Hey, it’s just our policy man!

A funny but very sad Blog post on Fast Company came out yesterday entitled, “How to Get Fired Using Twitter”.  It does raise a major question: What are your Social Media Policies?   I don’t need to worry too much, because I’m not a big company.  But the issue of Social Media policy has been coming up a lot lately in my conversations.  

Kind of a double-edged sword here, right?  Well think, if you’re using Social Media Tools for marketing a person or a brand, what about other staff in the organization? How freely are the employees allowed to speak?  And if so, are you clear about acceptable Social Media activities within your organization and outside of your organization, especially when it comes to your brand?  Are you just hoping the ‘peeps’ are doing the right thing?  Have you thought about what could happen to your brand reputation or the reputation of your executives? 

Some people have become very Anti-Social Media because of this dark side – in fact I met someone last week worried about this very issue.  It’s a good issue to be worried about.  But it’s kind of like driving a car – without proper training and understanding, a driver can hurt or even kill people.  For the most part, good drivers understand the rules of the road and the magnitude their actions as a driver, so they don’t kill themselves or others (random Moose standing on the road in the middle of the night, notwithstanding).  With Social Media, you can apply some of the same principles – know the magnitude of your actions, from the smallest Facebook entry to the largest of Twitter Campaigns.   If you educate yourself and understand how both good things and bad things can happen, you have a chance of being very successful and being very good at it.

I attended an event back in early February held by Gowlings and this very issue was discussed.  Your employees “owe you (and your company) a duty of good faith”, but do you really know the law when it comes to Social Media?  As you start ramping up your Social Media efforts, don’t be frightened by it, just educate yourself a bit (a.k.a. take a driver ed course) know your rights, your responsibilities and the potential pitfalls!  Look,  no one wants to be heavy-handed, because after all Social Media, for many, is about being outspoken and having a platform to say what you want, when you want.  But how close to the edge are you willing to let employees go?  What are you prepared for?