Social Media Guidelines

In chapter 5 of Share This, The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals we took a look at Social
media guidelines. Social media guidelines are a must have for every business, as it's important to know what you expect from your company and employees with social media. "Social media guidelines differ from organization to organization: one size does not fit all." (Waddington, 2012)

While doing some research online, I found a website that contained 16 social media guidelines pulled from specific companies and their guidelines. One example is from Zappos and there's was quite simple, "be real and use your best judgment." (Lake, 2009) When looking at this guideline, Zappos wants their company to do what is best, but also not make a fool of themselves and promote to company in the best way possible. "Three points were pulled from the Intel social media guidelines and they were always pause and think before posting, perception is reality and it's a conversation." (Lake, 2009) When looking at each of these points individuals, I believe the most important is to always pause and think before posting because once you post something on the web you can't take it back.

When looking through the book and coming across the employee do's and don'ts part of the social media guideline, I believe it is important to have this included in the guidelines, but also discussing the do's and don'ts with the employees. A few of the key do's for employees from this chapter were think before you post, correct errors openly and quickly, be respectful and check organizational guidelines. A few of the key don'ts for employees are being fake and revealing confidential information.

When looking at what both the book said and the website with
some key guidelines pulled out from specific companies there were many similarities. One of the biggest similarities I seemed to find was the fact that you should always think before you post, whether it be a personal account or a company account. While taking a deeper look into social media guidelines, it's important for all companies to have some sort of social media guidelines in place as you never know when your company may need it. As a company it's also important to educate your employees about correct social media policies, so they represent your company in a positive light.

Lake, C. (2009, December 2). In Econsultancy. Retrieved October 5, 2015, from https://econsultancy.com/blog/5049-16-social-media-guidelines-used-by-real-companies/

ebrary, I., & Waddington, S. (2012). Share this: The social media handbook for PR professionals. Chichester, West Sussex, U.K.: John Wiley & Sons.