Here is the second in my continuing series on the best of 2014 on crisis prevention. First, I addressed the importance of a risk analysis. In my work, I’ve found that the lack of a social media policy is the most frequent risk that brands take, but one of the easiest steps you can take towards preventing a crisis.
Incorporating social media into your marketing plan without a social media policy disconnects your practice from your strategy. Guidelines are the bedrock of your strategy and the guide posts that keep everyone on the same page going in the same direction. Your policy defines the boundaries that allow you to creatively flourish inside the fence. In my research, I’ve found that a social media policy is one of the five essential elements you need to incorporate social successfully into your brand.
One of the first questions I ask people looking for a social media crisis response plan is, “do you have a social media policy?” If not, that’s where we start. If you build your policy well, it will bring you one step closer to effective crisis prevention. Your social media policy should be complete, but not long, precise, but not limiting, and most of all, it should reflect your organizational culture. One policy should cover all aspects of a brand’s communications. You may have separate tactics for crisis communications, marketing, customer service, or other business operations, but your policy should apply to all.
In my experience I’ve found that many organizations have a social media policy, but it neglects to incorporate crisis communications. In a crisis, you will find that most people will look to your social media channels as the frontline of your communications. Be sure your social media policy has these essential elements:
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Purpose:What is the purpose of social media in the organization? Are you building and growing a community? If so, then you can’t disappear from social media channels in a crisis. Are you using social media strictly to inform or broadcast? Then, your social media protocol in a crisis will reflect that. If you want to be the author of the message in a crisis (and you do), be sure everyone on your leadership team understands what that entails. Be true to yourself and your comfort level, or you will have a crisis during your crisis trying to implement procedures that don’t reflect how you do social on a daily basis. Know thyself.
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Rules of Engagement:This section includes:
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Responsible use information including protection of proprietary information, copyright, permissions, transparency and disclosure, ethics, compliance, and other guidelines for individual users designated to be present in social media channels on behalf of the organization.
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Guidelines for determining when a personal account belongs to the company.
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Triage response plan and monitoring procedures including who is in charge of what, when, and where.
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A complete data base of all social media channels that belong to the organization including admins, approved users, logins and passwords. This includes any personal branding accounts that are under the organization’s umbrella. This information is kept by the community manager.
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Guidelines for training and authorization procedures to use social media on behalf of the organization.
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Clear consequences for violating the policy.This section is a collaboration with legal, HR, and leadership.
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FAQ and tips on how to use social media well. Make your social media policy is a resource for best practices. It shouldn’t be solely a prohibitive document.
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A procedural guide for how social media channels will be used in the event of a crisis.Do you want to funnel all your social media channels towards main account channels? How will organizational social media change in the event of a crisis?
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Practice and evaluation criteria. These are two elements often overlooked in social media policies. Crisis simulations are invaluable. You may need outside assistance with this piece, but it should be part of staff training implemented through your social media policy. Also, regular evaluations of how crises are handled should be specified in your policy as well.
A word about length: A social media policy does not have to be a manual. Keep in mind it should be complete, but not long, precise, but not limiting, and most of all, it should reflect your organizational culture.
There are many good policies already out there. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel, just change the hubcap to fit your organization. Questions? You can email me at chris@cksyme.com for information on how to put your policy together. Here is an excellent data base of sample policies put together by Chris Boudreaux. Here is another excellent resource for higher education put together by .eduguru.