Social Media Policies: Necessary but not Sufficient

Every organization needs to think about and be prepared to manage the risks associated with operating in the Digital Era. It doesn’t matter whether social media is part of the organization’s strategic agenda, or if the organization itself has any digital presence. It also doesn’t matter how large the organization is, whether it’s for-profit, BtoB or BtoC, or which industry or sector it operates in. To put it simply:

If you employ people, you should have a social media policy.

End of story? Not exactly. Drafting and implementing a social media policy should be considered part of a larger effort to ensure that an organization’s employment policies reflect Digital Era realities, and that both employees and managers understand not just the “new” rules, but also how “old” rules apply in the new era.

There are many social media advocates who suggest (often adamantly) that an organization’s social media policy should be a simple statement to the effect of “don’t say anything stupid.” In my view, that advice is terribly naïve, reflecting a narrow view of human behavior and a lack of understanding of the political, social, and legal environments in which most organizations operate.

I’m generally not a fan of fear mongering, and I don’t like to overwhelm people, but this issue is more complex than many so-called experts will assert – and more challenging than many organizational leaders may want to accept. There is generally no simple solution or “one size fits all” approach, and a “fix-it-and-forget-it” strategy is one few organizations can afford.

In this post, I provide an overview intended to help organizational leaders understand some of these challenges and complexities and begin to map out a (new) course of action for managing Digital Era risks. The post serves as an introduction to a future white paper or monograph that will delve into the subject more deeply.

The post is organized into the following sections. Read or scroll down to learn more.

• Recent “What Were They Thinking?” Examples
• The State of the Social Media Policy-sphere
• The Legal Landscape
• Guidance for Leaders
• Conclusion

 

As an introductory piece, this post lacks depth (as well as some breadth).
I’d love to have it serve as a conversation starter.
Please share your comments/questions & convert the monologue into a dialogue.

RECENT "WHAT WERE THEY THINKING?" EXAMPLES

Both employees and employers can be guilty of poor judgment when it comes to social media activity…

EMPLOYEE EXAMPLES. Last week I shared two stories with the SMinOrgs Community about cases in which individuals shared “questionable” thoughts in cyberspace that had implications for their employers:

• A Fellow at NYU’s Center on Law and Security resigned after posting negative comments on Twitter about CBS war correspondent Lara Logan in response to news about her being sexually assaulted in Cairo (see story here).
• A high school teacher in Pennsylvania was suspended (with pay) after her employer learned about a blog she maintained in which she spoke harshly about students (see story here).

The first case highlights the fact that even experienced social media users can make significant mistakes due to lapses in judgment and/or careless wording (click here for another story about a journalist). The second case highlights several important considerations:

• The teacher’s blog was not part of her official responsibilities and not connected to her formal role.
• She posted on her own time, using her own equipment (for the most part).
• She did not disclose her full name or her employer (though her identity was relatively easy to determine), and she did not reference students by name.

In both cases, it’s not clear what the organization’s social media policies are, or what role those policies played. Because the fellow in the first case admitted wrong-doing and resigned, it may not be critical. But in the second case, the teacher claims to have done nothing wrong and wants to be reinstated. Absent a strong social media policy, the school board may not be able to take disciplinary action against her, regardless of how egregious they (and others) may view her actions as being.

EMPLOYER EXAMPLES. A logical conclusion from the stories above is that social media policies can be viewed as a form of insurance – and it doesn’t make sense to be uninsured or underinsured (think Allstate’s Mayhem!). But many organizations take that “logical conclusion” to the extreme and create a “lockdown” approach in which they block all access to social media sites at work and/or forbid employees to “inappropriately” reference them or their brands in cyberspace.

Some strict social media policies can be legally defensible,  but that doesn’t mean they make the best business sense, as evidenced by the case of a waitress in Atlanta who was fired for negative comments she posted about customers on Facebook (see story here). But in other cases employers have been accused of overreaching and taking an overly broad approach to managing risk. Here are two notable examples that have been at the center of some recent media frenzies:

• The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB ) settled a dispute with a company in Connecticut that they alleged had illegally fired an employee in part for comments she posted on Facebook about her supervisor (which I wrote about here).
• The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sent a letter to Maryland’s Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services (DPSCS or DOC) requesting them to discontinue their practice of requiring job candidates to provide login information for their social media accounts (which I wrote about here).

