Follow Jeremy Pepper on Twitter and read his blog, Pop! PR Jots
Follow Elizabeth Sosnow and read the Bliss blog.
It still makes companies nervous to allow employees to use social media — at all — but particularly on behalf of the company. What helps, and is often the first stage to get through before a company is ready to engage on the social web, is for the company to draft and adopt a social media policy.
Personally, I don’t believe in social media policies – I think you can have employee codes of conduct in general and address specifically what your expectations are for employee conduct online as well as off, but I don’t believe a company should or can successfully dictate what an employee does online or even fully monitor the employee’s online activity (unless that’s how you want to spend all your time.) Read Five Reasons Why Your Company Doesn’t Need a Social Media Policy if that’s where you’re leaning — if not, read on!
Nevertheless, many industries, fields, practices, firms, companies, organizations, etc. require the social web and its staff members’ use of it addressed and I am here to help.
Five Elements of a Successful Social Media Policy
- Be clear about your expectations. If you want employees to use specific platforms on behalf of the company, tell them what they are and how those tools should be used.
- Provide social media training. Most employees will use social media for personal use and they will do so on company time. Knowing that, decide how you can turn that personal time into a benefit for your organization, and provide tips to allow employees to have social media success on your behalf.
- Post the “DON’T” list where every employee has access to it, can refer to it and acknowledge receipt. This is the list of items the staff must not disclose about the company. Everyone is entitled to some privacy; make sure the employees understand what the company holds sacred.
- Write it in language that adapts. As soon as you do a final edit on your social media policy a new platform will be released (FourSquare and Twitter did not exist when I was writing the first policies for clients). Don’t make the policy so specific to platforms or tools that it’s outdated the minute it is published. Remember that this policy is about conduct in communications — on and offline — and write it that way.
- State the consequences of bad behavior. If you’re serious about it, you’re going to have to follow through. I recommend a structure not unlike an attendance policy with a “three strikes and you’re out” clause.
I attended BlogHer Business (and a couple of BlogHer parties) a few weeks ago. The experience has had me thinking a lot about what it means to be a blogger, who is a blogger these days, and what it takes to maintain one or more blogs.
BlogHer, and I imagine, other blogger gatherings like it has this empowering effect. There’s nothing more fist-pumping awesome than to stand in a room with several hundred other people who do what you do and who are passionate about it. I’m sure BlogHer was founded in 2005 because of that feeling; I felt it when I attended in 2007, too.
Today, however, I know lots of people with blogs. It would not be an exaggeration to say that most of my friends are bloggers. It’s far less special to be a blogger when there are millions doing it. There are standouts, of course; those who have been at it for an extended period of time, are downright prolific and who show no sign of flagging in their efforts.
There are others who blog because they have to — it’s become a requirement as part of their job. Who would have thought that would happen back in the days when Heather Armstrong’s experience coined a term that meant “to be fired for one’s blog.”
We’ve learned a lot since the days of LiveJournal. There are new bloggers, however, who don’t have the benefit of that experience. New bloggers who fail at context because they don’t read many other blogs. Bloggers who, frankly, aren’t really bloggers — they’re merely posting content to a blog, or contributing to a corporate blog as part of their job responsibilities.
I hear people complain about blogging all the time. I hear how difficult it is to continue to produce content for a website; how there’s never enough time or ideas or interesting things to write about.
More than 95 percent of all blogs are abandoned and good riddance, I say! I’d like to rid the internet of all the “bloggers” and turn down the volume of crappy content drowning out all the good, thoughtful stuff out there. For all the people half-assing it out there, just stop. If you don’t feel it, don’t write it, film it, shoot it, record it, etc. and for goodness sakes don’t publish it.
We’ll all be better off if there are more blog readers than bloggers.
Follow Friday recommendation: Search Mojo and Renee Revetta
Happy Friday everyone!