Why you need a Social Media Policy – David Meerman Scott with Vivienne Storey

Posted by Adam Franklin

If you’re wondering how to get involved in social media and ‘protect yourself’ at the same time then you’re not alone!

Arguably the biggest fear people have is that staff will run rampant and give the company a bad name.  Or worse still, that customers will air their grievances publicly and it will end up being a marketing & PR nightmare.

The good news is there’s a way forward — a social media policy!

Firstly a huge thank you to Vivienne Storey (@mysocialpolicy) from Blands Law for this interview with David Meerman Scott (@dmscott) at last week’s Real-Time Marketing & PR masterclass organised by The Growth Faculty (@BizGrowthTips).

Vivienne’s original post is David Meerman Scott Talks Social Media Policies

Watch David Meerman Scott explain why your organisation needs a social media policy.  Maybe even show your boss!

Why you need a social media policy

Vivienne Storey:
Why do you need a Social Media Policy?

David Meerman Scott:
You need a social media policy so that people can get out there and communicate with their audiences. It’s like using the phone, it’s like using email. Everybody should have the ability but not the requirement to be active in social networking because that’s the way humans are communicating now. We’re going through a revolution in the way people communicate and there are hundreds of millions of people who are engaging in social networking and so your company should be doing it too.

Vivienne Storey:
What would you include in social media guidelines?

David Meerman Scott:
Guidelines are how to refer to yourself.  You should have in your guidelines how you should treat the different social networks. You should have a clear demarkation between what is your personal – as an employee what is personal to you and what is a corporate responibility.

You should have guidelines on things like not talking about things that are secret within the organisation. Perhaps guidelines about not saying anything negative about the competition, you should probably have guidelines about not disclosing anything about clients or other people within the organisation. Just the various things that make sense.

What I like to say is that if your mother would say it’s wrong, it probably is, so you need to put that into your guidelines.  The “Mother Rule” I call it. What are the things that my mother would say is bad about social media.You know…

• Don’t say bad things about each other
• Don’t throw sand in people’s face
• Don’t pull the girl’s hair, David

Get these things into your guidelines!

Vivienne Storey aka @mysocialpolicy

Vivienne Storey:
Ok, great. Thank you.
*********

Vivienne Storey is General Manager of Blands Law in Sydney and specialises in social media policies.
You can contact Vivienne at @mysocialpolicy, at www.BlandsLaw.com.au or on (02) 9805 5600.

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Adam Franklin is the co-author of Web Marketing That Works. He also released 33 free marketing templates (free download). He is co-host of the top rating iTunes podcast, is an international social media speaker and marketing manager of Bluewire Media.

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