Organizations across the globe are implementing social media strategies to accomplish multiple objectives. Brand awareness, customer service, sales and customer engagement are popular reasons to enter into the realm of social marketing. However, before a social media strategy can be considered complete, it has to address new legal risks and responsibilities.
Best practices to minimize legal/regulatory risk are to:
1. Define your tolerance for transparency
Blogs and communities thrive on transparency; you cannot have conversation unless there is something to talk about. But, each organization has to weigh their tolerance based on their industry and their fiduciary/regulatory obligations.
2. Review and update existing policies
The creation of content via the web can potentially impact existing regulations including:
- Privacy
- Employee Ethics
- Confidentiality
- Electronic communication
It is essential that policy handbooks and other collateral are amended to ensure an organization minimizes their risk for both internal and external audiences.
3. Train staff on new policies
Once the new policies are defined and amended, its imperative employees understand the new rules and the risks associated with non-compliance. It’s not enough to give each employee a copy of the new handbook. Employees need to demonstrate understanding via interactive training or testing, especially if they will be involved in online content creation and dissemination.
4. Act in an ethical manner
Pretending to be a consumer or paying people to talk positively about your product/service is misleading and unethical. If your product receives scores of bad reviews, be grateful your community gave you that information and ask them for ideas on how to improve your product.
5. Protect your organization but do not diminish the value of social media
Banning employees from social networking and social media sites is both ineffective because of mobile devices, and limits knowledge that can be gleaned from these sites. The key to minimizing risk is ensuring employees understand the policies for an organization. In addition, monitoring web traffic is a more effective way to ensure your organization is aligned on the right side of the law.
Cheers,
Danni
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