20 Must-Have Guidelines For Employee Social Media

My 4 year old daughter is learning to ride a bike.  It’s a whole new chapter for us as a family.  Wobbles, falls, tears and then back on the bike.

It’s hard to watch but you know that learning a life skill comes from experience and providing guidance…not by handing her a manual on “how to ride a bike”.

In my last post “Time To Rethink Your Social Media Policy?” I discussed the reasons why organisations should look at their social media policy again and think more about “guidelines”.

Times have changed and more organisations are recognising the productivity value of employees using social media, especially when it comes to social selling.

It’s really important in this digital age that employees understand the risks – both personally and professionally – when conducting themselves on social media.

Social media guidelines not only protect the organisation (e.g if an employee shares something that damages the reputation of the brand) but should also protect the employee.

Guidance around etiquette and improper usage of social media will help the employee embrace the technology for their professional brand in a safer environment whilst potentially advocating on behalf of the company brand.

So what should be included in a set of Social Media Guidelines?

Here goes…

Opening paragraph – Outline why you’re encouraging employees to actively participate in social media.  Reinforce that these guidelines are there to help protect them as employees and the brand as the employer.

If you’re building a wider employee advocacy program, explain why the brand is helping employees to develop their professional brand online – how it assists them and how their participation can support the brand.

At this point you should introduce the levels of program participation and point them to where they can get training so they can take their first step into social networking.

I would encourage you to make your guidelines conversational in tone and straight forward in approach – no social media jargon that may confuse or cause ambiguity.

Often employees are scared to mention their employer for fear of doing something wrong, so avoid scaring your employees further.  Keep the guidelines informal perhaps even “tongue in cheek”.  Focus on actively encouraging employees to be transparent and enthused ambassadors of the brand.

1. Sshhhhh – Always make sure employees are aware of confidentiality when it comes to company and customer related information. You wouldn’t share confidential content at a networking event and so you wouldn’t share confidential content by social media.  No different.
2. Haven’t I Seen That Before? – Be sure employees understand image using rights, copyright and other legal constraints that may restrict their social media usage.
3. Be Nice – Make sure employees understand that they must respect their audiences and they must not be dishonourable in terms of racial, ethnic, religious or sexual slurs that may offend – their professional brand will be tied to their personal brand and such commentary isn’t acceptable in the office…nor on social networking.  It’s not nice.
4. Leave It To The Legal Eagles – Don’t disclose financial or legal information around customers or clients.  Be sure that employees understand the boundaries of what they should and shouldn’t be sharing. Remind them of their contractual obligations to the business when they became an employee and just emphasise that social media is no different to what they’re already doing.
5. Passion Is Healthy. Anger Is Not – Emotions can run at a high when you’re on social media, especially if you feel something or someone has been mis-represented.  Spirited discussions are good. All out fights are not.  We’ve all been there – that email that that winds you up on Friday night so you respond by hitting the keyboard with all your anger…then you walk away, return and re-write it.  Same with social networking.
6. No Pseudo Identities – Social is about conversations and people like to know they are conversing with someone genuine and credible.  Be human, be proud and declare who you work for.  Identifying yourself and that you connect to the employer brand as an employee is good in terms of transparency and credibility.  At the end of the day people are your brand.  Encourage them to be proud of that association.
7. It’s All About Me – Encourage employees to talk in the first person on social media. Social networking is what it says…social.  A channel for discussions, conversations and networking. People don’t have conversations with logos – they have conversations with people.
8. Be Helpful – Encourage employees to think about their audience and serve their audience. Building a community by adding value and encouraging their community members to engage is the right kind of usage for social media.  No-one wants to convert employees into marketing megaphones.  Teach them to learn and share.
9. Oops…Now What? – Tell employees to be the first person to respond to mistakes. Don’t leave it and wait. Tell them that if they’ve made a mistake on social media make some headway towards fixing it and setting the record straight.  Still not happy?  Contact the social media team.
10. What’s Said On Social Stays On Social – This might be a good time to remind employees that the Internet remembers: always pause and think before posting. The Internet remembers what you do and it records it.  If you delete that tweet the chances are someone has retweeted it or shared it. You deleting it from your twitter profile will not delete the shares that have already taken place.
11. Use Common Sense – No one is perfect but if you use your best judgement and common sense when engaging on social media you won’t go far wrong – remind employees that this is how they already operate day-to-day.
12. Respect The Offline Rule – Not everyone wants to have their photo shared all over social media.  Give some thought into the conversations that you have offline with your colleagues or customers and give guidance around maintaining the privacy of those conversations. For example if you go to an event and you take a photo it is only polite to ask permission of the people in the photo if you can post it to social media.
13. Follow Us – Encourage your employees to follow your branded social channels. It is a great place for employees to start engaging in content that is “safe”.  Employees will know that content from their employer is going to be branded and ready for sharing.  They can start engaging with easy content that will help them ease into social networking.
14. We’re Here To Help – Provide a point of contact. Employees may come across conversations that they won’t be able to participate in e.g. a journalist has contacted them. In such cases make it easy for your employees to contact someone internally so they can easily step out of the discussion.
15. Monitoring Feeds – Be sure that you tell your employees that any activity they participate in on social media may appear in the brands social monitoring feeds (assuming you have them!)  and that it is likely that their participation may feature in the monitoring feed.
16.  Social Etiquette – Many organisations will have a code of conduct already in place. When employees sign the contract to join the company, a code of conduct is often used to inform employees on how the company expects them to behave. Remind employees that the code of conduct is also relevant to online activity.
17. Move It Offline – Explain to employees that they should never commit the company to resolution – take it offline. It’s not right nor reasonable to expect employees to commit the brand to follow up on something specific without doing due diligence or further investigation. Just remind the employees of customer service protocols for dealing with complaints.
18.  Take Care – Remind employees to think about what they post before they post it.  Help them realise that they not only need to take care of the potential risk to themselves but also the risk to the brand. Stop, pause and think before posting.
19. Remember The Day Job – It’s easy to get swallowed up in social networking so just remind folks that it’s there to assist their role.
20. Enjoy It – Employees that activate their professional brand online will open up new opportunities e.g. speaking opportunities, new customers, learning from others.  It’s a great way to connect and build their own network…for them!