The NLRB has received another similar complaint in recent weeks, and based on the comments on the February 7^th post on the NLRB’s Facebook page, there could be other cases in the near future, so the challenges to restrictive social media policies may have only just begun.

 

THE STATE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY-SPHERE

A quick review of recent research results and sample policies/guidelines can provide a sense of where things currently stand with respect to social media policies and guidelines …

RESEARCH RESULTS. Here are some studies on social media in organizations published in the last six months.

• CAI: An Analysis of Our Social Media in the Workplace Survey
• Toolbox.com/PJA Social Media Index: Wave VI
• IACP Center for Social Media 2010 Survey Results
• AAM Releases Social Media Study
• The Mercadien Group 2011 Social Media Survey Report
• NASCIO: A National Survey of Social Media Use in State Government

Though many of them include other findings and analyses as well, I want to highlight the results with respect to social media policies:

• The percentage of organizations reporting they’ve implemented social media policies ranges from 24% to 43%.
• In the studies where the question was asked, 23-31% of respondents indicated their organization is currently working on developing a policy.
• In the Toolbox.com study, which included almost 3000 professionals in IT, HR, and Finance, 51-53% of the respondents indicated their organization either didn’t have a social media policy, or they were unsure whether it did.

To obtain even more current results from a broad sample of professionals, I created a LinkedIn poll to assess the status of social media policies in a range of organizations. The results generally corroborate the results of the other studies. Here is a snapshot of the results after 501 votes (click on the image to view the latest results, look at different data “slices,” and read the comments):

 

 

The poll will be open until early March, so please add your vote &/or share the poll.
The response so far has been great, but more votes are welcome!

SAMPLE POLICIES AND GUIDELINES. I advise against taking a “boilerplate” approach to creating a social media policy, and I certainly don’t think it’s wise to simply copy a policy created by another organization, but there is value in benchmarking the policies and guidelines created by others, especially organizations that are relatively sophisticated at leveraging social media.

Several sites aggregate and provide links to publicly-available social media policies and guidelines, as well as related resources. The most well-known of these sites is Social Media Governance, but there are others that also provide large, comprehensive lists of sample policies and other resources, such as:

• Social Media Policies Database
• 57 Social Media Policy Examples and Resources

The sample policies range in complexity, as vary in terms of their content and format. Though it’s important to review a wide variety of them, I would focus on some of the more elaborate examples, as it’s easier to delete aspects that aren’t relevant to your operations than to try to think of what might be missing. Three of the most sophisticated examples are

• Cisco Social Media Policy, Guidelines, and FAQs document
• The United States Army Social Media Handbook
• Navy Command Social Media Handbook

As you review the resources provided on these sites, it’s also important to understand the distinctions between policies and guidelines (though the terms are often used interchangeably):

• Think of policies as well-defined rules about what individuals can and cannot do, many of which can be linked to federal or state laws. Policies also generally apply to ALL employees, regardless of whether they interact with the public using social media as part of their job responsibilities.
• Guidelines, by contrast, are a little fuzzier, reflecting expectations for behavior that may not be as easy to define or enforce. They are also generally created to guide the behavior of employees who interact with outsiders using social media as part of their job responsibilities.

The Cisco Social Media Policy, Guidelines, and FAQs document can be used to illustrate some of these distinctions. Here are samples from the policy and guidelines sections on pages 4 and 5:

Policies:

• Identify yourself as a Cisco employee.
• Do not post confidential or copyrighted information.
• Do not post anything that is defamatory, offensive, harassing, or in violation of any applicable law or … any of Cisco policies.

Guidelines:

• Be responsible.
• Be authentic, factual, and respectful at all times.
• Avoid engaging in on-line disputes.
• Add value.

