One of the most important, and often overlooked, aspects of any social media strategy is your credit union’s social media policy. In fact, a recent survey by Pew Research Center reported that only about half of employers have a social media policy in place. Having a policy in place for all of your employees, even if they’re not on your social media team, helps protect your credit union’s reputation and sets expectations for your staff just like any other HR policy.
Credit unions often already have policies in place that outline how staff should communicate to your constituencies regarding your brand, both online and off. The social media policy simply extends those guidelines to communications via social channels ― both for business and personal use.
Four Best Practices for Social Media Policies:
- Encourage rather than discourage staff to help promote your brand online.
The more people that are talking about your brand, the better. Just as social media helps you connect with your member network, their network and their network’s network, the same viral effect applies to your staff, no matter if they are on your official social media team or not. - Keep it in simple, plain English (no legal speak).
The best way to get staff to understand and follow your social media policy is to put it in plain and simple terms. If they have to decipher legal jargon, there’s a greater chance that the policy will be ignored until after it’s too late – once something hits the Internet, it lives forever. - Promote transparency and common sense.
One of the most important success factors of any social media strategy is making sure you’re an honest and personable brand. Your positive reputation is built from that trust and your social media policy should support that. Staff should state that they are an employee and what their role is in the organization when commenting in social media channels. When you’re not the first to admit you have a vested interest in the discussion, you may appear like you’re trying to slip one by your audience.
Equally as important, make sure your staff understands that their statements about your credit union online must always be true. They need to avoid twisting the facts and misleading your audience – they’ll always see through it and your credit union’s reputation will suffer. And if there are particular concerns, spell them out! The more clarity your staff has on what they can and can’t say online, the better off everyone will be. - Update and review your policy at least annually.
There are new social channels popping up all the time that open new doors for people, including employees, to speak about your brand online. That’s great! But, make sure your policies address anything new. Does your policy address live videos – Facebook Live – for example? I’m sure you don’t want employees shooting a quick promo in front of your office whiteboard mapping out sensitive information for your organization.
Finally, as with many of your policies, you may want to get counsel review. More and more precarious situations are coming to light with social media, organizations and their employees, so you’ll want to make sure you’re covered based on the latest information in the legal world