 

All that said, the proof is in the execution.

Don’t write the document, host it on the intranet and hope folks find it.  Encourage employees to collaborate in building the guidelines.  Have a launch party.  Do a desk drop.

Use the re-launch as an excuse to find your social superstars and potentially your best advocates.  Combine guideline training with “personal brand” training to engage the audience in something that helps them develop.

For more inspiration, check out these:

• Ford:  A bit dated but a great example of how to get your guidelines to fit on one page.
• IBM:  Lengthy and wordy but probably the most comprehensive you’ll find.
• GAP:  Straight talking with humour – EVERYONE will understand
• SAP:  Shout-out to my previous employer – bit dated but it got us all started!
• Coca-Cola:  Bit formal but easy to read and not too long
• Lots more can be found here…

Let me know if you feel in your missing and potentially we could come up with the ultimate list of guidelines for social media and employees – let’s help each other out!

If you need any assistance in creating a set of guidelines or indeed launching an advocacy program within your organisation, please do not hesitate to reach out.

I am seriously passionate about helping people and organisations achieve social business success.  Let’s talk – sarah@tribalimpact.com

 

Time To Rethink Your Social Media Policy?

Do this, don’t do that – or perhaps just don’t do social media at all.

Sound familiar?

An employee social media policy is commonplace within organisations today.

It often takes the form of a multi-page document that’s filed somewhere on the intranet under the “social media” page.

Most of these documents were written out of necessity at a time when internet usage within the workplace was typically frowned upon as a waste of time.

Times have changed.

More organisations recognise the productivity value of using social media especially when it comes to social selling however, many policies haven’t grown with the evolution of technology.

Furthermore, smart organisations are recognising the advocacy value of social media encouraging employees to actively participate and create their own content.  By doing so, brands showcase the great expertise they have working for the company and increase the reach of content via the more trusted and loyal networks of employees.

