Social media responsibility and social media guidelines

Episode 3:

Current results of the study “B2B and social media – still tactical banter or finally a strategy?”

With every opportunity comes responsibilities and duties. This is also the case when dealing with social media in companies. As the latest study by the First Working Group on Social Media in B2B Communication shows, 87% of B2B companies surveyed use social media. However, how social media is handled in the company varies greatly. Interesting result of our study in connection with social media responsibility:

In 47 percent of cases, companies state that their employees are allowed to be active on social media in accordance with the social media guidelines.

In 9.3 percent of cases, it is not desired at all for employees to be active on social media as company representatives. In the majority of the companies surveyed, i.e. over 52 percent, all active postings are made by selected administrators.
Whoever is the author of social media posts is well advised to address the issue of social media responsibility.

We have created the following checklist for you, which contains the key tips for you:

6 tips for dealing with social media responsibility

1. Define a social media strategy.
   A well-thought-out social media strategy forms the basis for all social media activities and helps to define priorities and schedules, generate content and determine which goals are to be achieved. Only with a concrete description of your strategy can you, as the person responsible, carry out forward-looking resource planning and guarantee stringent communication via social media.
2. Define responsibilities.
   Whether you decide to hire a social media manager or an entire social media team, make it clear who is responsible for what and to whom you are accountable. The days when interns were responsible for social media are over, because with every responsibility comes challenges. These include data protection issues. Of course, in many cases it is desirable for employees to act as company representatives on social media, but this must be clearly clarified. Companies must decide whether employees are allowed to use social media during working hours and how. In this context, the question also arises to what extent companies can expect their employees to be active on social media. As a rule, employees are allowed to decide for themselves whether they want to be active or not. Of course, this does not apply to employees whose job description explicitly includes social media activities. Clearly defined job advertisements therefore help here. When it comes to competition law, the form in which employees may advertise products or services must also be clearly defined so as not to violate regulations regarding lay advertising. The private use of social media must also be regulated. Bear in mind that regular toleration can become a company practice and therefore be legally permitted.
3. Create interfaces
   Ideally, social media content conveys interesting information about your company. In order for this content to be generated, it is important that you, as the person responsible for social media, gain an insight into what is happening in the company and thus find ideas and inspiration. It is therefore important that the social media department is in contact with other departments. Interfaces should also be created with the PR and marketing department in order to coordinate activities. But you also need contacts with management, the legal department and IT so that your activities fit in with the company profile and you can comply with both legal and technical regulations.
4. Make sure you have a communication plan. Your communication plan ensures that – as mentioned in the previous point – you can communicate content from different areas of the company as well as coordinate activities. You also benefit from the fact that new staff can be introduced quickly, no problems arise if a responsible person is absent and that communication is consistent. However, the plan should still leave room for current news and spontaneous posts.
5. Carry out social media monitoring to check whether the activities of those responsible are also showing success and ensure that you can recognize negative trends in advance. This is the only way to check whether the goals can be achieved and whether there may be negative reactions that need to be addressed.
6. The most important thing: Establish social media guidelines.

Social Media Guidelines

Social media guidelines help with the rules already mentioned and ensure that employees feel confident when using social media. Under certain circumstances, training may even be appropriate. Bitkom’s guide to social media guidelines provides information on which points should be clarified in a social media guideline. This includes, among other things, defining which rules apply to private and company use of social media, sensitizing employees to their own responsibility and to legal regulations. Information should also be provided on how employees can present themselves transparently online as representatives of a company, when a statement crosses the boundary of freedom of expression, which rules of netiquette should be observed and how negative comments should be dealt with.
It should be noted that social media guidelines are generally only an aid for employees and not a company regulation. This must also be regulated. In addition, cases such as the use of private devices (Bring Your Own Device) should also be regulated separately. Above all, it is important that these guidelines are communicated clearly and comprehensibly and encourage communication.

What is your opinion on social media responsibility? We look forward to hearing about your experiences.

From Jacqueline Althaller