Thursday, July 2, 2009

Inside Social Media

Social media: Watch your step

Video Gallery

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Even as corporations discover the business benefits of social media — building tighter relationships with customers, responding to customer complaints and extending brands — the actions of a company’s own employees could offset those benefits. For example,  newspapers, which by their nature are about disseminating information, have started imposing policies that limit what employees can say on outlets such as Twitter, particularly if staffers are discussing internal business decisions.

While the media is new, and more immediate, the concepts aren’t when it comes to avoiding problems. Many of the rules and guidelines companies should apply to social media already are in place for e-mail, telephone and face-to-face communications, according to attorney David Robinson, an associate with Boston law firm Ruberto, Israel & Weiner PC.

He shares his key tips for employers:

• Make sure you have a well-thought-out policy on the use of social media.  Employers need to be aware that employees are using these outlets both personally and for business. The policy should plainly set forth which activities are permitted.
• Make sure employees are aware that sensitive information should not be disseminated through social media.  If you value your customer list as a trade secret, employees should not be listing these contacts on Facebook or LinkedIn.
• Using social media for pre-offer employment screening gathers a lot of information, but could also give an employer information that legally they are not entitled to, such as age, religion or marital status.
• Social media is a great tool for disseminating information, but you need to be careful of what you are posting.  What could seem as an innocuous post could provide your competitors with valuable insight on what your company is doing.