Checklist For Employee Social Media Policy
A Few Tips about these Guidelines
Most companies have existing employee policies that address matters such as business confidentiality, employee privacy expectations, and business ethics. These are many of the same issues that arise during employee use of social media outlets, and those legacy policies may therefore already address some of these matters. What follows is a checklist of matters specific to social media use (although some of these policies should also be adopted generally by employers).
1. Social Media on Company Time
- Limit posting or browsing on social media sites company time to company business matters.
- Employee use of e-mail and the internet in the workplace is subject to monitoring and so too, by extension, are postings on social media outlets.
2. Discussion of Company Business
- Confidentiality of company information must be observed when making social media postings.
- Posting or discussion of company confidential or sensitive information is prohibited (financial, marketing, intellectual property, etc.).
- Identification of company customers or vendors should be done only after obtaining their consent, and not at all if client identities are confidential.
3.Content Guidelines
- Posting of content that is obscene, pornographic, harassing, or defamatory is prohibited.
- Posting of content that is derogatory to the company is prohibited.
- Obtain permissions when posting content that contains the intellectual property of a party outside the company (such as matter subject to copyright or trademark protection). Give clear attribution when posting content of any third party.
4.Company Content on Social Media Sites
- Posting of content on behalf of the company is performed by a designated company representative (name that individual or title).
- Responding to content related to the company appearing on social media outlets is addressed by a designated company representative (name that individual or title). Employees should refer all relevant company-related content to that representative.
Prepared by:
Sharon L. Toerek
Licata & Toerek
July 2009
©2009 Sharon L. Toerek
Additional Resources
Social Media in the Workplace Power Point