Taking The Scary Out Of Social

However, employees are often reluctant to participate in professional social networking for fear of saying something wrong or getting into trouble.

Last month data released by the Freedom of Information act revealed that the number of UK council employees suspended for misusing social media grew 15% in 2015.

Stories like this often scare employees and it’s down to the employer to take the scary out of social if they want to foster a culture of advocacy and create a team of social ambassadors.

Protecting Both Employee & Employer

A good social media policy will protect the organisation from employees inadvertently sharing content that may damage the brand or reputation.

It will also protect the employee by providing important guidance around social media etiquette and what is and isn’t acceptable.

The social media policy can no longer be a tick box exercise.  As mobile technology has evolved, more employees are using social media within the workplace, whether you like it or not.

Understandably, the risk to the brand has increased, so it’s important for businesses today to be clear about their position around social media usage within the workplace and embrace the willingness of employees to participate.

“The social media policy now needs to live within the culture of the business – not on the intranet” @sarahgoodall  (Click to tweet)

Moving from “Social Policy” to “Social Culture”

Is Your Company Ready For This?

Before you do anything, be sure that your company is ready for a shift in culture.  Look at indicators such as employee engagement, Glassdoor reviews and whether you already have some social superstars within the organisation.

Perhaps you’re already using an internal social platform such as Chatter, Jive Software or Slack.  This encourages transparent and honest communication across the business – a great way for employees to step into social media within the confines of an internal network.

Seek Out An Executive Sponsor

Someone senior within the business needs to champion this change – partly because it impacts employee development and engagement but also because it will require investment.

This isn’t a case of re-writing the policy and uploading it to the intranet again.  It’s about re-writing the policy and making sure employees understand the impact it has on them and their employer.

Revisit The Legal Landscape

Legal and technological changes are happening all the time.  It’s important to understand the impact this has on your social media policy and explain the impact it has on employees e.g. if an employee starts to use Twitter as part of their role, who owns their Twitter account?  What happens if a disgruntled ex-employee starts posting negatively about the brand?

Be clear with employees on their contractual relationship to the company and how “code of conduct” transfers to social networking.

Build A Staged Social Media Program

Provide a path that employees can follow when it comes to learning about social media, allowing them to progress to a point they are comfortable with.  The more advanced they become the stronger their influence within their area of expertise and the more valuable they become to the business in terms of content generation and brand exposure.

Re-write The Policy…Into Guidelines

Write a set of guidelines that will empower and inspire employees to get involved rather than policing the do’s and don’ts around social networking.  As IBM state within their guidelines “IBM’s greatest asset—the expertise of its employees—can be shared with clients, shareholders, and the communities in which it operates.”  Encourage participation but provide guidance on how.

Keep the guidelines conversational and straight talking.  Don’t baffle employees with technical social media jargon that may cause ambiguity. Check out GAPs social media guidelines for inspiration.  A bit light on content but you won’t be confused!

Launch A Training Curriculum

Finally, it’s no longer enough to file the guidelines as COMPLETE and pop them on the intranet for employees to go seek out.  They need to be embedded throughout the culture starting with the on-boarding process.  How you deliver the training will depend on what suits your culture – an animated video, an illustrated guide, a series of webinars.

Launch the advancement program by asking all employees to participate in the guidelines – encourage feedback.  Here you’ll be able to identify the employees that are keen to advance to the next level of social media training.  These could potentially become your best advocates.

In the next post I’ll detail out what should be included in a set of guidelines along with examples from organisations leading they way when it comes to transforming into a social business culture.

 

Goodbye SAP. Hello Tribal Impact.

2015 has been quite a journey.  I’ve built a house, gave birth to my third daughter (3 girls in just over three years) and now I’ve stepped out of ‘corporate’ to take control of my own destiny.

I’m not sure if I’m brave, crazy or both but it’s quite exciting and terrifying all at the same time.

