Social Media Policy

• Encourage employees to promote your brand's message

• Maintain a positive company image

• Early response in the event of a breach or crisis

• Prevent security breaches

• Define employees' social media responsibilities

A company’s HR department may use social media to improve the workplace. Social media helps with employee communication in place of communication via email. For one, a McKinsey study showed that social media communication can be up to 25% more effective than email correspondence. Employees should be encouraged to share their accomplishments as it can elevate their engagement.

Employees should be encouraged to use their laptops and smartphones. They should be trained on how to use social media to collaborate and promote the company’s image. Coming up with a Social Media Policy is the first step to integrating social media into the workplace. For example, you can encourage the use of Slack and Dropbox as collaboration tools for communication and data flow between employees. HR should analyze the implementation of social media while conducting occasional surveys of the employees for feedback.

Before using social media in your company, you have to be aware of the legal risks. In this regard, your Social Media Policy should cover:
•    Regulatory challenges: Finance, healthcare, government, and some other industries are highly regulated. Your legal counsel should verify and ensure the confirmation of all regulations related to social media posts.
•    Crediting sources: Employees should always credit the source of information and images. If not, the company may be at risk of legal claims as they may be copyrighted. Either ask for permission for the picture or use a non-copyrighted substitute.
•    Disclaimers: Employees need to know that their opinions on social networks can and will impact the company's image.
•    Privacy and disclosure: Employees should know what information can and cannot be shared on social networks.

Scammers and criminals can cause massive damage to both company's reputation and resources. As the number of employees in the company grows, the odds of making mistakes and data breach grow in kind. Online security is vital for all businesses and your Social Media Policy should cover:

•    How to keep devices secured and software updated
•    Procedures if a data breach is to take place
•    How to generate safe passwords for the brand's social media accounts, including the use of two-factor verification
•    How to identify possible risk and attacks on social media