While the usage of social media can expose closed corporate networks to many malicious code and devastating attacks, one of the problems businesses should worry about is obviously the ‘potential reputational damage’ owing to inadvertent disclosure of certain confidential business data or undesired information. A virus infection that at times is brought about as part of such harmful social media side effects is more of a technical issue. Damage to your organization’s reputation, in contrast, can not only happen very fast but also can get very difficult to fix. It may well carry legal liabilities.
It is important for companies to ensure individual employees show a level of awareness and maturity in terms of following specific do’s and don’ts while employing and integrating networking platforms within a work environment. They must understand the implications of not being judicious or getting careless at times, with their online activities. Here are a few key aspects related to social media policy at workplace:
Relevance of having a social media policy
Most professionals who at least realize the potential impact sense that something is always being said or getting indexed in their online milieu – affecting their own identity or that of their company, brand, products and services. It’s a fact that cannot be ignored. So it is imperative for marketing people to constantly monitor those mentions.
Follow a constructive approach
However, one also needs to differentiate accidental misuse from malicious intent since people are bound to make mistakes. What is more relevant is how an organization actually deals with such mistakes in a methodical and constructive way. It is pertinent to look at why and how mistakes happen and then to implement specific measures and policies so as to prevent these things occurring by mistake or by default in the future.
Bring clarity at each hierarchy level
What holds the key is to bring certain amount of clarity at each hierarchy level within the organization – to spell out clearly as what is acceptable and what is not as far social behavior is concerned. Social elements have and will exist at the workplace. And even while people have definitely changed in the manner that they operate and behave at a societal level, basic business practices have not necessarily evolved that dramatically. They still remain country specific or for that matter organization specific so the risk element is always there.
Define broader social behavior parameters
Most organizations, it has been observed, have created an employee handbook, stating policies and procedures for social networking. But going beyond jotting down of do’s and don’ts, it’s more about setting the tone and underling the way you conduct business and also being clear with those who collaborate with you as to what really is acceptable and not acceptable in terms of broader behavior.
Many organizations harp on day-to-day things that don’t matter in the long run. That is not a right approach. A positive step would be to let people adjust themselves to the new communication realm as opposed to blatantly imposing a set of rigid commandments and things employees cannot fathom or even barring social media in the office.
