Top 5 Social Media Sites that Companies Are Using

In July 2009, Minneapolis-based Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law coducted a survey highlighting the most popular “Social Media Channels” that are being utilized by corporate America^*.  I think the results were pretty fascinating and while they may not be totally applicable to you, the small business, it should still open your eyes to the importance of dialoging with your customer base.

We all do business with those we know, like and trust.  We don’t do business with someone just because they paid the most for their commercials, or had the biggest ad in the weekly paper.  We support those businesses that believe in or those that we can relate to, or even more so, those that have a good reputation with those that we personally know, like and trust…our friends and family.

Love it or hate it, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and more are increasingly common for effectively reaching both internal and external audiences.  Social media is not a fad.  In fact, it’s the new way of doing business.  Many are even learning that old school marketing techniques are no longer getting the job done.

Even as a small business or solopreneur, it is important to have a social media policy and plan in place.  This becomes even more important if you have someone other than yourself representing you and/or your company on the various social media platforms. Once you know what your strategy is, and why you’re using social media, you can create your policies and plans.

The survey outlined the following 10 Important Elements to Include in a Social Media Policy :

1. The Philosophy Should Reflect The Company’s Approach To Social Media: It should include the company’s overall philosophy on social media and be consistent with its culture, such as,  does the company have a supportive, open philosophy on the use of social media or a stronger, more limited embrace of this technology?
2. Honesty and Respect: One of the most important aspects of a policy is a requirement that employees be open, honest, respectful and transparent in their usage of social media
3. Confidential and Proprietary Information: Guidelines should reinforce the company’s confidentiality and proprietary information policies and apply such to the social media environment.
4. Online Identity: When engaging in online social networking, it is important to differentiate an employee’s personal identity from his or her business identity.
5. Focus on Job Performance: Does social media hurts workers productivity. For example, is it acceptable for an employee to post on a personal blog during their lunch break? Or, can an employee tweet on business-related topics during the work day? Remember, the new work force does not live in an eight-to-five world. The focus should be on job performance instead of “company time.”
6. Avoid Conflicts of Interest: Conflicts of interest come in many forms – especially when engaging in social media. The policy should discuss how to identify potential conflicts of interest, what types of conflicts are prohibited and who to talk to when in doubt.
7. Include a Disclaimer: Employees should make it clear that their views about work-related matters do not represent the views of their employer or any other person.
8. Monitoring: The policy should state whether and to what extent the company has the right to monitor social media usage and identify any associated disciplinary guidelines.
9. Universal Application: A social media policy should apply to everyone
10. Other Policies: Other company policies, such as those on workplace environment, discrimination, harassment, ethics, code of conduct and others apply even in the cyber-land of social media.

So what about you…what is your social media plan?  What policy have you created for your business and your team?

If you haven’t even thought about, or if you haven’t yet come up with your strategy, let me help.  Email me and we can get started today.

^*They surveyed a total of 438 randomly selected management, marketing and human resources executives within companies across the United States that completed the online survey, providing a statistical reliability of plus or minus 4.8 percent at the 95 percent confidence level.