Social media is a dangerous thing. While it can present small businesses with vast marketing opportunities, it can also make life very difficult for firms that don’t take it seriously.
According to a recent survey, a third of firms have taken disciplinary action against employees over social media use – often because of something those employees wrote on Facebook or Twitter. In order to harness the power of social media, and prevent potentially damaging situations, you need to think carefully about the way these tools are used by employees.
Why do I need a social media policy?
Social media is a hugely powerful tool for businesses and individuals. It gives everyone the opportunity to connect with huge numbers of people very quickly and very easily. This clearly has enormous benefits for businesses of every size – but it also, inevitably, carries some risks.
Social media, when poorly handled, can be a disaster. A poorly constructed message (or, indeed, any kind of bad news) travels very fast over a medium like Twitter, and it is therefore important that you think carefully about anything said in your business’s name.
As the survey suggests, though, you also need to think about your employees’ use of social media. Who is speaking in your name, and what are they saying?
Read the full article: http://www.simplybusiness.co.uk/knowledge/articles/2011/10/2011-10-28-social-media-and-your-employees-building-a-policy/
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