In today’s day and age, every business (and every customer) uses social media in some form or another. This means that businesses need to maintain a positive social media presence and make sure their employees don’t say things on social media that can get the company in trouble. That’s where your employee social media policy comes in. The policy is designed to let employees know what they should – and more importantly – should not be doing on social media. But many companies are unsure of how to start writing their social media policy.
As an experienced social media law firm, we’ve reviewed hundreds of social media policies and have learned best practices for drafting them. We’ve learned that a great way to start your policy is to tell people why you have the policy in the first place – and what the policy is designed to do.
Your first step in writing your social media policy should be to draft a statement of the goals that the company is working to achieve through the use of social media and how using social media responsibly furthers everyone’s interest. This will provide employees with a clear understanding of their right to use social media, while also providing specific guidelines setting forth prohibited social media activity.
To help you get started, here’s an example of a introductory statement that was contained in a social media policy approved by the National Labor Relations Board:
At ABC Corp., we understand that social media can be a fun and rewarding way to share your life and opinions with family, friends, and co-workers around the world. However, use of social media also presents certain risks and carries with it certain responsibilities. To assist you in making responsible decisions about your use of social media, we have established these guidelines for appropriate use of social media.
Once you set down your introductory statement, you are now free to tailor the policy to your specific business and the types of risks you are likely to face. This is key. Each business experiences different social media legal risks based on their unique business activities.
Over the years, our social media lawyers have worked with businesses in all industries – and one common mistake we see are companies that will copy and paste someone else’s social media policy to save time and money. That’s a big mistake. Why?
Because there’s no “one size fits all” social media policy has been created. You should tailor your policy to the specific needs of your company. For example, a hospital or medical services company that maintains patient information governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (“HIPAA”) should incorporate those elements into its social media policy: “Employees are prohibited from using or disclosing confidential patient information, including personal health information as defined in HIPAA, outside of employment.”
Tailoring the policy to your business will help you guard against the social media risks that your business faces. If you are unsure how to identify your specific risks, you may consider commissioning a social media risk assessment. A social media risk assessment will you identify the types of legal risk your company is exposed to on social media, and how to better protect yourself through social media policies, procedures, contracts, and other preventative measures.
