According to  statistics published by eMarketer one in five companies have a social media policy in place restricting what employees can and cannot do on external networking sites; with the majority of respondents citing loss of productivity and reputation management being a primary reason for such enforcements.

As previous posts have shown we are all for employees at every level contributing to the company social media efforts and we are certainly not fans of any sort of workplace ban on social media. Social media offers many long term benefits and there is a place for it to be implemented in every marketing plan; if you can get a broad range of employees involved then even better. However, despite being big supporters of social media activity in the workplace it is difficult not to ignore the potential threats many companies could potentially encounter if employees were left to their own devices.

Loss of productivity is one of the most glaringly obvious threats to any company and despite the benefits of contributing to social networks, commenting on blogs and participating in online discussion there is the potential for employees to stray from the corporate path and start catching up on their personal affairs. The simple solution? Kindly ask employees not too, encourage employees to contribute to the company online activities but keep personal socialising to their lunch break.

Control of the corporate reputation is another cause for concern for many companies. Allowing employees to use social media during work hours opens them up to being liable for employees opinions and mistakes; something that could quite easily happen offline or from the employees personal computer. It is in this scenario that a social media policy really becomes invaluable, it is your best friend to managing and guiding employees and how they use company social media. If you choose to leave them with little or no advice as to how they should use or interact online when acting on behalf of the company then you really are leaving yourself open for disaster.

Putting together your social media guidelines

Before introducing any guidelines ensure that employees know what social media is, how it contributes to the marketing of the company and let them know what company social media activities are currently in place. The guidelines should do as the title suggests – guide! Provide guidance on how employees should interact with stakeholders online and put in place a process for responding to anything negative.

Econsultancy provide 16 social media guidelines as used by real companies some excellent examples from this blog article include;

• Separate opinions from facts
• Aim for quality not quantity
• Always pause and think before posting

Similarly, Mashable provide a ‘must-haves’ list for your social media policy which includes a very valuable point which should be expressed to all employees. This is ‘remember to protect confidential and proprietary information’, although with the use of social media we encourage a certain level of transparency there is such a thing as giving too much information away. Ensure that employees understand what they can and cannot talk about so that there is no possibility of a misunderstanding which could lead to the  disclosure of sensitive information to the detriment of the company or client.

No matter what your social media guideline says make sure you encourage employees to get involved and to have fun with it. Social media is there to share and connection and should be a hindrance. To see actual social media guidelines and policies currently being used by a variety of businesses visit Social Media Governance where there is a database holding over 100 social media policies from BBC to Yahoo!.