Why your company needs a social media policy

When the President of the United States releases policy via Twitter, you know that social media has entered a new and unprecedented age of significance. This also highlights the real and, potentially, damaging impact of uncontrolled social media usage.  

These days, companies must have a strong social media presence to remain relevant, but it can be challenging to balance this fun online persona with your professional company image. This issue is compounded when you have a number of different colleagues managing your company’s social media accounts. How do you maintain consistency of tone, while also ensuring all content posted is on-brand, appropriate and relevant to your company values?

In the same way you have brand guidelines for your official communications, it’s imperative to have a clear and accessible social media policy to manage your company’s online image. This policy will inform colleagues on the appropriate content, tone and frequency of social media posts, ensuring consistency while offering practical guidelines on personal social media usage at work and what constitutes social media abuse. 

With an online social media guide, it’s easy to keep your colleagues informed. An interactive eBook is simple to share, and can even be incorporated into your company intranet for easy access. Even better, you can apply updates to policy in real time without having to take the document offline or incur the costly re-printing expenses you face with printed material. This is especially important given the pace at which social media is growing and evolving.