The Social Media Policy provides guidelines for employees using social media, both personally and on behalf of the company. It emphasizes responsible use, maintaining productivity, and ensuring the company’s image and confidentiality are upheld. The policy also outlines potential disciplinary actions for violations.
This sample Employee Social Media Policy is a good starting point for fleshing out your own policy for use of social media in the workplace by your employees.
The social media policy should include:
Most of your employees are likely to use one or more social platforms. Whatever they post on their personal accounts can be a potential risk for your company (e.g. if they share sensitive information). And, more importantly, using social media at work can affect productivity and focus. This is one of the reasons you need a company social media policy – to address limitations on what employees can post and to potentially place restrictions on social media use inside the workplace.
The other reason is your own social media profile; as an organization, you’ll want to have a consistent voice on your social media and want to avoid posting potentially risky statements or information. A social media policy for employees can give them the instructions they need to know how to handle corporate accounts.
Your employees own their social media profiles, so what they post there can’t be restricted by your organization. You can, however, provide them with reasonable guidelines about what they shouldn’t post about (e.g. confidential data) and provide any potential disciplinary actions if their posts affect your company’s image (e.g. hate speech). As far as your own company’s social media accounts are concerned, you’re entitled to set the rules of posting.
Your social media policy should be part of your employee handbook or live inside your policy database (e.g. in your HRIS). Make sure all employees have read it, especially those in your social media team.
Of course, remember that this policy is a living document – this is because the social media landscape changes often, new rules and regulations about privacy are introduced and trends can also play a part (e.g. the #metoo movement). Make sure you keep up-to-date with changes and think about whether your company social media policy might need some revamping.
Here’s a simple social media policy template to get you started with the essentials:
Our social media company policy provides a framework for using social media. Social media is a place where people exchange information, opinions and experiences to learn, develop and have fun. Whether you’re handling a corporate account or using one of your own, you should remain productive and avoid damaging our organization in any way. This policy provides practical advice to avoid issues that might arise by careless use of social media in the workplace.
We expect all our employees to follow this policy.
Also, by “social media”, we refer to a variety of online communities like blogs, social networks, chat rooms and forums – not just platforms like Facebook or Twitter.
This policy is built around two different elements: one, using personal social media at work and two, representing our company through social media.
We [allow] our employees to access their personal accounts at work. But, we expect you to act responsibly and ensure your productivity isn’t affected.
Whether you’re using your accounts for business or personal purposes, you may easily get sidetracked by the vast amount of available content. So, please restrict your use to a few minutes per work day.
We ask you to be careful when posting on social media, too. We can’t restrict what you post there, but we expect you to adhere to our confidentiality policies at all times. We also caution you to avoid violating our anti-harassment policies or posting something that might make your collaboration with your colleagues more difficult (e.g. hate speech against groups where colleagues belong to). In general, please:
Some employees represent our company by handling corporate social media accounts or speak on our company’s behalf. When you’re sitting behind a corporate social media account, we expect you to act carefully and responsibly to protect our company’s image and reputation. You should:
We’ll monitor all social media postings on our corporate account.
We may have to take disciplinary action leading up to and including termination if employees do not follow this policy’s guidelines. Examples of non-conformity with the employee social media policy include but are not limited to:
If you violate this policy inadvertently, you may receive a reprimand. We expect you to comply after that, or stricter disciplinary actions will apply.
| Disclaimer: This policy template is meant to provide general guidelines and should be used as a reference. It may not take into account all relevant local, state or federal laws and is not a legal document. Neither the author nor Workable will assume any legal liability that may arise from the use of this policy. |
What is an example of a social media policy? A social media policy outlines guidelines for employees' personal and professional use of social platforms, ensuring company reputation, confidentiality, and productivity are maintained. Why is a social media policy important? It safeguards the company's image, ensures consistent communication, protects confidential information, and promotes responsible social media use among employees. What should a social media policy include? It should cover guidelines for personal and company account use, confidentiality rules, representation of the company's voice, and potential disciplinary actions for violations. How should employees handle negative comments on company accounts? They should remain respectful, address criticism constructively, avoid deleting comments without reason, and engage in polite conversations. Can employees post about the company on their personal accounts? While they can't be restricted, they should adhere to confidentiality policies, avoid derogatory content, and clarify that opinions are personal, not company-endorsed.
