Introducing the topic of "Social Media Governance," marketing
strategist and attorney Glen Gilmore explained, "Governance is about how
a company establishes and sustains social networking best practices by
integrating social media into its corporate culture. It's the evolution
of 'social media' into 'social business'." Ever the attorney, Gilmore
added his own disclaimer: "Nothing in this post should be considered
legal advice as that would require a consultation with an attorney from
your own jurisdiction. These ten tips are should help companies create
sustainable best practices in new media marketing."
1. Create a Governance Team.
2012
should be the year in which business gets serious about social media
governance, integrating social business into corporate culture.
Your
governance team should reflect a cross section of your organization and
it should become a center of excellence for your business. Silos do not
work.
A governance team should bring together diverse talent,
including marketing, customer service, IT, legal, and human relations,
to share in learning, establish best practices, and create benchmarks
for excellence, while humanizing your brand and driving business
results.
2. Establish/Update A Social Media Policy.
If your
organization doesn't have a social networking policy, you are courting
disaster as you are inviting even a single employee to have the power to
redefine your brand in one inadvertent or ill-conceived post.
If,
on the other hand, your organization was an early adopter of new media
(or at least an early adopter of a social media policy!), it is likely
time to update your policy. In the past year, the National Labor
Relations Board has rendered over a hundred decisions touching on the
topic of employee use of social media, with many of the Board's actions
prompted by overly broad social networking policies that were deemed to
having a "chilling effect" on employee protected speed.
The law is
finally catching up to the implications of the huge amount of
communication, marketing and conversation taking place on platforms such
as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, vlogs, etc. Your policy and
guidelines should reflect those changes and clarifications.
An
abundance of model policies exists online. Be mindful that some of the
policies you may find online may also be in need of updating or just
plain wrong. You need to invest in getting your policy right and the
proper policy for your organization may vary immensely depending on they
type of organization you are and the degree of existing regulatory
guidelines you must follow.
3. Create a Playbook
Unlike your
social media policy, which establishes the rules and limits of online
social engagement, your playbook should be more of "how-to" book for
your employees, a reference that provides examples of what should and
should not be done on social networks. Social network profile templates
providing suggestions on how to best project a professional and
consistent brand image should be included.
4. Establish a Social Media Communications Crisis Management Plan.
Along
the way, your business will invariably have a crisis that will require
it to muster its social networking resources. Prepare for the crisis
before it happens. This should include creating a response chart of who
within your organization would be tasked with what and how they would be
contacted, as most crises seem to happen after 5:00 p.m. or on a
weekend. Have round-tables to identify the events most likely to trigger
a communications crisis within your organization and then do some
training exercises to run through how you charts and policies would
work.
If you are a larger organizations, you likely already have crisis communications plans - they need to include social.
Knowing
the mechanics of what to do if an employee has sent a mistweet from a
corporate Twitter account (hint: don't ignore it!) or what to do if your
social network account has been hijacked by a spammer, are some of the
scenarios you should review.
Be sure to cover this topic in both your playbook.
5. Take the Time to Learn the FTC's Social Media Disclosure Guidelines.
In
2009, the Federal Trade Commission, which characterizes itself as "the
nation's consumer protection agency", updated its endorsement guidelines
to include social media, addressing the disclosure requirement for
sponsored bloggers and those that sponsor them, along with a series of.
Most marketers have never read them. Put them on your reading list!
(When the FTC's social media guidelines first came out in 2009, I
blogged about about them: they haven't changed. New FTC Rules: Business
and Bloggers Beware)
Succinctly, contrary to a large body of
writing on the subject, disclosure "tabs", "buttons", "links", and
static profile disclosures do not suffice to satisfy the FTC's
disclosure requirements. (Disclosures are required within the context of
the social conversation.)
6. Provide Your Employees with Social Media Training.
Most
of your employees are using social networks, such as Facebook and
Twitter, throughout the day, rdgardless of what your company policy may
say to the contrary. Get over it. Instead, give your employees the
training they deserve so that when they are using social media their
time spent there will become an asset to your business rather than a
ticking bomb.
7. Create a Decision Tree.
Just as call center
employees are often provided with a decision tree to help them to
quickly answer a myriad of questions, a social media decision tree
should also be established to help employees understand the dynamics of
responding on behalf of a brand in social networks. The U.S. Air Force
even developed a new media decision tree that the pharmaceutical Pfizer
later used as the basis for its own. Social media governance should aim
to simplify social networking participation for employees, while still
relying on the good sense of employees to personalize the social
conversation. A decision tree will also add to brand consistency.
8. Streamline Access to Compliance and Legal.
Social
media engagement is all about "real-time" conversation. It doesn't mean
a brand needs to give an instant response to every post or tweet, but
it does mean that your company should strive to answer questions quickly
-- you can get added time by letting your community know that you have
heard a question or complaint and that are looking into it, but whatever
procedures need to be followed to provide a response must be time
efficient. Having a way to get answers from compliance or legal requires
a new approach that dedicates a greater appreciation for the time
sensitivity of responding to social network inquiries or comments. Work
on a way to accomplish this.
9. Share Regular Updates on Best Practices.
As
social networking continues to evolve, so should your best practices
and your sharing of information about those best practices. Being
attentive to and sharing updated guidance from regulatory agencies
should be part of your updates. (This is a task best assigned to your
governance team with special input from legal.)
10. Monitor, Assess and Audit Your Social Networking Activities.
Even
with the best policies and training, your company's social networking
activities should be monitored and assessed for excellence. This doesn't
mean that every tweet has to be a masterpiece, but that online social
networking engagement is consistent with the brand and contributing to
the building of trust, transparency and brand advocates.
It is
worth noting that many of the FTC's social media-related settlements
have included mandatory outside audits of social networking activities.
Bringing an independent audit into the mix is good idea to help keep
monitoring of social business activities as accurate as possible.
BONUS: Clearly Define Who Owns Company-Related Social Network Accounts.
One
of the legal hot potatoes of 2011, the dastardly debate of who really
owns your Twitter account or your LinkedIn contacts, etc., etc., is set
to be formally answered in 2011.
Without taking away the suspense
of any impending court decision, ownership of a social media account is
subject of debate and litigation if it is not clearly defined and agreed
upon between employers and employees or business partners. Dispel the
ambiguity and legal uncertainty: make a written agreement that covers
the issue.
A written agreement outlining what is to happen with a
social media account opened or operated for a business purpose by an
employee or business partner on behalf of a business is something that
should be expressly defined. Why? Because most now recognize that social
media accounts have a business value and, left undefined, issues of
ownership are likely to arise when business partners or employees part
ways.