 

Please add a comment if you know of other research results and/or great resources for sample social media policies/guidelines.

 

THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE

Trying to get a handle on Digital Era legal considerations is like trying to maintain your balance while straddling shifting tectonic plates – especially if, like me, you’re not an attorney. There are specific legal considerations related to the conduct of business, labor and employment law considerations, and a federal, state and even global  legal environment that’s in a near-constant state of flux…  

BUSINESS CONDUCT CONSIDERATIONS. As evidenced by the Cisco example and others provided in the aggregated lists in the preceding section, there are numerous legal requirements to consider in developing a social media policy/guidelines for employees who may discuss their organization and/or its products/services in cyberspace, either as formally (as part of their job responsibilities) or informally. These include:

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC) rules regarding identity and affiliation disclosures, disclaimers, and endorsements
• Regulations regarding the protection of trade secrets, proprietary and confidential information
• Copyright, trademark and intellectual property protections
• Laws of agency
• Privacy protections (e.g., Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA))
• Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) regulations

LABOR AND EMPLOYMENT CONSIDERATIONS. There are also a host of labor and employment laws and regulations that organizations must consider with respect to individual employee behavior in cyberspace. These include:

• Anti-discrimination laws
• Anti-harassment laws
• Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
• National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) (which applies to both union non-union employers)
• Whistleblower protections
• Non-solicitation and non-compete laws
• Defamation laws
• Distracted driving regulations
• Privacy protection requirements
• Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) (when third-parties are used as part of a background screening process)
• Employer negligence (e.g., negligent hiring, negligent referral)

THE CHANGING LEGAL ENVIRONMENT. In addition to the laws cited above, relevant federal laws include the Stored Communications Act, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, and the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. There are also related state laws that vary widely, and for some organizations global laws to contend with as well.

The three federal laws cited in the preceding paragraph were passed in 1986, long before widespread usage of digital technologies. Other relevant laws are even older. The age of these laws is problematic, because they don’t reflect today’s realities, which requires advocates, judges and juries to interpret them in light of their understanding of those realities, which is often limited. The varying interpretations lead to divergent opinions and create a lot of conflicting case law that it will take some time to resolve as the number of cases increases and they make their way through the judicial system. A few examples:

• Employees' Private Email Accounts Not Necessarily Off-Limits To Employers
• Are Contact Lists Still Trade Secrets in the Age of Social Networking Sites?
• eDiscovery & Social Media

Efforts to update both federal and state laws to reflect Digital Era technologies and realities have begun, but the discussions are conflict-ridden and political (see, for example, stories about net neutrality), which means it will be a long time before organizations will have updated regulatory guidance to rely on.

As noted by some of the case examples above, privacy in particular is an area of the law that is undergoing significant changes as societies determine where the lines should be drawn and what the relative rights and responsibilities of various stakeholders should be (it’s also a hotly debated subject in the court of public opinion…) In the ACLU and NLRB cases cited earlier, the outcomes (so far) have been in favor of protecting an employee’s rights, but in Quon vs. the City of Ontario, the U.S. Supreme Court decided in favor of the employer. Last year, judges in Indiana and New York decided that the private social networking activity of two employees was discoverable and relevant to a discrimination case against their employer (see details for the IN case here and for the NY case here). Meanwhile, in Germany, legislation was proposed last summer to ban employers from viewing candidates’ Facebook pages as part of their pre-employment screening process (see this white paper and this blog post for more on the subject of “social screening”).