After 7 years of service I decided to take voluntary redundancy from SAP.  It wasn’t an easy decision.  I have a family and a new home – Am I supposed to grow up and be a responsible adult now I have kids?  Surely, more than ever I need security, routine and something vaguely consistent in my life?

I’ve always been attracted to adventure and this offered the perfect opportunity for me to pursue a lifelong dream – to work for myself.  Be an entrepreneur…perhaps a Mumpreneur!

Discovering The Social Business Opportunity

Several years ago I presented at Think International conference in Denmark and talked about how businesses need to adapt to the impact of social media and address the opportunity it presents for brands to engage employees to tell the brand story over social channels.

I think I was a little too early.

Brands at the time were busy adopting the Altimeter Hub and Spoke model with brand channels popping up all over Twitter, Facebook and any other social media that promised to be the next “YouTube”.

I remember thinking “Why would anyone, other than employees, be interested to follow a brand on Facebook within the B2B industry?”

My Eureka Moment!

Throughout my career I’ve always enjoyed working with people…networking, meeting and learning from others.

Technically, I trained as a marketer so when my two passions collided I was excited to explore the world of personal branding, supporting others by presenting their personal brand online in the best way possible.

Then I realised the true commercial impact of a socially connected business.

If brands concentrated less on warning employees about the dangers of social media but actually gave them the freedom and even training to use social networking responsibly, suddenly the whole business is out there advocating the brand…not just the sales and marketing department!

Why Tribal Impact?

Roll on several years and advocacy is becoming a huge topic for social marketers for several reasons:

• Brand channels are finding it increasingly difficult to get their message to the target audience via organic social media reach
• Trust in brand messaging is declining in favour of peer-to-peer recommendations
• Much of marketing today is about content and conversations. The marketing function often does not have the scale or breadth of expertise to produce relevant and timely content nor be part of every social conversation.

It’s time to engage the wider tribe!

Engaging a tribe – whether employees, partners or customers – to advocate a brand via social networking will massively impact the success of any social marketing strategy.

After several months piloting my theory, I discovered that…

• On average, employee networks were typically 7x larger than the brand channel network
• Content shared by employees received 50% more clicks than content shared via a branded channels
• Socially trained employees were 3x more likely to share content and got 50% more engagement than employees who had not been socially trained

But it’s not all about marketing.  Employee advocacy showcases the great talent working for the organisation.  It attracts talent to the organisation.  It supports the customer experience and can improve customer service.

I truly believe this digital approach is perfect for organisations seeking out a competitive advantage.

A cultural shift to becoming a social business.

Thank you SAP!

Whilst I’m excited to start my new adventure I am also very sad to say goodbye to SAP.

During my time at SAP I made some fantastic friendships and met some of the best professionals in the business.  I gave birth to three amazing little girls, I met Sir Richard Branson, got to live and work in Norway for 5 years, travel across Europe and even met our awesome CEO Bill McDermott.

But most of all, I was given the opportunity to pursue my passion around social marketing and seek out a new direction for my life.

I have a lot to thank SAP for.  My life adventures with the company has meant that I’m still a passionate #brandfan even though I’m no longer employed by them.

I guess a true example of how brand advocacy can still impact a business even after an employee leaves!

Join me on my new adventure?

I know full well that community support can help tremendously when learning (that’s how we developed our social media training program in SAP!) so I invite you to join me on my adventure as I build my business.

Either follow my blog, join me on Twitter and send me an invitation over LinkedIn.  I’m happy to connect.

Leadership 2.0: Bright Ideas Start With Open Communications

How should I communicate with my team?  Many leaders face this dilemma, even more so when the team are scattered across different countries.  Managing a virtual organisation ensuring that remote employees feel motivated, engaged and part of a wider purpose, has to be one of the most challenging tasks of a modern leader. 

It’s fair to say that many organisations have worked hard to make sure employees have an opportunity to voice their views whether through employee surveys, newsletters or town hall meetings.  So how do you get the personal touch of a 1-2-1 meeting together with efficiency of an All Hands conference call?   How do you crowdsource the best ideas from all of your employees.

Introducing Leadership 2.0: Where bright ideas start with open communications.

