Why You Need A Social Media Policy in 2010

Policies are dull. No one wants to create them, no one likes to read them and certainly, few desire the job of enforcing them.  But they can play an important role in outlining the rules of engagement around a particular set of online behaviors and have a strong role to play in the face of new situations where there are no standards.  This is especially true with the wild west world of social media in business.

There are so many (too many?) social tools available to employees. For free, any employee can create a Twitter or Facebook account, create a LinkedIn or Xing profile, hook their email to Plaxo, start a blog, write a post in a forum, leave a comment, rate an article and the list goes on.  But what can and should they be doing with these powerful tools?  In one fell swoop a well-meaning person can damage another person's reputation or threaten the confidentiality of a corporate initiative.  Just yesterday, for example, I saw a colleague had tweeted about a new contract providing social media guidance to a company that is on one of my client's competitive watch lists.  We now know, with some degree of certainty, that we need to watch that competitor closely in the future as they are likely to emerge with some social media footprint. This information, in turn, has accelerated my client's competitive approach.  The Tweeter was just expressing joy about a new client.  But the ripple effect was used to impact change.

Most companies enter seriously into the social media sphere as a result of a crisis.  Something bad happens and then it is like a peewee soccer league where everyone reacts and runs towards the ball.  This is not an ideal situation to be in and mistakes are often made as positions are not well played.  These social media crisis situations can happen to anyone and can be minimized with proper planning. On the flip side, organizations can *create* positive opportunities for the company by helping employees understand what is OK so they can be free to communicate positively.  If you have 20K employees you now have the power to engage millions of people by leveraging the reach of your staff.  But if staff are uncertain about what they can and can't do online, many will avoid the social channel which can be a missed opportunity for the company.

As Enterprise-level social media gains widespread adoption in 2010, it is time to help guide staff to understand what is expected of them online and as a representative of the company.  In many ways, the goal of an effective policy is not to squelch social media usage but to clearly define what is and is not acceptable for employees as a representative of the organization.

Some questions to consider when formulating a plan:
What is your company culture like? Make sure that the social media policy reinforces company culture -  an informal organization will have a different policy than, say, a government agency.
How do you want the employees to engage with clients and prospects? Take into account the in-person sales and marketing channel strategy and align the social media policy to those best practices.
What is considered confidential to your organization? Spell out what kind of information can and can't be shared publicly.
How should staff represent them selves to others?  Standardize or provide guidelines so that there is an evenness to your online footprint.  Should all sales staff, for example, use a similar moniker in their Twitter name or is it up to the person to decide?
What does transparency mean to your company?  Too often people confuse personal opinion with company-representation.  Can staff in your organization share displeasure with the company's product or services online without disclosing that she works for your company?

Once a policy has been developed - don't stop there - people need help understanding what it all means.  Provide training and examples to illustrate the points.  Social media is so new to many people that there is no single shared understanding and skill level.

Social media policy is more complicated than a list of do's and don't - it needs to account for human behavior and focus on how to leverage the social channel appropriately.  Your staff are online. Here is the opportunity to make the most of it and help them succeed personally and professionally along the way.

Have You Appreciated Your Community Members Today?

A community is only as strong as its membership base. The members of any community are the lifeblood of the organization - be it online or offline. A successful community is a vibrant organism - rich with peer connections, collaboration, content and knowledge sharing.  Each member who makes a contribution to the community should be appreciated for taking the time and effort to put forth some of their knowledge for others to benefit.  Each contribution makes the community a more valuable destination for others.  When a professional offers insight publicly, shares an idea, posts a comment, contributes to a survey, or connects to a peer the benefits ripple across the community.   

Companies who sponsor or create an online community are the hosts of a potentially global, 24X7 salon of ideas. Yet, too often, community members are thought of as marketing "targets" or "constituents" and not valued for the contributions they make to the community.  Ironically, the more senior the professional, the more "targeted" they often are - which is exactly the wrong approach with relationship building.  This was reinforced by the New Symbiosis For Professional Networks research that Don Bulmer and I recently completed where professionals reported that the most important thing a professional network can offer them is access to information they couldn't get elsewhere, whereas the primary goal of many companies is to market to members!

Community members - especially those within professional networks - need to be properly valued and thanked for keeping the community alive. A great social infrastructure without members is an empty place.  There are many ways that a company or community host can show appreciation for their community members. When developing community operations, Member Retention Programs are essential and should become a visible part.

1) Select key community leaders or newcomers to the community and feature them - Showcase their knowledge in order to validate their efforts.

2) Issue them "knowledge-gifts" - Share information or content from your organization that they couldn't get elsewhere that could make their jobs easier, e.g. a product roadmap, an article or something of intellectual value

3) Provide them access to a thought-leader -  If a community member holds a key IT role within their organization, for example, they may benefit from being virtually introduced to an esteemed peer or someone within your company who can help them do their job better

4) Send a thank you note to key contributors to let them know you value their efforts -  Heck, paper and pen still work and can be an unanticipated treat!

5) In-person events are always appreciated - Host a reception at an industry event and invite members to attend a private event. This allows you to meet them in person and it is always fun to be invited somewhere.

6) Be accessible and supportive when key contributors' participation drops off. Typically, when an active member of a professional community wanes in participation, chances are they have undue work burdens or a problem they are dealing with.  Reach out to them and offer to be of assistance. Perhaps they need some information or content from the community to support their work challenge but don't have time to gather it.  Such assistance can get them through a tough time.

While these efforts can seem daunting with larger online communities with many members, it is important to keep in mind that they can be applied selectively and over time as part of a Member Retention Program.  In this age of digital scale, we are programmed to think and service customers and clients with batch processes.  However, at the end of the day, each and every community member matters.  The sum is greater than the parts.