Step#3 – Building Social Media Guidelines

[tweetmeme source= “brennels” only_single=false]So you believe in yourself and you have buy in from the executive team so the next step is to build your plan. You should probably have a good idea of what this plan includes since you have already had to sell it to the executive team.

Your first thought might be “I need to build a community” or “I need to create a viral video” but there is something that needs to be done first. Step #3 – Social Media Guidelines. You won’t be the only one engaging in social media, so you need to put together some guidelines for employees to follow. In fact believe it or not probably 90% of existing employees are already on Facebook or Twitter sharing pictures of their children or vacations.

So, establishing company social media guidelines will be a critical first step for recruiting others to engage as well as ease the concerns of the executive team. Don’t bother going to your legal counsel because, at least when a few years ago, there wasn’t any precedent established for rules of engagement. So, I created my own rules and guidelines for the company and kept it simple on purpose.

Social Media Guidelines
– Adhere to company policy, confidentiality agreements and if you are a public company only share what has already been made public
– Keep it professional: No one wants to hear winching and complaining from anyone so keep content positive, professional and most of all useful
– Listen and Engage – Listen to your customers and what people are saying and then engage them in conversation to assist and add value to the discussion
– Have Fun! – If it isn’t fun then don’t share.

It is really that simple for creating social media guidelines and this will be the foundation you will share with your internal teams to help recruit their assistance with expanding your brand.

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