Question

Topic: Social Media

Policy And Standards For Social Media

Posted by Anonymous on 10/21/2009 at 10:43 AM ET 250 Points
I work for a health care system and we have ventured into the world of social media. Currently, we have a system FB and Twitter page. However, recently I have been approached by several departments and physician practices within our system about creating their own presence on these sites.

While in theory, it would be a great idea my concern is these rogue sites becoming a marketing and communications nightmare. Their postings may not be in line with our system's mission or stance on issues.

Does anyone have a policy, process and graphical standards in place to address such requests? Any help in this matter would be excellent.
To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by Levon on 10/21/2009 at 11:40 AM Member
    The point of social media is that it is a free media that is not constrained by regulation. It is a real dialogue that can't be sugar coated or controlled especially from a consumer advocacy standpoint. I would suggest claiming the official status to the media pages you take ownership of and can control. For everyone else's pages- let the market dictate their fate. You can try to combat consumer advocacy by addressing problems as they arise and having a good PR role in the social media spectrum.
  • Posted on 10/21/2009 at 11:50 AM Author
    Hi Levon,

    Thanks for responding. While I agree social is best when not constrained, I am more concerned with the communications coming from my internal staff and not necessarily from the consumer.

    I more interested in learning if organizations follow a brand standard in design of each page, do they review the content or posts before their staff updates FB or tweets, and does marketing and PR monitor what they the internal staff.

    Like traditional marketing efforts there are process/guidelines one must follow to develop a brochure, ad or use a logo. Are people following similar meaures when utilizing social media?
  • Posted by Peter (henna gaijin) on 10/21/2009 at 12:06 PM Member
    Manny of these same issues have been dealt with under blogs - check out articles like:

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/9/blog-five-tips-earn-customer-trust-smith.a...

    https://www.marketingprofs.com/9/social-media-reality-check-walsh.asp
  • Posted by Gary Bloomer on 10/21/2009 at 12:21 PM Accepted
    Dear Krista,

    I understand your concerns and given the need for the management of messages, press, PR, and so on I think they're concerns that are valid.

    Although social media might be seen as free, from a corporate and PR viewpoint it may benefit an organization as a whole to—if not control, then at the very least to monitor what's said, about what, by whom, how often, and when.

    Unauthorized or misleading messages distributed via social media on company time, about company business—particularly messages that may be false, misleading, inaccurate, malicious, or in direct contravention of a do not disclose or confidentiality policy can cause all kinds of trouble and may—at the discretion of the company or organization involved—be terms for either suspension or termination of employment.

    It is up to the organization or company involved to put policies in place to cover itself, and to ensure its employees know, understand, and comply with policy.

    Unless doing otherwise is deemed—possibly by the courts or an investigative committee—to be in the interests of the public, or unless the disclosure of such information reveals some illegal activity. An example here might be tweets on Twitter about a drug that's been rushed to market without having been tested properly and that the manufacturer KNOWS is harming people. Or perhaps someone who knows about insider trading that the SEC might need to investigate.

    The thing to do is to produce a policy that's right for YOU and to ensure it's monitored and, if necessary, policed as appropriate.

    There are all kinds of policy documents available online.

    Here are a few examples that might be useful.

    https://www.seattle.gov/pan/SocialMediaPolicy.htm

    https://www.welchmanpierpoint.com/blog/policies-standards-and-guidelines-–-...

    https://www.centernetworks.com/social-media-standards-launches

    https://www.stevensilvers.com/2009/08/six-standards-for-employee-use-of-soc...

    I hope this helps.

    Gary Bloomer
    Wilmington, DE, USA
  • Posted on 10/21/2009 at 12:54 PM Author
    Gary,

    Thanks for your feedback. I will certainly take a look at the referenced sites. Creating a social media policy definitely seems to be a necessary measure, now I just need to determine how this will be monitored and managed from a branding perspective.

    Thanks,
    Krista
  • Posted on 10/23/2009 at 8:26 AM Accepted
    Hi krista,

    This is a great list for social media policy examples

    https://123socialmedia.com/2009/01/23/social-media-policy-examples/


    Thanks,
    Mary
  • Posted on 10/23/2009 at 8:53 AM Author
    Thanks for everyone's response. Your direction has been helpful and I have been able to find some great resources to help me begin development of a policy.
BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Social Media)