Pub. 1 2019-20 Issue 2

Issue 1 2020 15 WVADA S ome problems you don’t want: legal problems, neg- ative publicity for your business, and the compliance issues that face all car dealerships. Social media can give you all of these problems, de- spite the way it has also made a positive transforma- tion in communication and marketing throughout the world. That’s not surprising. Something as powerful as social media has got to have a downside to it. Why? There’s an old saying: no piece of paper is so thin that it doesn’t have two sides. Newton’s third law of physics states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. What are the two sides of using social media? • It’s powerful. • Your company has to use that power responsibly. Linking the two is not a new idea. Voltaire was the first per- son to talk about the connection between power and respon- sibility, but so did Winston Churchill, and it’s present in the kind of popular culture that reaches small children, too: after all, Peter Parker’s Uncle Ben told him about the responsibility that comes with great power, which means even a 4-year-old has some idea about how important it is to handle power responsibly. The question is simple: how do you get the benefits and avoid the problems? In other words, how can you use social media as a free promotional tool by allowing employees to post pos- itive news and work-related photos online without also risking negative publicity or even the public sharing of brand secrets? The answer is equally simple. You need two workplace social media policies: • One is for all corporate social media accounts. • One is for each employee’s social media accounts. The policies will guide people so they know what they can say, and (you hope) prevent them from being irresponsible online. Having guidelines for employees to use is only a first line of defense, of course, but it’s a good one. It sets the tone for how things should be said, and it makes it clear what the company values. You will save time by setting expectations in advance, and that translates into increased productivity. Not everyone will need a copy of both policies. Corporate so- cial media accounts are generally managed either by one per- son or by the applicable department (potentially, departments such as customer service, human resources, or marketing and social media). The people who post on corporate social me- dia accounts are the ones who will need to know the rules for their particular set of responsibilities. When your company hires any new employee, give them clear instructions, and a document containing those instructions that they can refer to later, as part of their initial training. You should also repeat the instructions periodically to people to remind them about the policy regularly. In the policy, tell them what they can and can’t talk about on their social media accounts. The most important piece of information in any social media policy is a disclaimer that applies to everyone: the internet has made it essentially impossible to delete information. If some- one posts something and then removes it a few minutes later, someone else can still take a screen shot of the post and cir- culate it. As a result, it is incredibly important never to post anything on any social media account without being sure it won’t cause problems later. Implementing a social media policy might not seem import- ant if the majority of your employees are from the baby-boom generation. They probably don’t automatically post the details of their lives. But for those who are younger, who think noth- ing of putting even the most trivial details of their lives online, such as what they had for dinner last night or whether they are considering the merits of two different sweaters they might want to buy, you really do need to have a conversation about which pictures and statements can be shared and which can- not. They often don’t separate their personal and professional lives, and so you need to help them know when they can share and when they need to be silent. Consider Including the following points in your general policy. Start with the positive. The right social media comments can help the company achieve goals. Employees can become key Using Social Media Responsibly