Social media at work – how does your business manage it?

The first is the company’s attitude to social media itself. What messages do you want to convey about your brand, and what are you going to be empowered by a client to put out on their behalf? Are you resourced to develop regular content, and are staff trained to respond on the company’s behalf?

The second is your staff’s attitude to social media. Regardless of what internal guidelines or policies you put in place, it is human nature to talk about work. A clear and simple company social media policy can help ensure your expectations are communicated and minimise your chances of a problem occurring.

To tackle the first area – corporate attitude - ensure there is a defined process for copy approval. As a third party, you may not be privy to business deals that could be going on in the background, so be wary of what you retweet or quote.

A mistake that can get you into hot water is believing that because an article from which you quote has been quoted elsewhere, it is accurate and “safe”. That’s not necessarily the case. If the original item is libellous and you retweet it, you could get involved in subsequent proceedings – as Sally Bercow found out to her cost when Lord McAlpine sued her.

Another area to steer clear of is focusing attention on rival brands. For example, posting parody advertisements of a rival can lead to defamation suits, as can criticising strategic business moves that they have made.

The second area of staff social media use is tricky to monitor. The simplest solution is to ensure that social media is covered in relevant policies - including your Technology Use Policy, Disciplinary Policy and Bullying & Harassment Policy. Make sure all current employees and subsequent new joiners are aware of these policies. There are also tools available to make it easier for you to monitor what is being said about you online.

BusinessHR (www.businesshr.com) has templates available for all these policies available online; they can help review and tailor them to the bespoke needs of your business, if you need it. Access can be bought at a heavily reduced rate alongside Hiscox business insurance.

Key points that these policies need to cover are:

• Technology form - it is best not to define too closely what technology is covered as change happens so rapidly. In respect of equipment, policies should refer to all technology e.g PC, mobile phone, tablet, etc.
• Media used - it is best to make your policies as wide as possible. For example refer to all online communications whether by word, picture, video etc., whether internal e.g. email or through external systems such as social media, discussion forums, etc.
• You should make clear that no confidential information about the company should be disclosed including photographs, videos, etc. Again it is best to keep the language as wide as possible but use examples such as company finances, future plans, products, clients, partners etc. You should be more specific about not disclosing any information which could impact on the value of the company and possible regulations such as planned acquisitions, new products, new customers, etc.
• Do make employees aware that if they make any personal statements online, such as in discussion forums, petitions, etc., they should not identify their employer. Specifically they should not use their company email address.
• Your policies should also make clear that they should not name other employees online and that any harassment, bullying, the making disparaging remarks about fellow employees will be viewed seriously and could result in disciplinary action. You should make clear that this includes photographs, video, etc. as well as in words. You should also make clear that this applies even if the person does this in their own time and using their own equipment and online account.
• Encourage staff to inform the relevant team member responsible for Social Media if they come across any mention of the company whether good or bad.

Using social media effectively is an opportunity, and companies should make the most of sharing content and being able to have conversations with customers online. It is important, however, to consider the risks that come with it by instilling good practice with your employees.

For more insight and comments from media and marketing professionals visit: http://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-blog/

Sam Newman, head of emerging professional indemnity and charities, Hiscox

Web: www.hiscox.co.uk/drum

Twitter: @hiscoxuk