Every company should have social media guidelines in place if they have social media accounts. They also need their employees to follow certain guidelines on how they associate themselves with your company when on their personal social media accounts.
Social Media Guidelines
First, most of your employees probably have personal accounts on Twitter, Facebook and other social media apps. Employees should be asked to refrain from associating themselves with the company on these apps. So much can go wrong in the personal space and your company gets dragged into it. If they do associate themselves with the company then they should post a disclaimer stating all opinions are their own.
While an employee is using the company’s social media accounts they should never:
- Speak of politics
- Speak of controversial issues
- Take sides in any arguments
- Always present themselves as the company
- Always be professional in interactions
- Be helpful and courteous to all, even in the worst of circumstances
In a nutshell, the policy should describe the behavior of anyone posting on behalf of the company as the same as the telephone behavior. They are representing the company and speaking as the company on social media accounts. This is no different a situation than any other customer service approach.
What is different about social media, is timing. All social media messages that are directed at the company should be acknowledged and handled within 24 hours. But really, the sooner the better. People on social media that have a customer service issue want immediate attention. However, they will be somewhat patient when sending a message after hours.
There are plenty of examples on the Internet about what to put into your social media guidelines for your employees and contractors. If you’d like to contract out social media and avoid the employee problems with it then give JOHO Marketing a call. We are social media marketing experts.
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