A 2-minute video outlining do’s and don’ts can be far more effective than pages of text. When your Social Media Policy is visible, accessible, and understood, it becomes a part of your company culture—not just a forgotten PDF. By collaborating, you ensure the policy is practical, enforceable, and well-rounded.

Why Every Company Needs A Social Media Policy For Its Employees

Your brand has a personality of its own, consisting of a distinct look, feel, and voice, and this part of the policy helps you nail that every time you post on social media. Whether you post on the company’s official accounts or just mention the company in personal posts, these guidelines ensure everything stays consistent and professional. Social media is a powerful tool for communicating UIS’ message and engaging with audiences on behalf of departments and units. Audiences could include alumni, current students and families, prospective students and families, current colleagues and professional peers.

In effect, Best Buy’s policy covers all scenarios where a Best Buy employee speaks, whether it’s online or in person, on official or unofficial channels, on the clock or off it. Some policies include cybersecurity best practices to protect the company from hacking or phishing attempts. One caveat to this is the National Labor Relations Act, which was expanded in 2023 to protect employees who post on social media with the goal of improving the terms and conditions of their employment. The law does not, however, protect employees who are complaining about their job without an attempt to organize for better working conditions. Many employees incorrectly assume they can speak their mind on social media without consequences. In reality, most U.S. workers are at-will employees, which means employers have a great deal of legal autonomy in deciding what conduct is acceptable.

Guidelines For Posting Content And Sharing

Because social media emphasizes immediacy, access and personal sharing it is particularly important to minimize harm for your audience, your sources, your colleagues and yourself. Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Social media helps journalists find sources, engage audiences and develop story ideas as well as make personal and professional connections. To ensure the highest standards, students in Cronkite News must abide by the following standards for social media use, which reflect the Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics core principles.

Customers

Even though they might be sharing it on their own account, they could be legally responsible for the information they share. Finally, your social media policy can also be implemented into a larger training program, letting your employees know how to use social media properly. Even though there are plenty of social media platforms, posts, and profile options, your employees must know how to use social media properly. A social media policy can be a strong foundation for a training program that can help you guide your employees on using social media properly. Purpose and scope are the ‘why’ and ‘who’ behind the social media policy—why you have these social media guidelines and who needs to follow them.

For example, employees are encouraged to state on their profiles that opinions expressed are their own and not representative of the organization. Companies should also prohibit the disclosure of confidential information on social media to protect proprietary data. An example of an employee violating a social media policy is an employee who posts confidential company information without the company’s approval. Another example is an employee who insults the company publicly on social media. Now that you know what a corporate social media policy is (and its importance), it’s time to go over the key elements that every social media policy for employees should contain. Situations like this are more common than you think, but with a workplace social media policy, you can minimize these risks.

Rather than focus on the negatives and tell employees what they shouldn’t do, it promotes employee trust. The Additional Policy section of the template is open-ended, allowing you to add any specific information about your company or its services. Ensure you maintain an SOP or continuity book to ensure the account seamlessly transitions to new personnel. Use your command’s website or if your organization does not have a website. Social media managers are required to complete OPSEC training to avoid content on their unit’s critical information list (CIL).