One of the hottest topics in social media today is the idea of companies developing social media policies, much like HR policies. Companies may not be able to control what their employees do on their personal social networking accounts (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) but they can certainly outline potential consequences.
Here are some examples of what other companies are doing.
Social Media & Blogging Guidelines
Examples on the Web
POLICY EXAMPLES
- Blog Council – Disclosure Policy
- Greteman Group (Marketing Agency)
- HP Code of Conduct
- Opera Employee Blogging Policies
- BBC – Editorial Guidelines, personal use of Social Networking
- US Navy – Web 2.0 – Utilizing New Web Tools
- CivilService – Code for Online Participation
- (CIPR) Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Guidelines
- US Air Force Social Media Policy (with flow chart)
- Porter Novelli (PR Firm – added 2-26-08)
- Government Policy (added 2-26-08)
- Dow Jones Social Media Interaction Policy
- WellsFargo Community Guidelines
- Wall Street Journal
- GM Motors Blogging Policy
- Gartner Web Participation Policy
- Associated Press Social Media Policy
- ESPN Employee Social Media Policy
- ESPN Talent / Anchor Social Media Policy
- IBM social media guidelines
- Intel social media policy
- Sun social media guidelines
- DePaul social media guidelines
- Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR)
- Coca Cola
- Generic example you can modify/use
And here’s a huge database of social media policies (gathered by Social Media Governance)
Finally, here’s a post from Mashable — 10 must haves for your social media policy.
Thanks to these posts for sourcing some of the guidelines. 123 Social Media and ChristyWeb
