Why Companies need a Social media policy? Workplace Leadership

Until a few years ago social media policies in most organizations were rare or too simplistic. Unlike policies for telephone usage, office computer, and email most company management didn’t think it was important to write a policy because they considered social media activities of employees as their private business. But social media has erased that distinction and now introduced several direct and indirect threats to companies.

Organizations have now realized that no matter how separate an employee’s social accounts and office work may be ultimately someone, somewhere can link that employee’s unacceptable actions on social directly to your organization. This means an employee’s private post and behaviors on social media can adversely impact a company’s reputation if they post something unacceptable. So, most companies nowadays have realized the importance of having a clear social media policy to protect them from unnecessary hassles caused by immature employees.

Reasons for Social Media Policy

Threats to Company’s Reputation – Any business that opens social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, etc., for the purpose of posting news and marketing information about their products and services will soon realize that they can be hit by various comments, replies, and screenshots by anonymous users worldwide. This can be both good and bad. For example, an employee may be doing his job perfectly in the office. But at home, if he is doing unacceptable things and exhibiting abusive behaviors on the internet then someone somewhere on the planet may link or post screenshots of that person’s behaviors on his company’s social media accounts or comments section.