Thank you for taking the time to comment! I agree with you entirely about the company culture. Many companies do not see the obvious connections between culture, employee loyalty and profits. In fact, I am getting ready to post an article on that very issue.

I know you’re not suggesting that a company should be able to control what it’s employees put on Facebook. FB is a personal space, so if a company wants to market their, they should be a respectful as if they were spending time in their employees’ homes.

Michael, I agree with you in concept. However, if an employee is causing harm to the company, in my opinion, the employer does have to take action up to and including termination, depending on the severity of the harm.

Mike, not sure why you re-tweeted this article today, but the law is changing rapidly in this area. There have been several recent rulings by the National Labor Relations Board that should caution employers from taking “adverse” employment actions (i.e. firing or disciplining) against employees who complain about working conditions on Facebook or other social media sites. It is considered a protected activity under labor law, and not just for union employees. I do applaud the call for a social media policy, and I urge everyone who has one to have it reviewed under current law.