 

GUIDANCE FOR LEADERS

Enhancing an organization’s ability to manage Digital Era risks requires leaders to think about both outcomes (the “what”) and process (the “how”)…

OUTCOMES. There are several things every employer should do to ensure they’re managing Digital Era risks with a holistic, systemic, and integrative approach. Here’s a high-level checklist of the main activities:

• Determine your overall strategic approach to leveraging social media for both internal and external purposes.
• Develop a social media policy for all employees.
• Review/revise all employment policies to reflect Digital Era technologies and realities.
• Determine a fair and consistent (and realistic) approach to monitoring, enforcement, and discipline.
• Craft social media guidelines for employees who interact with outsiders via social media channels.
• Create posting guidelines and moderation rules for outsiders who may engage with your organization via one of its social media channels (see this blog post for more on managing comments in online communities).
• Communicate the final policy/ies and guidelines and establish a method for providing regular reminders.
• Prepare and provide training for
  • Community managers and other “official” social media users
  • Non-managerial employees
  • Managerial employees
• Plan for regular reviews/revisions to policies to reflect new technologies, legal/regulatory changes, and case law.

PROCESS. Ideally, organizational leaders should be proactive in managing Digital Era risks, rather than waiting for a threat or crisis to force them to reactively develop and implement a hasty solution. Thoughtfulness and thoroughness are important, but time is also of the essence. Therefore, it’s important to proceed with “mindful flexibility,” which requires being both strategic and goal focused, as well as adaptable, and to emphasize procedural efficiency as well as effectiveness.

There are a number of web-based resources that provide detailed guidance on developing and implementing social media policies and guidelines. Here are some of my recommendations for leaders:

Prepare yourself to lead

• Educate yourself about what social media is, how it works, and its implications for your organization (Parts 1 and 2 of the Social Media Primer can help).
• It’s okay to delegate, but don’t abdicate your leadership responsibilities (see Part 5 of the Social Media Primer for more).
• Hiring outside experts is a worthwhile investment, especially, if you lack in-house social media expertise. But do your due diligence first – there are many self-proclaimed experts whose depth of knowledge isn’t as great as they claim it is.

Create a policy team

• Involve multiple stakeholders from relevant functional areas:
  • Externally-oriented groups: marketing, sales, public relations, customer service
  • Internally -oriented groups: human resources, knowledge management, IT, organizational development, learning & development
  • Both: in-house counsel
  • Employ outside experts who can provide sophisticated guidance from various perspectives:
    • Social media and other digital technologies
    • Federal and state laws and issues (and perhaps global too)
    • Business development
    • Human capital management

Develop a project plan and guidelines

• Set clear deadlines so you don’t get bogged down by bureaucracy and semantic arguments.
• Coordinate policy initiative with other social media development and implementation initiatives (see Part 7 of the Social Media Primer for more ).
• Identify overarching principles, goals and objectives that reflect:
  • Industry and nature of the business
  • Strategic priorities (both in general and in relation to social media)
  • Guiding values (including ethics)
  • Cultural context and workforce characteristics
  • A balance between legal and business perspectives
  • A balance between employer and employee perspectives

Review, refine, create policies and guidelines

• Review the entire employee handbook and/or relevant policies that could be impacted by new digital technologies.
• Identify the best approach to specifically addressing the use of social media
  • Develop something new (i.e., a single, multi-faceted policy, or multiple policies)
  • Update existing polic(ies)
  • Leverage benchmarked resources to create both policies and guidelines, but ensure they’re properly vetted and customized as needed.
  • Try to build as much durability into the policies/guidelines as possible:
    • Balance broad, general wording with specificity
    • Allow for flexibility as new case law and regulations develop
    • Prepare for technologies, platforms, and devices that could be used in the future

 

Please add a comment if you know of great resources for social media policy/guideline development and/or you have additional process tips to share.

 

CONCLUSION

Overwhelmed? That’s certainly understandable. This is a complex undertaking, and for many organizational leaders it’s virtually impossible to imagine how they’re going to find the resources to devote to it, especially in light of ongoing economic challenges and other strategic and tactical priorities. And it seems particularly burdensome if social media is not one of those strategic or tactical priorities…

But similar to the realities I address in Part 3 of the Primer, organizational leaders don’t really get a vote. Digital Era risks exist regardless of their organization’s focus on technology, and/or their personal feelings about social media and other 2.0 tools. Managing those risks is part of the cost of doing business, and managing them well can be a competitive differentiator, in both the economic marketplace and the talent marketplace.

