Personal Privacy VS Firm Policy in Social Media

Ever since social media began invading the business landscape, there’s been a conundrum over how to balance personal privacy and firm policy. How far is too far to protect the firm, its staff and clients’ interests?

Most of the larger companies like IBM and Zappos encourage their employees to participate in social media marketing and networking. In fact, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh says “you [should] put a lot of executive, managerial and staff time into figuring out how to twitter, what to twitter about and then keeping the tweets flowing. The same with blogs.” That said, Hsieh also says this is in no way a replacement for spending as much time on the phone with your clients as possible.

So while your firm will continue to connect with your clients on a regular basis through phone calls, email and lunch or coffee “dates”, the concept of allowing and even encouraging staff members to participate in social media is still in strong debate. There are a lot of unknowns when it comes to social media and there are substantiated fears that a staff member could create a PR nightmare by releasing unauthorized information or degrading the firm on their personal Facebook page. So how does a firm harness the power of social media without infringing on their staff members’ privacy?

Education is the answer. Create guidelines for participating in social media and train every staff member on the purpose of social media as it relates to your firm. Amber Naslund prefers the term “guidelines” because it’s more about steering than control. And there’s a twist: keep it positive. Instead of focusing on what staff members can’t do, focus on what they can do and how.

Or, you could keep it simple (just for grins):

“FIRM encourages team members to be active in social media as a representative of our firm. Only three rules – be real, add value and don’t say anything that would embarrass your mom. If your mom has low standards, then don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to see on the front page of USA Today.”
-The HR Capitalist Social Media Policy – All You’ll Ever Need…

Whether you create an in-depth set of guidelines or a simple paragraph, your firm will encounter the issue of staff members using social media, whether it’s for personal or professional use. Be proactive and protect your firm and its interests (this includes your human capital and clients, etc). Once you have a written policy in place, schedule a time to begin training your entire staff (receptionist to managing partner) on these guidelines. Finally, remember that this a living document; as new technologies surface, it may be necessary to add new guidelines.

I have created a sample Social Media Policy, or set of Guidelines. If you would like a copy, please send me an email at kristingentry@gmail.com. If you email me to request a copy of the sample policy, please include your firm name, city and state just so I have an idea of who may be using it. And if you do use all or part of it, please let me know; I'd love to see your version! Thanks!

Note: I use and quote the following sources in my research for the Sample Policy. The Sample Policy does not include reference information because it is meant to be used as an in-house document. Therefore, I am citing my references here and I encourage you to check them out:

Elements of Web 2.0 Communication Guidelines

10 Must-Haves for Your Social Media Policy

Intel Social Media Guidelines

IBM Social Computing Guidelines