Key Takeaways
- **Maintain brand consistency and protect the company’s reputation by outlining guidelines for employee social media use.**
- **Mitigate legal and regulatory risks associated with social media, including data privacy and copyright issues.**
- **Provide clear instructions for handling crises and emergencies, ensuring a swift and appropriate response to potential reputational damage.**
Social Media Policy: What is it?
A social media policy is a formal document that provides guidelines and requirements for the use of social media by employees and the company as a whole. This policy covers all official channels of the brand, as well as how employees use social media, both personally and professionally.
It applies to all employees, from the CEO to interns, and should be easy to understand. It can be part of broader marketing strategies, or linked to onboarding documents or other company policies.
Why Do Employees Need a Social Media Policy?
A company-issued social media policy is a crucial document. It helps maintain brand voice while mitigating the risks associated with social media. Here are the key reasons to implement a social media policy.
It Maintains Brand Identity Across All Channels
Your company likely employs multiple people to manage multiple accounts, across multiple networks. A good social media policy ensures consistency and adherence to the brand’s image.
It Protects the Company from Legal and Regulatory Issues
A well-crafted social media policy can help you avoid missteps when it comes to rules and regulations. The consequences of breaking these rules can be severe (like accidental insider trading, for example).
It Protects Your Accounts from Security Breaches
Combining a strong social media policy with proper security protocols can protect your accounts from phishing, hacking, and fake accounts. Your policy should outline the company’s security rules, ensuring that employee passwords are changed regularly and meet high security standards. It should also set clear rules about using social media on company devices.
It Enables Quick Response in Case of a Crisis or Breach
Despite your best efforts, a breach or crisis can still happen. Sometimes the problem originates from a department within the organization that has nothing to do with social media. However, you’ll still need to address it on the company’s social channels.
A social media policy ensures that the company has an emergency response plan in place.
It Clarifies Employee Responsibilities for Social Media Use
Don’t assume your employees or associates know what to do (and not do) on social media. You need to tell them. For example, if you don’t want them posting photos of themselves in work uniforms, say so in your policy.
It Encourages Employees to Amplify the Brand’s Message
That said, don’t discourage them either – instead, try to inspire them to spread your brand’s message on social media. When your company has a product launch or a message to share, rallying your employees can be incredibly valuable.
Social Media Policy Template
If you think you know enough and are ready to jump into creating your own policy, go ahead and download our free social media policy template. But if you’re dying to learn more, here are our tips for writing a solid social media policy.
Craft Clear Guidelines for Online Behavior
There are some things you might not think you need to tell people – like not taking your pants off in church, for example. But when your company’s social media reputation is on the line, you can’t take any chances. Clearly explain what is and isn’t allowed, so you never have to reprimand an employee for posting a screenshot of your bank details.
Your social media guidelines might (for example) state that:
- Hate speech is not allowed.
- Posting confidential company information is not allowed.
- Posting offensive language is not allowed.
- Basic spelling and grammar rules must be followed (avoid slang).
- Emojis are acceptable (in moderation, one per post maximum).
- Sharing or reposting unverified or unsourced content is not allowed.
Write Clear Security Guidelines
The security section of your social media policy should (at minimum) include the following:
- Rules about using personal social media accounts on work devices.
- Activities to avoid on social media, such as contests that ask for personal information.
- Teams or individuals responsible for different social media accounts.
- Recommendations for creating a strong password and how often passwords should be changed.
- Expectations for updating software and devices.
- Identifying and preventing scams, attacks, and other security threats.
- Who to notify and what steps to take in the event of a social media security issue.
Manage Interactions with Your Customers
Social media is not a one-way communication tool. Hopefully, you already have followers who comment on your posts and send you private messages.
Don’t neglect these interactions. Should complaints be handled by a particular department? What strategy will you use to de-escalate a volatile situation?
Dedicate a section of your social media policy to how to respond to questions or comments, whether positive or negative.
Detail How to Handle Questionable Content
Your brand’s reputation on social media stems (of course) from what you post. But what others say about you can also impact your organization, for better or worse.
Social listening tools can help your company stay on top of mentions and comments, but your social media policy should clearly state the steps to take if a strange rumor or unapproved information surfaces.
For example, McDonald’s should be prepared for an uninformed user to take this humorous post seriously. How will they handle explaining to them that it was an April Fool’s joke?
Instruct your employees on what to do if they come across misinformation, leaks, sensitive content, or anything else questionable about the company on social media.
Of course, this type of content doesn’t always target the company – have a plan in place for employees who are harassed or threatened on social media.
Define a Clear Approval Process
Your social media policy should clearly identify who is involved in each post. If certain employees must approve content before it goes live, their contact information should be included in your policy.
Explain the Rules for Personal Social Media Use
If your company doesn’t have a social media presence, your employees probably do. Your social media policy should therefore include a section on employee conduct on their own social media accounts.
Of course, you’re not going to tell them what they can and can’t say when they’re off the clock (the BBC is learning this the hard way as its journalists push back against the network’s ban on “virtue signaling”).
However, companies do have the right to set basic rules about work-related content.
For example, can employees include company information in their bios, or is that a problem? Are employees allowed to share photos of their workplace on their social media accounts? Or photos of themselves in work uniforms? Decide where the line is and stick to it, regardless of seniority.
Outline the Process for Handling a Crisis
Think of this as the “in case of emergency” section of your social media policy. When things go wrong, how are you going to handle it to make things right?
