Draft an airtight social media policy to prevent PR disasters and legal issues. Here's your guide including a free pdf.
Today’s social media is different from a decade ago.
Higher usage, increased prominence, and other signs of a platform’s success also mean brands take on higher risks when utilizing these channels; a social media policy is no longer an “extra.”
A well-crafted social media policy uses clearly outlined rules and best practices to guide employees and those accessing the brand’s profiles in using social media platforms effectively and appropriately.
Everyone involved in the brand’s public image should clearly understand what is expected of them.
A policy helps them understand how to conduct themselves in a way that aligns with a brand’s values, missions, and goals, propelling the company forward.
And you’ll be better able to avoid security breaches, legal issues, reputational damage, and PR crises.
Before creating a comprehensive social media policy, you must understand that it is impossible to prepare for every possibility.
However, talking to others in the organization can help you consider needs and issues you may not otherwise consider.
For example, your customer service team will understand how your audience sees your brand, uses social media, and what they need from your brand’s channels.
Your IT team will know what is available to manage channel security and how to manage security issues.
So, you’ll need to put together a social media policy team. Not everyone should have a say over every element of the policy, but representatives should be able to provide input and ideas.
Your social media policy team should include representatives from:
Once you have a team in place, you can start crafting your brand’s social media policy.
The actual writing can be completed in seven steps, followed by four steps for implementation. But be warned: The last four steps are as important as the first seven.
Leave one out – fail to implement, update, or enforce your policy, for example – and your social media policy may be unable to guide your team and protect your brand.
To help craft your policy, we’ve included an explanation.
You’ll also find a downloadable pdf here with a list of questions to ask during each step to get you started.
The first step to crafting an effective social media policy is to understand why you’re creating the document in the first place.
By clarifying the document’s purpose with everyone, you’ll increase the policy’s use and make it easy for team members to understand who should use it and when.
While a social media policy generally covers any social interaction or platform, including company blog comments and social platforms, listing these locations specifically will reduce confusion and act as a documented list of which platforms are approved and owned by your brand – as well as which platforms your employees or team members may use.
Decide what situations your policy should cover and who should be guided by it. Make it clear what circumstances fall under the policy and which do not.
Social media use is full of risks, but many specific risks (and the ones that often catch a brand unaware) are unique to you.
For example, if you’re in the finance industry, you may have FCC and other rules and regulations to follow. Those in healthcare will have HIPAA and other laws and guidelines.
Aside from that, you will also face the standard risks of PR crises, security risks, intellectual property violations, and others.
List as many general risks as possible to help you determine what your social media policy should include.
With the list of risks in mind, it’s time to start outlining the various processes and guidelines team members will follow.
Outline the content that can and can’t be shared on the company’s accounts. Decide who will access these accounts and what security features must be in place.
Decide if you’ll allow comments on all your updates, what you will and won’t allow in those comments, and how you’ll handle any comments or posts you remove.
Develop a process for granting and revoking access to your accounts.
And decide the rules and guidelines that employees and others will need to follow when sharing brand-related content (or identifying themselves as connected with the company).
Many times, errors are made, or issues are avoided not because employees don’t know how to handle them but because they are unsure of who is responsible and the process the company wants to follow.
So, for example, decide who is responsible for monitoring, listening, responding, and managing your social media profiles, promotions, and paid ads.
Decide and outline approval processes, reporting mechanisms or systems, posting limits, and other details.
And don’t forget to consider processes outside of the usual social media processes, such as what will happen when someone takes time off and who will be responsible for social media training.
While you may or may not be regulated by industry regulators such as the FCC, you will undoubtedly need to follow data privacy laws, rules surrounding intellectual property, and advertising rules.
In your social media policy, you need to outline the general idea of these rules and what those utilizing social media need to know.
Note: While some of these rules may seem obvious to you, they won’t be obvious to everyone.
Don’t leave important ones out. Make more comprehensive documents (that are in plain language and easy to use in a hurry) available.
Brands are delicate. To keep updates and content consistent, detail and explain the voice and style the company’s channels should have.
Provide users with a wealth of examples of updates that are and are not acceptable. You may also want to include links to official style guides.
Lastly, make sure the goal of your social media channels is clear. Will your brand respond to audience inquiries or offer customer service via social media?
No matter how careful or prepared you are, the worst-case scenario is inevitable. Eventually, a crisis will arise, so you need to be ready.
What should happen if an advertising or intellectual property rule has been violated?
If a PR disaster occurs or runs afoul of some other rule, regulation, law, or guideline?
You should also have a clear process to follow if an account or user has been compromised. Include links and email addresses to support each network so they can be contacted immediately.
You also need to consider PR issues outside of social media.
If a tragedy occurs, for example, how will you communicate with vendors, customers, and the general public? Who is responsible for crafting that message, and who needs to approve it?
This process doesn’t end when you have a final social media policy draft.
Even the best social media policy is useless if it isn’t implemented, used, maintained, and enforced.
If you want employees and team members to follow the social media policy, it must be easily available and distributed to everyone.
Email it and announce it through internal channels. Walk through the document in a video. Make sure everyone is aware that it has been completed and made available.
Store it somewhere that’s easy for others to access. Still, you also need to ensure that it is added to onboarding packages and provided to anyone who may communicate on behalf of or promote the brand.
(You may wish to craft an external version for customers, your target audience, and other external parties.)
One of the easiest and most efficient ways to encourage employees to share company news and information while avoiding issues is to make approved assets available.
Provide everyone with logos, approved images, discount codes, and other resources in a location that’s easily accessed.
To make it even easier for employees to share updates, consider having an internal communication channel that notifies everyone of news, newly published information, and fresh assets.
Social media and your needs change quickly. And while your social media policy won’t need daily or weekly updates, it will still require regular updating.
Let it get outdated, and it could cause more harm than good.
Imagine, for example, that you have an outdated security protocol in place when one of your accounts is compromised.
Schedule the social media policy update to ensure it gets done. It’s also the perfect opportunity to remind everyone of the document and help refresh their awareness of its processes and guidelines.
The successful utilization of a social media policy begins with proper training.
While not all employees will need to understand all the processes, everyone should have a basic understanding of the guidelines within the policy and how it applies to them.
Lastly, ensure that the policy you’ve invested time and effort into creating is enforced.
Schedule regular searches and audits to ensure compliance and be sure to deal with anything that fails to meet the guidelines appropriately.
While a social media policy does require an upfront investment and your time, they are vital in today’s world.
This simple policy document will help you avoid and prepare for a crisis while arming your brand with the resources and knowledge it needs to deal with issues as they arise.
Do this well, and you’ll find that understanding what is and isn’t allowed will help encourage employees to promote your brand on social media.
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