Posts filed under ‘Policies’
How to Get Legal to Embrace Social Tools
For any business heavily governed by compliance or legal policies, this article from Social Media today shares some important tips for working with those areas as you develop your social media plan. Legal Versus Social: 7 Steps to an Amicable Relationship
Facebook at Work = More or Less Productive?
CIOZone recently published an in-depth and thought provoking read in their article “Social Media in the Workplace: Boon or Bane?” The article dissects a Nucleus Research study that casts a negative light on social media in businesses – with a central finding that when employees use Facebook at work, it leads to a 1.5% productivity loss. 
The article rather effortlessly contradicts many of the Nucleus arguments while pointing to a host of studies that report more favorable findings about social media use at the office. One additional curiosity raised: given the bottom line recommendation that companies block access to Facebook, the article questions the possibility that one of the the Nucleus technology vendor clients sponsored the study.
The CIOZone article goes on to cite a myriad of additional studies on Facebook and social media use that present balanced or generally positive findings and conclusions. The discussion is rounded out by reviewing the trend of the blending of work and personal life and quotes from proponents of social media use explaining how it increases productivity on the job.
Read the full article from CIOZone, “Social Media in the Workplace: Boon or Bane?
What do you think? Have you ever had to work through lunch, when a quick five minutes checking your friends updates was your only break? Do you know someone who spends hours a day on social media sites? Do you feel you need to check work e-mail when you’re not at work? Does that make it reasonable to connect with personal social networks at the office?
(Note: In case there was any question, I created this post from home.)
Social Media Policy Tips to Help You Get Started
As you start to draft your social media policy, Mashable offers some general rules of thumb for what to include in their article “1o Must Haves for Social Media Policies”.
Make it clear what employees can say when they use social media.
If you’re ready to go but need a little help getting started, here is a sample social media policy template from Jaffe Associates, a PR agency serving law firms. Although their template focuses on lawyers and firms, the basic issues covered in this template can apply to many different types of businesses.
Defining Social Media Policies: An Inside-Out Approach
In upcoming posts, we will address social media policies, including surveying what other businesses have done and tips for starting your own.
Before tackling external policies, it can be beneficial to first define your company’s internal social media policies. What are your employees saying about your company on their own personal blogs or Facebook or LinkedIn? What information about your company should be considered appropriate to comment on? What topics are off-limits? Remember to review any existing general communications policies for background.
Starting with an internal evaluation will help you in several ways. First, it provides you with perspective on how your employees are engaging in social media. It also establishes a framework for approaching forthcoming external policies and strategies. Another benefit: by engaging multiple departments and key stakeholders to contribute to the process, you raise awareness of the importance of social media. If more decision-makers understand the importance of social media and how it impacts your organizatoin, it may be easier to get support and sign-off when it’s time to pitch your social media strategies.
The following article from Dave Fleet offers clear guidance on common issues to look out for.
Making the Case for Social Media In Your Business
Still not convinced social media is right for your business? Or, you want to move forward but simply need to make the case to a boss or other decision-maker? Check out the following article featured in Mashable, which covers a few high-level shifts that social media is causing in business:
- From “Trying to Sell” to “Making Connections”
- From “Large Campaigns” to “Small Acts”
- From “Controlling our Images” to “Being Ourselves”
- From “Hard to Reach” to “Available Everywhere”
Top Questions for Social Media
Questions to consider before you develop a social media strategy.
If you’re not sure where to begin, consider the following questions that I drafted along with a few of my colleagues. They are intended to serve as an outline for determining whether or not social media makes sense for your business and how to move forward. I would love your comments on any of these questions and your thoughts regarding other questions. (more…)
Can We Afford to Prohibit Our Employees From Using Social Networking?
If your company is in a highly regulated industry, like financial services, the decision to jump on the social networking bandwagon will likely require a lot of vetting through legal and compliance. This can be a huge headache for everyone. Although it’s much easier for compliance / legal to say “no” until a formal policy is drafted, I think this is unrealistic for a number of reasons, some of which I’ll cover in an upcoming post. This article covers the general issues from both the Finra regulatory body standpoint and the internal firm perspective.
“Catching Clients Vs. Catching Grief on the Web” from Wall Street Journal, 9/21/09:
http://blogs.wsj.com/financial-adviser/2009/09/21/catching-clients-vs-catching-grief-on-the-web/
“We Need a Social Media Strategy”
“We need to develop a social media strategy.”
I’ve heard this phrase a lot lately from my peers in marketing.
Possible Translations:
- “I have no idea what a social media strategy is, but someone better figure it out”
- “I don’t know what Twitter even is, but I have to be on it because it seems that’s what good brands do.”
- “My competition uses social media, and I’m worried they’re eating my lunch because we aren’t in the space.”
- “Because our customers use social media, if our business has a presence on Facebook, I can check off a box that we have a social media strategy.”
The Bandwagon Never Looked So Complex. Learn more before you jump on it.
Upon a few probing questions to “We need a social media strategy”, it’s not uncommon to learn that these same individuals have never had a blog, been on Twitter or set up a Facebook account.
As marketers we need to first have a sense of the landscape if we ever want a chance of keeping of doing this right. So set up a blog, get a Twitter account or join a new social network today for the simple goal of having a sense of what these tools are that you talk about wanting to use in your marketing plan. Think of it as a personal test drive before you venture into the real deal making decisions for your business or brand.
