SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY

Prepared for
Trey Erwin
Business English Teacher

Prepared by
Juan David Ibez Crdenas
Business Administration Student

Universidad del Norte

Barranquilla Atlntico
November
2016
 Table of Contents
Executive summary.3
Introduction.4

Great examples of companys social media policy4

Benefits of establishing a social media policy5

Conclusions and recommendations6

References...7
 Executive summary

This report presents which are the most relevant bearings that a companys social media
policy should contain and what are the main reasons to establish a policy about social
media inside an organization. Due to everything that is posted on social media can be
watched by anyone with online access, businesses managers should be very careful with the
good image of the enterprise, which can be damaged because of negative comments or
disclosure of confidential information by any of its employees. My recommendation is to
focus on policies about keeping the good image of your company, treating the audience in a
respectful way and to not allow the disclosure of confidential information in the media. In
addition, the establishment of a social media policy allows you to protect your companys
reputation, to reduce and avoid confusion regarding any legal problems and to get more
clients and boost your brand recognition.
 Introduction
Nowadays, the use of social media has grown exponentially over the last years. Some
people use it just for entertainment, others to be informed, and others to cause damage. It is
a well-known fact that the citizens are in all their right to post almost anything they want in
social media, and they cannot be kept from this easily. However, in the case of the usage of
social media by the employees of a company, there is a solution that allows the companies
to restrict their workers about how much they can use and what can they post on social
media. This solution is the establishment of a social media policy, which guides the
employees to handle their social media with proper judgment, common sense, and to not
compromise directly the name of the company. Therefore, this report will range from
showing great examples of social media policies from three different companies, the
benefits of establishing a social media policy, and the final conclusions and
recommendations.

Great examples of companys social media policy

Here there are the most relevant aspects of great social media policies from three companies
which work in very different market sectors, ranging from sports apparel manufacturers,
consumer electronics, to printed media publications: Adidas Group, Best Buy, and Los
Angeles Times.

According to Adidas Group social media policy

(2011), if you are about to post something related to company matters and you are not an
official spokesperson of the group, you should state that it is your personal opinion and it
doesnt necessarily represent the opinion of the company. It also displays that you must not
share information that is on the internal network and is meant for internal use only. And on
the other hand, it says that you have to respect your audience, avoiding the use of ethnic
slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or any other type of immoral conduct.
In accordance with Best Buy social media policy (2009), if you are talking about company
matters you should state that it is your opinion and it doesnt represent the organizations
thoughts. It also claims that you should be careful with the personal information that you
share on media. You should be honest about your position when posting on blogs and you
must be respectful with the audience no matter their age, sex, religion, sexual orientation,
national origin, gender identity and any other legally recognized protected aspects. Besides,
it shows that you should never disclose promotions and financial, personal, or legal
information.

According to Los Angeles Times social media guidelines (2009), if you are posting
something, you should be very careful that it will neither shame the enterprise nor
compromise your skills to realize your job. Even though, you try to separate your personal
life from your professional life when posting online, you should be aware that this will
merge eventually and could be a problem for you. In addition, it states that you must
identify yourself as an LA Times employee when posting online, assuming that you would
do it in the same situation offline.

Benefits of establishing a social media policy

Below are three main reasons to establish a social media policy according to (Henricks,
2011):

To protect your companys reputation, stating to your employees what content

they should not post in the social media, which could compromise the good name of
the company, and what kind of profile pictures they should have. Besides it could
suggest to your employees what to answer if any reporter or investigator tries to
contact them directly through their social media profiles.
 To reduce confusion regarding any troubled legal problems. You cannot do
certain things against your employees regarding something you didnt like that they
posted online, like for instance a case that Henricks cites from Boudreaux (2012)
about the manager of a New Jersey restaurant who fired one of his employees, due
to he was posting some complaints about the restaurant on a private social media,
where the manager secretly entered to see it. In accordance to the law, an employee
cannot be fired for a reason like this, so the manager and the company itself faced
several charges for this. Therefore, if you already established what kind of things
your employees are allowed to and not to post online you will be able to avoid these
embarrassing and troubled situations.

To get more clients and boost your brand. Despite a social media policy may be
composed with restrictions mostly, you should know that it can also include tips
about how your employees can use correctly their social media profiles, with the
purpose of make indirect advertising to the company and accomplish business
goals. This can be made when employees comment on social networks or blogs
mentioning the company in order to boost brand awareness and drive traffic to the
company's site (Henricks, 2011).

Conclusions and recommendations

According to the research, establishing a social media policy in your organization is a very
important procedure that should be made with extremely attention taking into account any
possible consequence that could arise.

A social media policy can help your company to protect its good image from any possible
bad comment or situation generated by your employees, to avoid any legal problem that
may arise due to online postings and to get more clients and free advertising.

With the three great examples of companys social media policy in mind, these are the most
important aspects that must be on your social media guideline:

1. State to your employees that anything they post on their social media about
company matters has to clarify that is him or her opinion and not companys
thoughts in case they are not the spokespersons.
2. Express to your employees that they should not be disrespectful with their audience
no matter the age, sex, religion, sexual orientation or any other legally recognized
protected aspects.
3. Display to your employees that they cannot disclose any companys confidential
information or any information that is on the internal network of the organization.
 References

Adidas Group (2011) adidas Group Social Media Guideline. Social Media Guidelines for
adidas Group employees. Retrieved from: http://blog.adidas-
group.com/guidelines/adidas-group-social-media-guidelines/

Best Buy (2009) Best Buy Social Media Policy. Be smart. Be respectful. Be human. Best
Buy Support. Retrieved from: http://forums.bestbuy.com/t5/Welcome-News/Best-
Buy-Social-Media-Policy/td-p/20492

Boudreaux, C. (2013) The Most Powerful Brand on Earth. How to Transform Teams,
Empower Employees, Integrate Partners and Mobilize Customers to Beat the
Competition in Digital and Social Media.

Henricks, M. (2011) Why You Need a Social Media Policy. Three reasons small businesses
benefit from even the most basic guidelines. Retrieved from:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217813

Los Angeles Times (2009) Times updates social media guidelines. Readers' Representative
Journal. A conversation on newsroom ethics and standards. Retrieved from:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/readers/2009/11/updated-social-media-
guidelines.html