If you need some inspiration, check out our tips for handling a social media crisis.
Explain Copyright Law
Despite what meme culture would have us believe, copyright law is still a thing. While a teenager probably doesn’t need to worry about getting sued by Disney for posting an altered image of Simba on Instagram, as an organization, you can’t afford to make that kind of faux pas.
A UK makeup brand ended up in court last winter for using certain tracks without paying royalties to Warner Music in its Instagram and TikTok videos (Iconic London continues to use pop songs in its Instagram videos — and while we don’t know if they’ve paid to license them, we can confirm that they’re very effective!).
Familiarize your team with common copyright issues — start with this primer on image copyright — and create a clear checklist to ensure that everything shared online complies with current copyright law.
Detail the Consequences of Non-Compliance
To wrap up your social media policy, outline the consequences of failing to follow the rules you’ve laid out. What will you do if someone doesn’t follow these guidelines?
While it’s important to be clear, it’s also crucial to be consistent. Playing favorites or picking and choosing who to discipline is a recipe for derailing your entire effort, or worse, creating a PR crisis after an employee publicly decries what they perceive as unfair treatment.
Set a Review Date
Social media moves fast. Your social media policy should therefore be reviewed regularly to ensure that it keeps up. You should clearly state how often these reviews will take place (once a year? quarterly?) to ensure that the information is always up-to-date and relevant.
Ready to launch your own social media policy? Get started with our free template.
Examples of Social Media Policies
Sometimes, nothing beats a real-world example to help you see what’s what. Feel free to draw inspiration from the following as you craft your own social media policy.
Government of British Columbia
Governments don’t always have a reputation for being on the cutting edge, but we have to admit we were impressed by the interactivity and accessibility of the Government of British Columbia’s social media policy. Their website is clear, easy to read and navigate, and even features potential scenarios.
Tufts University
This American university has a detailed social media policy available online, complete with links to other integrated documents, such as a request for an official university social media account.
This social media policy also offers recommendations for accessibility. If your organization is particularly focused on diversity and inclusion, don’t hesitate to include this kind of information (to learn more about accessibility and social media, click here!).
Revolution Capital
This social media policy reminds us that these documents don’t need to be long, especially for a small organization with few people involved in its online activities: in this case, a succinct list of rules — like those laid out by Revolution Capital — may suffice.
Shiseido
Shiseido has divided its policy into two parts: the purpose and the guidelines. By defining the purpose of its social media engagement, Shiseido gives all of its social media managers a clear guiding light. According to them, social media accounts are meant to improve customer satisfaction, so its employees should use polite and clear language across all of the company’s channels.
Adobe
Adobe has included its social media policy for employees within a larger document on company policies. Ultimately, social media is just one facet of how employees represent the brand, so it can make sense to include it as part of a more global code of conduct.
1. Download Our Social Media Policy Template
It’s free, and it covers all the bases. Click the box below to download it.
2. Get Input from Stakeholders
A social media policy is a unique document. You’ll learn more about your organization’s needs by talking to:
- Your product’s key users.
- Your marketing team.
- Your social media team.
- Your HR team.
- Any company spokesperson.
- Your legal team.
Don’t forget to involve current employees in the discussion. After all, this policy affects all of them.
This doesn’t mean you need to get feedback from every single one of them. But ask your team leads, union reps, or anyone else who might represent groups of employees for their thoughts, questions, or concerns.
When writing your policy, don’t get bogged down by tutorials or the minutiae. The big stuff will inevitably change, and quickly. Focus on the big picture.
3. Choose a Home for Your Policy
We strongly recommend adding your policy to your employee handbook so that new hires can read it as part of their onboarding process.
Once that’s done, consider where your current employees will access this information. Will it live on your company intranet or shared drives? Depending on your organization’s needs, you might also consider posting it on your external website.
4. Launch (or Relaunch) It
Whether it’s a revision or a brand-new document, you need to make sure everyone knows there’s new information to learn. Whether you announce it via internal email or at a company meeting, make sure to allow plenty of time or space for questions.
In the case of a new version, include a list of key changes and a revision date.
5. Schedule an Update for Next Year (or Next Quarter)
It’s not uncommon to see social media policies that date back to 2011, 2012—the dark ages of social media (you can tell by the use of words like “Web 2.0” and “microblogging”).
Social media is constantly evolving, and your policy will need to be updated regularly to keep pace. Social networks and their features change all the time, with new platforms popping up and others fading into obscurity.
Your social media policy can’t afford to collect dust in a drawer (or a Google Doc). Those early 2010s policies couldn’t have predicted the rise of TikTok or the high level of connectivity that users now have with their mobile devices.
By committing to an annual, bi-annual, or even quarterly review, you’re ensuring that your policy remains useful and relevant. At the very least, check to make sure all of the contact information is up-to-date.
6. Enforce It
What’s the point of taking the time to write a social media policy if no one follows it?
Your policy should include a schedule for regular audits to easily identify new accounts claiming to represent your company. You should also make sure it outlines the consequences of violating one or more of the rules, so that no one is surprised by the disciplinary action that could result.
Finally, your team should do some social listening. This will help you identify social conversations about your brand and posts (from employees or others) that go against your policy.
Pro tip: Social listening is a breeze with Hootsuite. Starting with a basic plan (like Pro), you can **set up streams to monitor social media conversations, keywords, mentions, and hashtags**. This will allow you to quickly take action if a post violates your social media policy.
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