Social Media Policies For Business: Is It Too Much?

Let’s face it.  Social media is everything.  It’s free marketing, a means of personalizing your company.  Not only can your company directly market themselves on Facebook, Twitter, etc., but also, your employees indirectly represent your company on their personal social media profiles.  With the names of your employees associated with the company website or any other type of media release, from that moment on, these individuals are required to be socially responsible for personally upholding the reputation of the company.  But, how far should companies go to maintain and guarantee such a high social reputation?

Some companies are now creating social media policies, a set of rules and regulations for employees to follow in regards to how they display themselves on social media sites.  Some criteria would include:

  • Displaying as much company information on your profile as possible
  • Controlling the privacy settings so that potential customers can learn about employees
  • Not posting comments or other media that you wouldn’t want Mom to see

Personally, the creation of a social media policy is smart on a company’s part.  It provides documentation that confidential information won’t be shared online and keeps employees from complaining about work or a customer in a post or blog.  I can’t help but think, however, of the lessened control individuals have over their own personal profiles.

So let me hear from you:  Is the tradeoff of keeping your job and promoting your company as a business professional worth the lessened control you have over what you’re allowed to post or talk about online?

SmartFile is a business file mangement platform that gives you more control, compliance and security.

TO SIGN UP