social media policy

Respond (discussion post) Compare your thoughts on designing a social media policy. Provide constructive feedback to your peers for improving their analyses.

When developing a social media policy it is important that the policy is clear and consistent, and is able to provide examples on what is allowed and not allowed. Moreover, when it comes to legal aspects to policies governing what an employee may or may not do on social media, but a one or two sentence policy is not going to cut it (Johnson, 2017). It is vital when considering a social media policy that when creating a social media policy that it is reviewed, and tweaked to ensure that the expectations are clearly defined so that there are no gray areas that could possibly lead to legal action.

There are challenges and risks when formulating a social media policy. Formulating a policy has to comply with the National Labor Relation Act in which protects employees’ rights to communicate regarding their environment and terms of their employment. Over the past few years the NLRB investigated found reasonable cause to believe that some policies and disciplinary actions violated federal labor law, and the NLRB Office of General Counsel issued complaints against employers alleging unlawful conduct (NLRB, n.d.). Legal questions will arise due to social media always evolving, and it is important for Human Resources to keep updates with current laws and regulations.

Policy that addresses a company’s engagement in social media should be approved and championed from upper management, and also be technologically neutral. This support should have the company’s goals, objectives, governance structure, and company culture. Successful policy creation should be a collaborative effort within the company. Additionally, if records and information management personnel are developing the policy, they should elicit input into policy development from other stakeholder groups, including, but not limited to, Human Resources, Information Technology, Legal, and Marketing (Keys For Developing a Social Media Policy).