{Article Crossposted w/ Social Media Explorer & grow}

That Was Then

When SideraWorks was first being formed I never imagined that our work in how to develop social media policies (and the related processes and governance models to support them) would become some of our most popular.  That was shortsighted, perhaps even naive, but as a company focused on social business culture and change management it just didn’t stand out to me as one of the more important things.  It didn’t feel ‘serious’ enough. Boy was I wrong.

This Is Now

Fast forward to today where we’ve built a specific toolkit and methodology just for this purpose in our private work with clients and are now teaching it to others at select publicly available workshops.  Who knew? But why is that? How did it become such a critical component in our social business work?

1. Social Media Policies Are Universal – Whether a company is heavily engaged in external social media or not, its employees and stakeholders are, and it needs to account for that. This makes it a good entry point for beginning social business initiatives. As we’ve seen with the recent hacks and takeovers of social accounts, no one is immune.
2. Social Media Policies Are An Ideal Introduction Into Social Business Mentality – You can’t create meaningful social media policies and situational playbooks without involving Legal, HR, and the edge related functions like Marketing, Customer Service, and Sales. Developing these policies, processes, and governance models using a scenario based approach gets people out of their silo’d viewpoints and makes them view the impact points of social media across the organization more holistically. It allows you to begin the process of getting these varied groups on the same page and become more involved in what the organization is doing where social is concerned. That exposure through this process helps immensely when it comes to easing adoption of social business throughout an organization.
3. Social Media Policies Directly Address Culture – We use our Social Scenario Modeling™ methodology which builds policies and related playbooks from real-world scenarios. These range from PR crises, to employee engagement concerns and opportunities, and all points in between. The approach has become key for SideraWorks in helping to establish a mentality in organizations that this is a ‘give and take’. Policies aren’t only about risk mitigation they can also be about enabling desirable behavior that benefits the organization. Finding that balance requires an open dialog across the social ambassadors, Legal, and HR. How these policies are written, the language they use, and the way they are communicated can either have a positive or detrimental effect on the organizations culture. It’s a direct expression of an organizations viewpoint and value structure on something (social media) the individuals within it associate with at a very personal level.
4. Social Media Policies Create A Foundation For Education Programs – Distributing knowledge about social media policies is about more than just having an employee sign off on a form. It’s an opportunity to build education programs that develop social judgment and alignment within the workforce. With an increase in judgment comes a commensurate increase in employee empowerment. That empowerment and judgment allows an increase in an organizations agility.

Go Beyond The Basics

As you can see, social media policies can be about far more than employee paperwork to mitigate risks. If handled properly they can serve as a powerful point of entry to becoming a true social business. SideraWorks is proud to have partnered with forward thinking events like Social Slam and Social Media Explorer to help bring our methods to the public, but regardless of whether you take our approach or come up with your own, I hope you’ll go beyond the basics and take advantage of the opportunity that something as ‘simple’ as a social media policy can present.

Cheers,

Matt Ridings – @techguerilla

Upcoming Workshops

Want to learn Social Scenario Modeling™ for yourself? Come visit us at upcoming publicly available workshops on this topic including the Implications of Social Business & Crisis Preparation: at Social Slam Plus on April 4 in Knoxville, TN and Explore (affiliate) on April 13 in Scottsdale, AZ.

Latest schedule here. For scheduling private events or more information please contact us}