{"id":3222,"date":"2018-10-02T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-10-02T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/does-your-company-need-a-social-media-policy-2\/"},"modified":"2019-06-25T19:05:13","modified_gmt":"2019-06-25T19:05:13","slug":"does-your-company-need-a-social-media-policy-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonusbenefits.com\/does-your-company-need-a-social-media-policy-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Does Your Company Need a Social Media Policy?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, that depends. Are you an organization of one? Then you might be okay. As long as you don’t accidentally sleep-tweet.<\/span><\/p>\n

For everyone else, the answer is yes.<\/p>\n

Even if you think you have the best employees, who would never post anything inappropriate, confidential, or offensive— you still need to have a policy in place. Not only will this help set the ground rules for social media use at work, it will also spell out the consequences for if – or more likely when – things go awry.<\/p>\n

Still not convinced?<\/h3>\n

It’s understandable. You’ve built a great culture and hired fantastic employees who share the same core values. Things are going super smoothly. You’re not worried at all.<\/p>\n

Until you are.<\/p>\n

All it takes is one post, from one person, on or off the clock, and you’ve got yourself a situation.<\/p>\n

They don’t call it going viral for nothing. Social media moves at the speed of light, and social media scandals move even faster. People will seize on a controversial post or idea immediately. They won’t wait to react. They won’t adhere to your time zone or schedule. You could go to sleep one night worry-free and wake up to a serious problem.<\/p>\n

In this scenario, your reaction time needs to be equally swift. But that’s hard to do if you don’t have a framework for how these situations will be handled. And the last thing you want to hear from an employee after the fact is, “I didn’t know!”<\/p>\n

Avoid the confusion<\/h3>\n

Putting out fires as they happen is exhausting. Why not take a lesson from Smokey the Bear and try to prevent them instead? Or at least put an emergency action plan in place for when the flames come rolling through?<\/p>\n

A comprehensive social media policy will help you effectively deal with issues when they arise. It will also let your employees know what your expectations are and what happens if they don’t follow them.<\/p>\n

Here are some key things to include when putting your plan together:<\/p>\n

Social media use at the workplace<\/strong><\/p>\n