According to a 2009 Computer World survey, 69 percent of American businesses have not developed a social media policy. Especially since social media has become as pervasive as ever, posing potential risks to an organization's bottom line. Employees' posts on social networking sites can alienate customers, tarnish an organization's reputation, disclose confidential company information, infringe privacy rights, and become evidence against an organization in court.
Social Media: Reduce the Risk alerts organizations to these risks and provides relevant examples, including true-to-life stories. Explaining the need for a social media policy, it stresses how a typical Code of Conduct is inadequate to regulate online activity and how blocking websites at work is no longer enough. The program elaborates on specific issues that a formal social media policy must address and provides a blueprint for such a policy, citing general guidelines on:
- Content
- Scope and application
- Management and enforcement, and
- Consequences of violations.
The program also advises that the policy should remind employees of the blurring line between personal affairs and business-related matters, i.e. that what employees post on social networking sites can affect the organization's image. In particular, it addresses how a policy relates to the First Amendment, i.e., the right to free speech, and ends by listing safe online practices:
Respect and online etiquette - Accuracy of information, and
- Transparency
In a company cafeteria setting, Social Media: Reduce theRisk explores these topics by re-enacting conversations between employees. The program follows their discussions as they explain the risks of social media, debate the importance of a policy, and exchange insights and opinions.
