Pub. 2 2019-2020 |Issue 1

19 Social Media S ome problems you don’t want: legal problems, negative publicity for your business, and the compliance issues that face all car dealerships. Social media can give you all of these problems, despite the way it has also made a positive transformation in communication and marketing throughout the world. That’s not surprising. Something as powerful as social media has got to have a downside to it. Why? There’s an old saying: no piece of paper is so thin that it doesn’t have two sides. Newton’s third law of physics states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What are the two sides of using social media? • It’s powerful. • Your company has to use that power responsibly. Linking the two is not a new idea. Voltaire was the first person to talk about the connection between power and responsibility, but so did Winston Churchill, and it’s present in the kind of popular culture that reaches small children, too: after all, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben told him about the responsibility that comes with great power, which means even a 4-year-old has some idea about how important it is to handle power responsibly. The question is simple: how do you get the benefits and avoid the problems? In other words, how can you use social media as a free promotional tool by allowing employees to post positive news and work-related photos online without also risking negative publicity or even the public sharing of brand secrets? The answer is equally simple. You need two workplace social media policies: • One is for all corporate social media accounts • One for each employee’s social media accounts The policies will guide people so they know what they can say, and (you hope) prevent them from being irresponsible online. Having guidelines for employees to use is only a first line of defense, of course, but it’s a good one. It sets the tone for how things should be said, and it makes it clear what the company values. You will save time by setting expectations in advance, and that translates into increased productivity. Not everyone will need a copy of both policies. Corporate social media accounts are generally managed either by one person or by the applicable department (potentially, departments such as customer service, human resources, or marketing and social media). The people who post on corporate social media accounts are the ones who will need to know the rules for their particular set of responsibilities. When your company hires any new employee, give them clear instructions, and a document containing those instructions that they can refer to later, as part of their initial training. You should also repeat the instructions periodically to people