Social Media Policy: Corporate, Personal Responsibility

As I pointed out in a previous post, much of the impetus for this blog is an ongoing conversation with Crystal Peterson, Doe Anderson’s Sr. VP and Director of Human Resources, about the deliniation between an employee’s right to have a personal life online and the company’s right to monitor it. While I promise Crystal is preparing a blog post on that and other topics for us to devour, Jeremiah Owyang’s post today offered some advice on trust and the employer/employee relationship. I think it points out a simple, yet effective approach to social media/social networking policy:

1) Companies: Hire the right employees that have integrity, sound business judgment, and know how to communicate both internaly and externally
2) Companies: Trust in these employees to be your ambassadors to the world, give them the benefit of the doubt, and let them self-correct amongst themselves. I also advise instituting internal communication tools to help them, and setting down basic guidelines…often created BY the employees.
3) Employees: Those out in the social sphere should act their best, demonstrate your ability, and try not to embarrass the company. If you do make a mistake, quickly apologize, correct the mistake. Always act in an ethical manner.
4) Social Sphere: That’s everyone else in the world, is to simply recognize the challenges as companies move forward in this new world.

Jeremiah has long been a thought leader in the realm of social media and web strategy, but his ability to cut through the clutter and simplify an issue is why I read him. You can find him at www.web-strategist.com/blog/ or go ahead and subscribe to his RSS Feed here.

Oh, and I’m sure Crystal will chime in with a comment.

IMAGE: From www.pragia.cz