Organizational Social Media Policies: Developments in Practice and Research

Melissa D. Dodd, Ph.D.University of Central Florida

@mellydoddmelissa.dodd@ucf.edu

Queen of the Sky

• Year: 2003

• Ellen Simonetti

• Filed suit against Delta in 2005 and settled for undisclosed amount

• National media attention; guest articles in New York Times, among others; book deal

• Initiated blogger’s rights committee and petition

HMV

• Year: 2013

• HMV lays off 200 employees, including their SM account manager

• “We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired! Exciting! #hmvXFactorFiring”

• “Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks) ask ‘How do I shut down Twitter?’”

• Headlines in nearly every major newspaper on both sides of the Atlantic

Corporate Social Media

• Manpower’s study (2010) found that 75% of employers (of the 34,400 responses worldwide) say their organizations do NOT have formal policies regarding SM

• Yet, 73% of Fortune 500 companies have Twitter accounts, and SM is a staple corporate strategy, forecast to unlock some $1.3 trillion in value in the years ahead (Fast Company, 2013)

• Why? Overnight, social media has gone from dorm room toy to boardroom tool.

Public Relations Role

• Strategic communicators quickly recognized as those most capable of managing SM due to expertise in communication, public and media relations

• Wright & Hinson (2009) found that agreement as to whether or not SM affected internal communication grew from 38% in 2008 to 45% in 2009; and research and measurement of employee use of social media increased from 3% in 2006 to 25% in 2009

• Supa & Kelly (2012) reviewed SM policies of 26 higher-ed institutions, concluding that 50% were administered by strategic communicators and 12% by interdepartmental task forces

• Elving (2005): “applications emerging from this new technology offer a wide range of opportunities for reaching two of the main goals of internal communication: (a) communication to inform and (b) communication aimed at creating community”

Primary Research

• Dodd, M.D. & Stacks, D.W. (2013). Organizational social media policies and best practices recommendations. In Al-Deen, H. & Hendricks, J. (Eds). Social Media and Strategic Communication. pp. 159-179. Palgrave Macmillan Publishers: London, England.

• Despite emphasis on PR role and legal ramifications detailed in both research (Terilli, Driscoll, & Stacks, 2008) and practice, little actual guidance exists re:– Involvement by whom?– Details of policy content– Merging of strategic communication best practices with legal– Implementation by whom?

Method

• In-depth reading and content analysis of existing organizational SM policies aimed at internal audiences

• Random sample (n=45) of organizational policies from existing, freely available online directory – Corporate (n=15)– Nonprofit (n=15)– Government (n=15)

• Large organizations with conservatively estimated internal audience for policies average = 50,031 and revenues/endowments/budgets all in the millions-billions

Results

• SM policy themes

• PR concepts

• Best practices recommendations

Major Takeaways

• What was included:– Social media defined (80%)– Personal v. organizational use defined (84%)– Prohibited content (91%)– Privacy (89%)– Transparency (87%)– Reputation (82%)– Ethics (78%)

• PR > legal re: policies• On the surface, it seems the ideas of best practices from extant PR literature are present, but

we know from existing SM literature/practices that these may be more lip service than practice

Major Takeaways

• What was NOT included:

– Mission/vision/values/objectives (53%)– Evaluation (76%)– Empowerment (57%)– On the job use policy (58%)– Disciplinary action (58%)– How-to/best practices approaches per platforms (67%)

• Lack of strategy, links to objectives and evaluation• Focus on prohibitive versus empowering approach• Remains a lack of clear policy surrounding on the job use and disciplinary action

A BEST PRACTICES TEMPLATE

I. Summary & Introduction

• Collaborative effort: communication, legal, and IT departments

• One page summary letter from the CEO

• Purpose of policy: not to stifle personal expression or limit rights, rather to empower

“These online social media principles have been developed to help empower our associates to participate in this new frontier

of communications, represent our Company, and share the optimistic and positive spirits of our brands”

–Coca-Cola Co.

• Scope (including personal v. professional use) and who it applies to

“In general, what you do on your own time is your affair. However, activities in or outside of work that affect your IBM job

performance, the performance of others, or IBM’s business interests are a proper focus for company policy … When the company wishes to communicate publicly as a company –

whether to the marketplace or to the general public – it has well established means to do so. Only those officially designated by

IBM have authorization to speak on behalf of the company” -IBM

II. SM, Use, & Best Practices • Define and update regularly

• Connect to organization mission/goals/objectives

• Prohibited content: (a) official representation of the organization; copyright/trademark; (c) private information; and (d) content that is disparaging to the organization (Sears)

• Process by which comments and complaints can be submitted to the company

Goal: To recruit potential Girl Scouts, volunteers, and donors, and retain current Girl Scout membership … To continue to

strengthen the message that we are building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place”

-Girl Scouts of America

“Loose tweets sink fleets” -U.S. Navy

III. SM Management

• Content

• Frequency

• Moderation

• Evaluation

“Avoid public disputes. Avoid sarcasm. Think before responding”

-Xerox

“We will moderate all comments and responses to Bread’s social media. We will ensure that no spam, profanity,

defamatory, inappropriate or libelous language will be posted to our sites. Neither will we use such language when we post

comments to other people’s sites” –Bread for the World

IV. Best Practices

• Concluding section with best practices per platform

• Collect digital signatures that read/understand

• SM Policies for your reference:– Kodak

– Coca-Cola

– Best Buy

– IBM

Current Controversies & Future Forecasts

• U.S. National Labor Relations Board (2012) re: Hispanics United (see Myers, in-press PR Review)– prohibits employers from firing employees for social media posts that contain work-related

grievances.

• Employer access to SM usernames/passwords for employees and potential employees– 16 U.S. states have enacted prohibitions stating that employers cannot retaliate against employees

or refuse hire based on refusal to provide SM access

• A global trend: France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Canada, China, Brazil, and South Africa

• Beyond guidelines, strategy!

Thank You!

Melissa D. Dodd, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Advertising-Public Relations

University of Central Florida

melissa.dodd@ucf.edu

@mellydodd