One of the cornerstones of an internal social media strategy is blogging.  Blogs are a fantastic platform to invite feedback from communities and engage them in dialogue – including internal audiences.  Blogs enable leaders to add a personal touch to their leadership style talking about experiences they’ve had, customers they’ve met or challenges they’re working on.  A tool like this can help cross the divide within a virtual environment and allow leaders to connect, on a personal level, to their internal stakeholders even if they don’t see them very often.

However, social tools such as blogs will bring transparency across the ranks.  This kind of uncontrolled visibility can make many leaders anxious.  Even though all of the discussions are internal to the organisation, comments and conversations that typically happen around the coffee machine will be out in the open for all to see.  Leaders need to be prepared for that.  Many will find this kind of culture shift challenging.

So if you’re considering a leadership blog, here are some Tribal Tips:

• Use Blogs As Part Of Your Communication Strategy: Blogs should augment your communication approach and not replace it.  Continue to use face-to-face, coaching and engagement with employees
• Make It Personal: Write about a customer you recently met, a meeting you attended or an issue that you’ve recently worked through.   Make it real and relevant to your team.
• Write It Yourself: One of the biggest mistakes a leader can make is to use a ghost writer.  Your employees know you and they will work out if you have written it yourself or if someone else has written it for you.  This kind of mistake can cost you your credibility.
• Encourage Feedback: Finish each blog post with a question and encourage employees to engage with you.
• Acknowledge Comments: Take the time to acknowledge comments.  Ignoring them is a bit like not returning a phone call when an employee has bothered to leave you a message.  You may not like all the comments you read but you must make sure you acknowledge them – let them know you’re listening.
• Keep It Frequent: Make sure you blog regularly.  You don’t have to write a novel each time you post nor do you have to write every day.  Just don’t launch your great new blog to employees, write one post and then forget all about it.  It sends the wrong message to your employees.  If you can’t commit to a blog, don’t start it.
• Have Some Fun: Try a video blog post or add photos.  It all adds to your ‘personality’ and keeps it real for your employees

Have you any tips to share?

Social Business…Connecting Knowledge Keepers To Knowledge Seekers

Last week I came across two impressive stories.  My colleague Brad sent me the first story about Atos Origin moving to be a no internal email company within 3 years in favour of a more social way of working.  HR Technologist Steve Boese (@SteveBoese) provides a great summary on his blog.   After I tweeted that article another colleague, Martin Meyer-Gossner (@thestrategyweb), sent me a link to a video.  In this video Luis Sueraz (@elsua), an IBM consultant, gave up corporate email for 9 months.  It’s only 9 minutes long and well worth watching.

I just love these stories.  I’m not sure that I’m ready for a “no email” policy just yet but I find it interesting that everything continued as normal for Luis at IBM.  Business moved on and it really didn’t interfere with his day job.  It tells me that organisations are starting to realise that a social approach to business is certainly worth seriously considering.  Some are already reaping the rewards. 

A recent McKinsey study – Rise of the networked enterprise: Web 2.0 finds its payday – found that 27% of the organisations using Web 2.0 technology internally experienced both market share gains against their competitors, higher profit margins and market leadership.  By creating a networked organisation, decision-making power moved lower in the hierarchy, information was shared readily, organisational resilience was strengthened and employee productivity improved.  Moreover, they became “learning organisations” in which lessons from interacting with one set of stakeholders in turn improve the ability to realize value in interactions with others.

We’re moving toward a social way of working at SAP using Jive Software to help connect networks internally, improve employee productivity and share expertise.  We’re connecting knowledge keepers with knowledge seekers! 

But it isn’t just about software.  It’s a cultural shift – a way of working.  Leaders need to recognise the value of open, transparent collaboration between all layers of the organisation.  Yes, it’s risky and yes, it’s sometimes painful.  If you ask your employees what they think of something then you might not like all of the responses but hey, surely it’s best to hear that feedback upfront rather than overhearing at the coffee machine…or worse still, via social networks!

How social is your organisation?  Are you reaping the rewards or too early to say?