How to Create a Social Media Policy for Your Business

Social media has become deeply ingrained into modern life. While it holds a lot of potential to help businesses grow, social media misuse can lead to huge consequences, which not only damage a brand’s reputation but also affect its privacy and security.

This is why it’s important for brands, whatever the size, to have a social media policy in place.

Social Media Policy: Definition and Importance

A social media policy is a document that provides a framework of how a brand and its employees should conduct their online presence, either professionally or in their personal capacity.

Whether your brand is active on social media or not, it’s crucial for any organization to establish a social media policy because, more than very likely, your employees use social media too.

An official social media policy also provides you with many other benefits, such as:

• Preventing a PR crisis: Among the foremost reasons for having a social media policy is to make sure your brand is represented appropriately online. Having clear guidelines help employees to conduct their online behavior accordingly and prevent a PR crisis.
• Preventing cybersecurity risks: In a report, 22% of security breaches are attributed to social engineering or phishing. Outlining online practices in your social media policy can help mitigate security risks, not only to protect your brand but also to protect your customers’ data.
• Maintaining your brand identity: As mentioned, a social media policy outlines how your brand should be represented online. This helps in making sure your brand identity is consistent throughout your social channels. Social media managers and everyone involved in your marketing and customer service teams are also guided on how to interact with customers in a manner that’s consistent with your brand values.
• Encouraging employee advocacy: Your employees can become your biggest advocates when you have a social media policy and employee engagement strategy in place. Establishing rules on what they’re allowed to post online can encourage them more to amplify your brand message in their personal circles.

Creating Your Social Media Policy: Key Elements to Include

1. Roles and responsibilities

One of the key components of a good social media policy is establishing the roles and responsibilities of each member of your social media marketing team. At the very least, include the following in your policy:

• Who is in charge of your social media marketing (i.e., content, planning, etc.)?
• Who has access to your social channels?
• Where and how can they access your official accounts (i.e., use of VPN, or not using personal devices)?
• Which social channels are used for what purposes?

2. Copyright, privacy, and confidentiality policies

Your policy should include guidelines on how to be compliant with state/country laws relating to copyright, data privacy, and confidentiality, among others. It should also outline the legal consequences and procedures of each violation:

• Content guidelines, especially with images, videos, and music
• Breaching confidential information of the company and/or customers
• Sharing explicit/inappropriate content
• Violating the privacy of customers and/or other employees

3. Private use etiquette

Clearly state what employees are allowed to post and how they should conduct their behavior in their personal accounts with regards to your brand. The aim here is not to stifle your employee’s freedom of expression but to protect your brand from being misrepresented or maligned:

• Defamatory and malicious content about the company and/or customers
• Offensive or derogatory comments about sensitive issues (e.g., race, gender, sex, disability, religion, etc.)
• Posting photos or videos of proprietary content; talking about confidential information online
• Use of company resources for personal gain
• Accessing social media during company hours

4. Disciplinary consequences and crisis management

As a related point to items 2 and 3, it’s important to establish procedures on how your brand deals with non-compliance to your social media policies, in addition to any applicable legal consequences.

Specify the disciplinary actions for each violation, and appoint reasonable consequences as well — i.e., what calls for a warning, a suspension, or termination. It’s also crucial to include a plan of action should a PR crisis occur.

It’s also prudent to consult with your legal team, human resources, PR, and C-level decision-makers for this part of your policy. Coming up with a disciplinary and crisis management plan should be a collaborative approach.

5. Brand style guidelines

Your social media policy may be part of or separate from your brand style guideline. This part should, at the very least, include the following to ensure that your brand identity is consistent throughout:

• Visual style guide: logos, color palettes, fonts and typography, iconography, imagery, photography, etc.
• Editorial style guide: brand’s tone of voice, words to use and avoid, your brand message

Implementing and Reinforcing Your Policy

Every employee in your organization should have easy access to your social media policy. Communication is key to a successful implementation, and great care must also be given to constantly reinforce this.

Lastly, your social media policy should be periodically reviewed. The social media landscape is constantly evolving, so it’s important to regularly update your policies as appropriate.

If you want to know more about social media management and marketing, as well as branding strategy and digital marketing in general, head on to our blog at https://www.ilfusion.com/blog.