 

Comments

[Tom Buchanan]

I found this to be an outstanding and useful article. It provided a company like mine an opportunity to increase our awareness of the points you have raised and helps to keep us a step ahead of our clients.

My area of concentration with social media is the small business, typically those under 25 employees. My company provides, among other things, consultation for digital-era strategies with a primary emphasis in e-marketing.

In a nutshell, the problem for the small business is that social media is difficult, if not impossible, to cost justify, and frankly, I have yet to be convinced that there is a cost/benefit relationship. Indeed, I would suggest that only the most market savvy small businesses are engaged with social media in a meaningful way. It could be several more years before a typical small business uses social media for anything beyond dabbling.

Thus, in my opinion, the legal nuances of social media policy are primarily useful for those organizations having already determined the efficacy of social media. However, the trouble is that many small businesses, including my own, will stumble into social media without having a social media policy and this could have damaging effects for the business owner as well as the employees.

[Briancoles]

A great resource for social media in the enterprise, thanks for setting this up guys http://www.sminorgs.net

[Warren Levy]

I'm writing about the case of the teacher's blog, which is a local story for me so I've been following it. First, let me thank you for all the thoughtful work you're contributing.

I'd like to suggest that the teacher's blog case isn't really about social media. That just happens to be the specific channel she had been using. Nor, as some have suggested, is this about free speech. As an individual, the teacher was free to express her opinions whatever they are and wherever she wanted. However, the school board and community have legitimate expectations that professionals do not conduct themselves in ways that undermine their credibility or effectiveness in their roles. In my view, the teacher could have expressed the same points of view in language that was more considered and professional, and appropriate. Instead, she chose language that was unprofessional and intemperate, undermining her point of view.

Social media issues do attach to the teacher's protestation that she had written the blog to communicate with friends, and did not have any expectation of it becoming public. Professionals not only need to be conscious of the broader implications of what they say and how they say it, but also smart about which channels they use if they have expectations of genuine privacy.

I don't know about the specific legal issues involved, but I think the School Board has cause to dismiss the teacher, not for violation of social media rules, but for poor judgment that undermines her ability to function in her role. That's a shame because the community consensus seemed to be that her underlying point of view was well worth extensive public discussion.

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Here are a couple of great videos that demonstrate excellent options for communicating policy content to employees:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SMandHR?feature=mhum#p/f/1/_xm06FB0Rao

http://www.youtube.com/user/SMandHR?feature=mhum#p/f/6/8iQLkt5CG8I

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Tom and Warren - thank you for your thoughtful comments.

Tom - as I note in the intro, any organization that employees people needs to have a social media policy, even if they're not actively leveraging it. I agree that social media doesn't make sense as part of the marketing strategy for all organizations; however, I think it can benefit virtually all of them from a business development perspective. Too many people underestimate the value of social media for listening, which is a great way to gather competitive intelligence and identify opportunities. I provide a model for how this can work in a white paper entitled "Trickle-Up Socialnomics: Leveraging Social Media in the BtoB Context," which can be leveraged via http://tiny.cc/TUSpaper. The ideas apply to organizations of all types, not just BtoB enterprises...

Warren - it will definitely be interesting to see how this case plays out. I suspect the school system didn't have a social media policy - and more importantly, hadn't updated their other policies to reflect new communication channels. If I'm right, the school board may not be able to take disciplinary action based on these "technicalities." That's one of the reasons I have written this post - to raise the issue that employers need to make sure their policies - as a whole - properly reflect Digital Era realities. Please keep me posted if you learn about the outcome of this case before I do.

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Here's a link to a white paper from Manpower that provides more statistics on the existence of social media policies. The numbers are surprisingly low...

http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/MAN/843285164x0x350040/4e59cf4b-1d29-470d-922f-062e815c629e/Employer_Perspectives_on_Social_Networking_Survey.pdf

[QHereKidSF]

As Social Media & Marketing Coordinator: a new addition, with the subgeeks, llc (http://subgeeks.com) network of web tech, marketing & design geeks & gurus, my responsibilities include researching and developing two separate but critical documents:

Our Social Media Policy & Guidelines, and...
Our Social Media Marketing (SMM) Strategy.

