Experts: Employers should make social media policy clear

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Oct 13, 2009 by Dave Rhea

"Social media is changing how we conduct our lives, and it is happening quickly," said CEO of Saxum Strategic Communications Renzi Stone. From an employer's point of view, that statement could not be more accurate.

As social media becomes ubiquitous in today's business environment, many employers are left scratching their heads. The confusion is no longer in trying to figure out the usefulness of the new technology, but where to draw a line between employees' constructive engagement and frivolous amusement.

"This isn't so much a social media issue as it is a human resources and management issue," said Bill Handy, public relations professor at Oklahoma State University and social media strategy specialist with his company, DogDish.com.

"I strongly encourage all employers to hold some kind of employee training regarding social media usage for both personal and professional use," he said. "There are all kinds of great opportunities (with social media) which are beneficial for all involved, but there are also some risks which can be alleviated with just a bit of training."

Handy added that, in many instances, social media for personal reasons is no different than taking personal calls or checking personal e-mail while at work. Unless employees are using it for professional purposes, they shouldn't be using it at all while on company time except for during breaks, he said.

But the problem with black-and-white rules that govern employees' use of social media is that businesses - and thus employees - are not all the same. It may be a great idea to firewall usage for some. But in the communications world especially, there are often few lines between professional and personal use.

In this case, said Stone, it is the responsibility of the employee to know the difference between right and wrong.

"Checking Facebook or Twitter during work time is appropriate for our field of work," he said. "We believe the balance between personal and professional time is already blurred beyond recognition."

He added that Saxum tracks employee time for client purposes, so if someone's personal social media time ever became an issue, the employer would know.

"Emerging communications platforms are changing the way we connect with other internal employees, prospects, client, customers and vendors," said Jim Quillen, owner of media consulting firm ConnectSocialMedia.com. "So the lines are being blurred as to what is 'personal use' of a social media or communications platform."

One thing that all three social media thought leaders agreed on is that any company that has employees who may be online during work hours should devise a clear usage policy. If there is no policy in place, get to work.

"I strongly encourage employers to bring in help in these issues," said Handy, "A complete team of communication professionals, and in many cases legal counsel, (may be hired or contracted temporarily) to help understand the value of social media and how they might engage these tools, but also what this means to the culture of and within the company."