Our brands are represented by our service, our products, our marketing message and our employees. I believe this is why many companies are fearful of social media.

Companies typically block social media applications such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from work computers for two reasons:

1. Fear of employees wasting time
2. Fear of what an employee will post when they are "on the clock"

I understand. In recent months, we've seen brand catastrophes from employees and social media activity.


This is the reason why every company that has more than two employees needs to have a social media policy in place.

Your employees are your brand ambassadors and they are representing your brand 24/7. The problem is that social media while, a fantastic marketing tool, has increased the awareness of what our employees talk about and do on their on-the-clock hours more visible to both our customers and our clients.

It's important to bring an understanding to employees of the impact they have on your brand and how they can help you in making or breaking that brand.

In just the past week, a local Chief's football player decided to use his Twitter account to tweet inappropriate comments about his coach and individuals. What did that do for the brand of the Chiefs team? If you need more proof regarding the impact of social media and the challenges that companies have faced due to social media outbursts by employees, you don't have to look far.

Here are just a few well-known examples:

Dominos: Two Domino’s Pizza employees thought it was funny to film themselves doing very unhygienic things to the pizza they were preparing and then posted it on YouTube.

Starbucks: Starbucks was notified by a well-known blogger that their Miami location was posting inappropriate photos of their customers on Flickr.

Does this mean that blocking social media networking sites in the workplace is the answer? No, because damage isn't just done during office hours and social media is a viable marketing tool that’s not going to go away.

Truth is, the only way to prevent a social media marketing crisis is by educating and providing guidelines to your employees. A social media policy doesn't have to be complicated but, in order to protect your brand, it needs to establish ground rules for an employee’s participation in social media. Obviously, you cannot take away the freedom of your employees to engage in social media networking sites but, at the same time, you must protect your company's brand. To achieve this, your main objective in your social media policy should be to establish guidelines that don't harness the power of social media as a branding tool, but yet avert public relations disasters using codes of conduct that are formal, but not too overbearing. These guidelines need to be simple and easy to understand so that clarification is not an issue. You will know that you are successful in creating your policy if the final draft allows employees the opportunity to be themselves online but, at the same time, protects your brand.

Don't put off doing this even though it's daunting. You don't want your brand to be the victim of the next public relations disaster.

My personal guideline is pretty simple:

“If you wouldn't post it if your boss was standing over your shoulder or you knew your star client would see it - then don't say it.”

The only other option is to hire employees that love your brand as much as you do and, since that's not always possible, it's time to develop a social media policy and get it in place.

Here are a few examples that can help in developing your own social media policy:

Blogging and Social Media Policy Sample
How to Develop a Social Media Policy
Manage and Monitor Your Online Reputation