Social Media policies and guidelines are vital for every business and employee. Not only are they helpful in ensuring that everyone in a company understands what is expected of them, they can also be a way to empower your employees to feel comfortable and confident in engaging with customers or clients via social media.
Rather than relying on the efforts of a small group of individuals to monitor, engage, interact and report on all activity across the plethora of social networks, blogs, wikis, forums and other locations, a good social media policy or set of guidelines means that the workload can be shared, and the responses can be crafted by those in the best position to respond with the right knowledge on a subject. That also cuts down on response times, as it avoids having to spend time internally contacting the right people within your business and obtain an answer.
Even with a small business, it’s good practice to instill the right guidelines and policies early on. That way you are already building a strong brand image and reputation, and new employees as you grow will pick up the right methodology by example as well as by instruction.
List of Social Media Guidelines and Policies:
| Company Name | Document Name | Link | |
|---|---|---|---|
| AFP | Guidelines for using social media | http://www.afp.com/newsletter/new-social-media-guidelines.pdf | (PDF) |
| American Medical Association | Professionalism in the Use of Social Media | http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/opinion9124.page | |
| BBC | Social Networking, Microblogs and other Third Party Websites | http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/page/guidance-blogs-bbc-full | |
| Boy Scouts of America | Social Media Guidelines | http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Marketing/Resources/SocialMedia.aspx | |
| Cabinet Office | Social Media Guidance for Civil Servants | https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/62361/Social_Media_Guidance.pdf | (PDF) |
| Civil Service | Lets Get Social | http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/news/lets-get-social | |
| Coca Cola | Social Media Principles | http://www.coca-colacompany.com/stories/online-social-media-principles | |
| Exeter University | Social Media Guidelines | http://www.exeter.ac.uk/staff/web/socialmedia/ | |
| Ford | Ford Social Media Guidelines | http://www.slideshare.net/opinionwatch/ford-social-media-guidelines-scoot-monty | |
| HP | Blogging Code of Conduct | http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/codeofconduct.html | |
| IBM | Social Computing Guidelines | http://www.ibm.com/blogs/zz/en/guidelines.html | |
| Imperial College London | Social Media Guidelines | http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/webguide/socialmedia | |
| Intel | Social Media Guidelines | http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/legal/intel-social-media-guidelines.html | |
| International Olympic Committee | Social Media, Blogging and Internet Guidelines | http://www.olympic.org/social-media-and-internet-guidelines | |
| Inter-Paliamentary Union | Social Media Guidelines for Parliaments | http://www.ipu.org/PDF/publications/SMG2013EN.pdf | (PDF) |
| Nursing & Midwifery Council | Social Networking Sites | http://www.nmc-uk.org/nurses-and-midwives/advice-by-topic/a/advice/social-networking-sites/ | |
| Oracle | The Oracle Social Media Participation Policy | https://blogs.oracle.com/otn/entry/the_oracle_social_media_partic | |
| Roche | Roche Social Media Principles | http://www.roche.com/social_media_guidelines.pdf | (PDF) |
| Tesco | Social Media Colleague Guidelines | https://www.ourtesco.com/media/2013/09/social_media_colleague_guide_160913.pdf | (PDF) |
| University of Texas at Austin | Social Media Guidelines | http://www.utexas.edu/know/directory/guidelines/ | |
| Thomson Reuters | Social Media Guidelines | http://thomsonreuters.com/site/social-media-guidelines/ | |
| University College London | Social Media | http://www.ucl.ac.uk/social-media | |
| University of Michigan | Guidelines for the use of social media | http://www.voices.umich.edu/docs/Social-Media-Guidelines.pdf | (PDF) |
| University of York | Social Media Guidelines | http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/resources/policy/social-media-guidelines.htm | |
| Walmart | Walmart's Social Media Guidelines | http://corporate.walmart.com/social-media-guidelines |