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Online reputation management is high on many organisations’ agendas – and justifiably so. Because neglecting social media policy can have some very unintended consequences. We all hear and read stories every day about the power of social media and its ability to connect and amplify in ways that have never been seen before.
It would therefore seem to follow, as night day, that choosing the person in whom you entrust the keys to your social media efforts is an important decision. This person should be a trusted and capable employee, your greatest brand ambassador and someone who really understands, and can successfully communicate your key messages, in line with your communication strategy.
It all sounds pretty straightforward, doesn’t it?
Just a little word of warning though. Having taken the leap of faith and chosen your internal social media expert, it is probably best not to sack that person without warning.
Or, at the very least, think about taking the passwords back first.
The latest case in point? HMV in the UK fell into exactly this trap, and learnt the hard way about the power of social media, when its Twitter administrator found herself and 59 others retrenched with no notice.
The employee wasted no time in letting the brand’s 60,000 followers, not to mention the world, know.
“There are over 60 of us being fired at once. Mass execution of loyal employees who love the brand.”
Pretty embarrassing, and made all the more so by the fact that the employee did not trash the brand, abuse her managers or make racist slurs, which by all accounts seems to be the usual reaction to this kind of event.
In the end, the fallout from the case could have been much worse.
The employee was eminently reasonable, gave HMV the password and helped them change her as administrator, and even HMV responded well :
“One of our departing colleagues was understandably upset. We’re still here thou, thx for supporting hmv thro these challenging times”.
In this case, embarrassment was the worst of it, but in some other cases, the stakes have been much higher, and for those cases that have gone to court, the chips have fallen both ways.
In the case of an Apple employee who criticised the iPhone, its applications and his workplace, the court found that Apple’s corporate reputation was critical to its success, and that as such Apple was justified in terminating his employment.
On the other hand, in the case of the Linfox truck driver sacked for making derogatory comments about his managers outside of working hours on his personal Facebook page, Linfox was made to re-instate the driver.
Fair Work Australia found that the driver’s Facebook page was not a web blog intended to be on public display, and that his comments were akin to the kinds of comments that employees letting off steam might make in a pub, albeit in this case in an electronic format. They were ‘foolish’, but were not grounds for dismissal.
Most importantly, in this case, Fair Work Australia made the comment that in the “current electronic age, many large companies have published detailed social media policies and taken pains to acquaint their employees with those policies. Linfox did not.”
So, as specialist communicators, what does this tell us about managing social media? And how far can (or should) you control what your employees say and do on their personal social media sites.
Again, the answer isn’t necessarily crystal clear.
While it is common now for employers to scan the social media profiles of potential employees prior to employment, in some cases, potential employees have been asked for their profile passwords during interviews so that their potential employer can log into their social media profiles during the interview. And that feels a lot like going too far.
I think a very good start lies in the advice that my colleague Katharine Verville gave to Tony Abbott when he reportedly issued a directive to his MPs, urging them not to use Twitter or to tweet on behalf of the LNP. It holds true for all corporates :
- Get yourself a social media policy. This should outline very clearly the topics and language off limits to employees. Make sure your employees understand the policy and how it applies to them. “Take pains to acquaint your employees with your policies,” as the Fair Work Australia Commissioner so rightly said.
- Make sure your ambassadors understand your key messages. This goes for all forms of communication, whether via social media or not.
But what about the balancing act of upholding employees’ right to express themselves (in particular in their personal profiles outside of work hours) with the right of others not to feel bullied or harassed?
The ‘Big Brother’ approach of policing everything is likely to provoke outrage in employees, (and has resulted in industrial action in the past), but then again, not spelling out expectations of appropriate behaviours can result in disaster as well, not to mention lawsuits.
No doubt the answer lies in developing and promoting a positive workplace culture, where appropriate value are outlined, properly communicated to employees and upheld and encouraged by employers.
All of which should help give rise to a coherent and sensible social media policy, well communicated and executed. Easy. And essential.