Being relatively new to this field, I have spent much of my lead time researching "Why Social Media (Marketing)?" across the web, and I have to my delight found some very convincing articles in favor of developing social media & internet usage policies/strategies for companies of any size or type.

The ultimate end-all-be-all reason which necessitates our compliance with this new trend is reiterated by Arnold Farlow, with his comment: "At this point with social media we get more buzz than a bang for our buck. However the future is going to be dominated by it."

Arnold has really hit the nail on the head. If you are interested in acquainting yourself intimately with a variety of arguments in favor of Social Media Policy & Marketing Strategy, then I encourage followers of this LinkedIn® Poll to refer to the following bundle of links for further information:

http://bit.ly/SMMBundle

Personally, I have found these very pertinent and incisive arguments in favor of Social Media Policy & Strategy to be very, very helpful in my endeavors to develop such plans & strategies unique to my own company, as well as to the clients, partners, affiliates and supervisors I serve.

I am confident that each & all of the followers of this LinkedIn® Poll will find these articles of equally valuable aid, when attempting to clarify, gauge and aim your efforts to determine either A.) an inherent need for Social Media Policy & Strategy for your organization, and/or B.) the shape that such a Plan & Strategy should take, once your organization decides it is duly necessary to develop such policies for the obvious benefit of long-term ROI.

Moreover, I do so hope that these resources prove helpful in each of your endeavors to better structure and regulate Social Media & Internet Usage within your organizations. Thank you for your time, attention & consideration. Looking forward to hearing back from some of you, if any of you are so inclined! Cheers! Ciao & Namaste: I bow to the gods within you...

Respectfully submitted,
MATTHEW D. BLANCHARD
Social Media & Marketing Coordinator
subgeeks, llc: socially responsible computing
60 29th Street #123, San Francisco, CA 94110 USA
http://www.subgeeks.com
info@subgeeks.com
+1.800.792.6081 PH

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

In March or April there were some stories about the emails of faculty members in Michigan and Wisconsin being the subject of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, and a few weeks later there was a discussion on GovLoop about how they might relate to to people's social media activity. FOIA is probably another legal consideration that should be considered from a risk management perspective.

I also recently had a conversation with an insurance broker about whether and how Digital Era risks were being addressed in Errors and Omissions, Directors and Officers, and similar insurance policies. Organizations may want to consider adding coverage to their existing insurance policies in addition to creating and/or revising their organizational policies.

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

A few additional comments after reviewing the final LI poll results:

1. There were 613 votes and 45 comments, but the results didn't change significantly from the preliminary results noted in the post.

2. There were some demographic differences in the results, but given that this wasn't a particularly scientific poll, I hesitate to put too much stock in them.

3. The comments were rich and generally reinforced well-known themes that run the gamut from organizations blocking access to public social media sites, organizations using social media without having a policy, individuals who believe "don't say anything stupid" is the only policy you need, and folks who advocate the value of training in ensuring people know what they can/can't say.

4. The comments also reveal a fair bit of confusion over the differences between social media strategies, plans, policies, and guidelines, which seems to have impacted the voting as well based on the commenters who shared their votes. In other words, some people may have claimed their organizations have a social media policy when in fact they don't.

FWIW...

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Here's a link to a related post I just published entitled, "Is the NLRB Turning up the “Social Media Heat” too High? No… Not Yet":

http://tiny.cc/SMinOrgsNLRBagenda

[James Lewis]

Dr Hunt -
I really like your White Paper and I find it interesting. Also, read the other paper "Putting Blogging in Perspective." Currently, I am employed by one of the trade associations in Washington DC in the Communications Department.

Two thoughts - if you have any questions, feel free to contact me. I'd be more than happy to assist and share my experience.

1. Because social media is so new and higher level employees are often confused or underwhelmed by its influence, is it not difficult to develop a strong social media policy when organizations often pass the duty of updating social media to interns or entry-level employees?

