Your grandmother is on Facebook, so odds are in your favor that your employees are too. It is inevitable that unless you’ve blocked these sites with a firewall, employees will use some of their work time to visit their various online presences. Managing employee’s social media usage is important to keep them, and your company, out of hot water. Here are a few tips for carving out a policy of acceptable use across various networks.

Define Your Terms

Is an employee’s protected, private Facebook account social media? What about their public blog or deviant art gallery? Specify in broader terms what is and is not social media; since there are new services emerging daily, a definition and not a list of services will be more effective.

Don’t Share Private Intel in Any Form

It may seem private to send a message to a trusted friend or family member, but if their account gets hacked and that information leaked, that employee is still the source. It’s best to keep that information in-house

Monitor Your Brand

Without monitoring, why have a policy at all? Know your employees and be aware of their presence on networks outside of work. No need for irrational snooping, but if a google search turns up an employee’s public blog, it’s public knowledge and a good company keeps passive watch on those things.

If used correctly, there are plenty of workplace social media opportunities that will benefit your company and not harm production.

Lou Perseghin is a freelance writer available on WriterAccess, a marketplace where clients and expert writers connect for assignments. WriterAccess is powered by ideaLaunch, a full service content marketing agency serving hundreds of clients and thousands of writers since 2000.

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