Checklist for Official Social Media-Use Policy for Managed Employees (Part II)

This is the second in our series of posts about writing your company’s official social media use policy. In the first part, we tackled the issue of generalized social media use for your employees when you do NOT want employees engaged as part of your marketing. Many San Diego businesses do want engagement from employees, or at least some employees. So, if your business is encouraging employees to use social media to help drive sales or drive attendance or drive interest in the brand, you need an Official Company Policy on Social Media Use with respect to managed/company-directed employees.

As we wrote in part one, a “policy statement” is a one or two-page document that concisely lists the “dos-and-don’ts” with respect to some set of issues often included in the company employee handbook. A skilled and experienced business attorney can help with this and with any and all company policies. Here is a quick checklist on social media-use guidelines when employees are acting with or under the direction of management.

San Diego Social Media-Use Policy: Disclosing the Employee Relationship

As we discussed with respect to using social media endorsers, the key is disclosure. When any employees use social media to drive sales or traffic, they must disclose prominently that they are employees. Yes, this supposedly reduced effectiveness. Without the disclosure, the social media use is deceptive and can land your San Diego business in hot water with regulators. Plus, effectiveness is not entirely destroyed by disclosure; it just means creativity must increase.

With business reputations being so important in this market environment, it is important to set guidelines for your employees and what they should and should not say on social media. So, at minimum, your social media policy should tell your employees not to badmouth the company.

San Diego Social Media Use Policy: More Detailed Rules and Procedures

Aside from emphasizing the touchstone of “disclosure,” a social media use policy for managed employees should do the following:

• Define and delineate who is responsible for specific tasks
• Set out rules of the number of social media accounts — how many twitter feeds, blogs, snapchats, etc. Define who has control of such accounts — at minimum, management must have the ability to access the accounts, thus, must have the usernames and passwords
• Establish guidelines for payment — if your employees are blogging after hours, are they “working?”
• Understand the purpose of the social media use — e.g., enhancing brand, driving traffic, engaging with customers, generalized social engagement, customer service, research and development, etc. — the purpose of the social media use will guide content
• Create rules for content, frequency of use, message pre-approval
• Set rules for what MUST NOT be discussed on social media — upcoming sales promotions, names and information regarding employees, trade secrets, and other confidential information, etc.
• Create rules for online etiquette, ethics, confidentiality, non-disclosure, anti-discrimination and legal issues — in short, post nothing that would embarrass the company, nothing in bad taste, wrongful, immoral, illegal, or hateful
• Decide how you want to handle political issues — see some thoughts here
• Establish protocols for correcting incorrect or inappropriate social media use — including procedures for terminating an employee’s company-directed social media use
• Create training protocols — training should be periodic and regular

San Diego Social Media Use Policy: Legal Issues

When your managed/directed employees use social media, since they are acting as agents for your San Diego business, there are some additional legal risks. If there is some legal problem, your business will not have the luxury of saying: “Oh, well, they did that on their own time. We are not at fault.” If your employee is posting under the direction of management, then you might be at fault.

A couple of topics of potential concern are:

• Copyright laws: Many think that because a photo can be found somewhere online, then the photo or video is available for use but this is not so; either instruct your employees to ONLY use their own photos/videos or make sure they understand how to credit original sources and the rules of fair use — as an example, always link to the original and never plagiarize.
• Trade libel: Your employees should be made aware of legal issues with respect to business libel; thus comments regarding competitors should be avoided entirely or done with great care.

Contact San Diego Corporate Law Today

If you would like more information about a custom-drafted social media policy, or if it is time to revise your employee handbook, contact attorney Michael Leonard, Esq., of San Diego Corporate Law. Mr. Leonard has extensive experience in drafting employee policies, employee handbooks, employment contracts, and the other contracts and agreements necessary for running your business. Mr. Leonard can be reached at (858) 483-9200 or via email.

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