Blogging and Social Media Policy Example

We also recognise the importance of our employees joining in and helping to shape industry conversation and direction through blogging and interaction in social media.

(Name of the Company) understands that employees may maintain or contribute to personal websites, blogs, message boards, conversation pages, social networks, video postings and/or engage in various other forms of online community activity either on their own time or in their own personal capacity or under the direction of (Name of the Company) or its clients. The Company also understands how the use of internet, social network sites and blogs can shape the way the public views our products, employees, vendors, partners and customers. In this regard the Company would like to assure our employees that we are committed to supporting your right to interact knowledgeably and responsibly on social media.
The Company social media policy provides the framework for use of blogging and in the use of social media. The policy provides practical advice to avoid issues that might arise by careless use of blogging and social media.

Scope

All our employees are expected to follow this policy.  All employees of (Name of the Company) must read this policy in conjunction with any existing code of conduct, disciplinary scheme or existing policy such as the internal email and Internet policy.  The Company will maintain one signed copy of the same.

The policy is built around two main elements:

• Using personal social media at work
• Representing the Company through social media

Policy Elements

We allow/do not allow our employees to access their personal social media accounts at work

If allowed the following needs to be incorporated

• We expect you behave responsibly and in a manner that does not affect your productivity. We ask you to restrict your use to a few minutes per work day.
• We expect our employees to be mindful about adhering to the confidentiality policies of our organisation all the time when posting online. To that end, employees are expected to be courteous, respectful and thoughtful about how other employees may be affected by the posting. Incomplete, inaccurate, inappropriate, threatening, harassing or poorly worded postings maybe harmful to other employees, damage employee relationships and the Company’s effort to support team work and harm the reputation of the Company, its vendors or clients and may lead to disciplinary action upto and including termination.

In this context we would advise our employees to:

• Ensure that others know that your personal account or statement do not represent our Company
• Not share intellectual property such as trademark, logo, etc without approval. Confidentiality policies and laws always apply
• Avoid any defamatory, offensive or derogatory content. It may be considered as a violation of our Company’s anti harassment policy, if directed towards colleagues, clients and/or partners.

Representing Our Company

Some employees will represent our Company by handling corporate social media accounts or by speaking on behalf of the Company. The employees doing so will need to bear in mind the following:

• Be respectful, polite and patient when engaging in conversation on behalf of the Company.  Extra caution needs to be exercised when making declarations or promises to customers and stakeholders
• Avoid speaking on matters outside one’s field of expertise
• Follow our confidentiality policy and data protection policy and observe laws on copyrights, trademarks, plagiarism and fair use.
• Avoid deleting or ignoring comments especially the derogatory ones. Criticism should be heard and responded to.
• Never post discriminatory, offensive or libelous content or commentary.
• Correct or remove any false or misleading comments as quickly as possible.

Confidential Information Component Of The Blogging Policy

If you are developing a website or writing a blog that will mention our Company and/or our current and potential products, employees, partners, customers and competitors, please ensure to keep your supervisor informed. The supervisor may choose to visit your website or blog from time to time to understand your point of view.

Our Company encourages you to write knowledgeably and accurately maintaining professionalism throughout the writing. Despite disclaimers it is possible that several kinds of public opinion are formed about the Company, its employees, partners and products as a result of your writing. Honour the privacy rights of our current employees by seeking their permission before writing about or displaying internal Company happenings that might be considered as a breach of their confidentiality and privacy.

Legal Liability Component Of The Blogging And Social Media Policy

You are legally liable for anything you write or present online. Employees can be disciplined by the Company for commentary, content or images that are defamatory, pornographic, proprietary, harassing, libelous or that can create a hostile work environment. Such employees can be sued by the Company, its employee(s) affected or competitors.

Disciplinary Action

We will be constantly monitoring all the postings on our social media account. Disciplinary action can lead upto and include termination if employees do not follow the guidelines laid down by this policy.

Examples of non conformity with employee social media policy include but are not limited to:

• Disregarding job responsibilities and deadlines to use social media at work
• Disclosing confidential information through personal or corporate accounts
• Directing offensive comments directed towards other members of the online community

All questions regarding this policy or permissible conduct should be brought to the attention of the ownership