The question of opening your company to being social is challenging for most businesses. But what if your business is one where client confidentiality and information security is critical?
I recently gave a talk to a group of Financial Advisors where client confidentiality came up as a reason why the Financial Services sector was reluctant to embrace social media.
While some in the audience were allowed access to LinkedIn, others had no access to any social networking site.
The fact that everyone who uses social media is now a content creator has created a new world of privacy, security, intellectual property, employment practices, and other legal risks.
But then again so did the introduction of the telephone, the fax machine and (gasp) the email.
Restricting employee access to social media sites at work, doesn’t eliminate the need to address these risks because they’re likely using social media tools at home or at work, on company equipment or on their own.
Technology changes fast – people don’t.
What scares a lot of businesses is that social media is a two way interactive experience. Until recently, media was an advertising channel, not an engagement one.
It’s not just banks and insurance companies that are afraid of letting their employees to play in the social media park.
I’ve had small business clients who didn’t want any of their employees involved in social media, saying that it would distract them from their work.
I wonder if they noticed how many times these very same employees were texting and tweeting on the job.
These are the last holdouts to the inevitable social evolution. We’re already seeing how social media is moving beyond marketing to being integrated in all aspects of the company.
Being good at “social” is being good at “business”
Every business needs to listen to and interact with their clients.
Since those very same clients are likely to be on social networks, it seems sensible that companies be there to listen to what they have to say and take the opportunity to respond to their questions, comments and criticisms.
Yes, it’s complicated and yes, your employees are on those same networks.
This is all the more reason to encourage them to be ambassadors as well.
According to Albert Camus: “Integrity has no need of rules.”
…but people do.
Every company, large or small has its own specific social media needs and so it’s important to be proactive and create a social media guideline – whether or not you have a formal social media presence in place.
(5 examples of corporate Social Media Policies)
As a small business, you don’t need a complex policy buried in legalese. Although it needs to meet legal standards, an easy to read guideline that gives employees clear parameters for engaging on social networks is important to distribute and update regularly as technologies change.
The Ministry Health Care and Affinity Health System attached such a guideline to their legal policy. Here’s a summary:
Don’t betray our patient’s trust – (and don’t get arrested)
Don’t get fired - (harming reputation of the Ministry)
Don’t Cheat Your Employer – (No Facebooking when you’re supposed to be working)
Don’t Think Your Facebook Posts are Private
Don’t Jeopardize Your Reputation and/or Future Employment Opportunities – (be aware that everything you put on the web adds to your online reputation)
Don’t Alienate Your Co-workers
Ministry loves the Internet – (encourages employees to use it)
We need a Tech Savvy Workforce – (acknowledgment that skills developed using the Internet improve the IT skills)
The Best Advertising Used to be Word-of-Mouth – Now it is – Word-of-Keyboard
Share Your Knowledge
It’s important to analyze your specific needs so that you can create a customized social media guideline that educates employees about sound and safe social media practices at work and at home.
Even if your company isn’t taking an active part online, most likely, your clients and your employees are.
With a solid social media guideline in place, your company will be protected, your employees invested and your clients respected.
“The opportunity to interact with anyone, anywhere, anytime is too world-changing to ignore.”
What percentage of you (or your clients) have open access to social media sites at work?
Ray Hiltz is a Social Media Strategist with management roots in restaurant, hotel and performing arts.
A strong proponent for the power of collaborative communication and "humanized" digital networking, Ray writes about social media, social business and Google Plus.
His clients include hotels, restaurants, consulting firms, entrepreneurs, writers and individuals just trying to make sense of "social".
Ray is a popular speaker on Social Media, Social Business and Google+.
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