2. One area where I have significant experience is interacting with bloggers and developing earned media campaigns with them. Now days, everyone can be a reporters (there is an interesting anecdote of this is Friedman's The World Is Flat.) Political campaigns have run into this issue and some opposition specialist actively use this tactic to garner negative video/statements from opponents. I think it is necessary for organizations to include interaction with bloggers as part of their regular communications policy. Bloggers often have a strong or stronger following the newspapers.

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

It looks like the EEOC is starting to show some interest in regulating employers' use of social media sites. Check out this post:

http://wombleprivacy.blogspot.com/2011/05/eeoc-regulations-spotlight-social-media.html#page=1

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Thanks for your thoughtful feedback, James. Here are my responses:

1. I think the key is to educate higher-level employees so they don't underestimate the risk, dismiss the importance of the activity, and/or abdicate their responsibility to help the organization manage its risk. To that end, most of my posts are targeted to organizational leaders who are social media rookies...

2. Organizations of all types should be regularly monitoring their brand. In addition to following bloggers, they should also be listening through other relevant channels such as Twitter and Facebook, particularly the activity of key influencers and thought leaders. As you note, though, it's not just important to listen, they must also be prepared to engage and respond (honestly and transparently).

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Here's a new post that builds on the ideas here. It's about social media data "ownership" issues.

http://www.sminorgs.net/2011/06/social-media-data-ownership-recommendations-for-employers.html

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

This post provides a link to a recent study about employers' approaches (or lack thereof) to managing social media use by employees:

http://www.networkedlawyers.com/new-study-on-social-media-shows-many-employers-not-proactive-in-managing-employee-use/

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

I also shared additional recommendations in this post:

http://www.sminorgs.net/2011/06/more-nominees-for-the-digital-hall-of-shame-and-how-to-avoid-becoming-one-yourself.html

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

I’ve just written a new blog post that provides more in-depth discussion of the practice of social screening, particularly by third-party firms. Here’s a link:

http://tiny.cc/SocialScreeningFacts

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Based on the feedback I received on the "Social Screening Facts" post, especially from Mark Hammer in GovLoop, I was inspired to create a follow-up post. It's entitled "Social Recruiting 101: Overview and Recommendations. Here's a link:

http://tiny.cc/SocialRecruiting101

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

This post talks about a harassment case in California originating with blog posts:

http://www.boyarmiller.com/employmentlaw/All_Posts/Social_Media_Harassment/

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

Here's a link to a story in NPR about a new Missouri law banning teachers from friending students on Facebook:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/03/138932276/missouri-outlaws-student-teacher-facebook-friendship

The piece did a terrible job of presenting this situation, including the quotes from the bill's own sponsor. There are many valid reasons for prohibiting teachers and students from becoming friends on Facebook, most of which are not adequately or accurately represented here. The prohibitions (by policy, not by law) should extend to other staff as well and should include friending subordinates and parents too. Simply put, the risks of crossing personal/professional boundaries far exceed the potential benefits.

A viable alternative that organizations of all types - especially those that interact with minor children - should start pursuing is the establishment of private social networks that allow for many of the benefits of a site like platform while minimizing the risks.

This is an important Digital Era issue that needs to be carefully considered and handled responsibly, but people can't engage in healthy debate of the issues unless they're well informed. I hope future stories will lay a better foundation for reasoned discussion.

I'm working on a post about private social networks that will include more details/guidance.

[מכון שמיעה]

The different interpretations lead to different views and create a lot of conflicting case law it will take some time to resolve, as the number of cases increases, and they make their way through the justice system.

[Courtney Shelton Hunt, PhD]

I just published another blog post that consolidates resources addressing this and related issues:

Demanding Access to Individuals’ Social Networking Accounts: A Digital Era Worst Practice

http://www.sminorgs.net/2012/03/demanding-access-to-individuals-social-networking-accounts-a-digital-era-worst-practice.html

Please help me educate people about this important Digital Era issue, which potentially affects all of us, by sharing the post. Thanks!