Social Media Policy for Your Workplace – Dealing with Facebook, Twitter, Blogs at Work

A social media policy outlines for employees the guidelines or principles of communicating in the online world.

A social media policy can be a company’s first line of defense to mitigate risk for both employer and employee.  You may already have a confidentiality agreement but it might not be enough.  Adding a few lines in the employee handbook to clarify that the confidentiality agreement covers employee interactions on social media sites might suffice.  But it is advised to create a separate social media policy to have something specific on file and accessible to employees and that they are aware of the policies existence.

When drafting a policy, be sure to:

1.    Remind employees to familiarise themselves with the employment agreement and policies included in the employee handbook.

2.    State that the policy applies to multi-media, social networking websites, and blogs for both professional and personal use.

3.    Internet postings should not disclose any information that is confidential or proprietary to the company or to any third party that has disclosed information to the company.

4.    If an employee comments on any aspect of the company’s business they must clearly identify themselves as an employee and include a disclaimer.  The disclaimer should be something like “the views expressed are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of the company.”

6.    Internet postings should not include company logos or trademarks unless permission is asked for and granted.

7.    Internet postings must respect copyright, privacy, fair use, financial disclosure, and other applicable laws.

8.    Employees should neither claim nor imply that they are speaking on the company’s behalf.

9.    Corporate blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, etc., could require approval when the employee is posting about the company and the industry.

10.    That the company reserves the right to request that certain subjects are avoided, withdraw certain posts, and remove inappropriate comments.