A 4-Point Social Media Policy

Corralling employees into a social media policy is akin to shutting the barn door after the livestock and equipment are out in the fields, either working or running wild. They’re out. Closing the barn door and telling them not to go outside anymore is...a bit late.

Closing the door now with a social media policy looks the same and accomplishes much the same. Employees have been on Twitter and MySpace, Facebook and YouTube, Flickr and who knows what else for a long time. They have been either working (connecting, listening, learning, engaging) or running wild (Check out our pics from Vegas!!!). Your social media policy now is you standing in front of the building with the doors locked saying Get back in here. You’re too late.

But if your HR or Legal or IT people have just awoke to social media (Our employees are on FACEBOOK!!!) and now these folks are in your office demandind a social media policy...consider offering them these 4 points.

1. We’re all adults. Stop here until all of you can say this, with a straight-face, much of the time, in front of each other.

2. We trust each other. Just like with Step 1, stop here....go no farther until this describes your communication with each other.

3. We inspire each other. We should have a little daily wiggle room on this one. We are works in progress. Some days progress is best described as ...a failure. We screwed up. We failed to inspire.

STOP.

That presents an awesome opportunity to then stand up, take accountability, fix our failure, learn from it, and share our learnings with each other. But all this is impossible without Steps 1 and 2.You can only do this is collectively you acknowledge you're adults and you trust each other.

4. We’re free to share. We are now. And, with Steps 1, 2 and 3 we have plenty to share that is inspiring, helpful, engaging, WOM-worthy for our purpose and our community we gather.

Then wait for their reaction. If these points or principles continue to bother them...your issue may not be your lack of a social media policy.

What would happen in your organization if your social media policy were built around these 4 points?

• Chaos?

• Or a north-south head nodding agreement that We have something special going on.. So, let's use social media to let our stakeholders know and come join us. 

Let me know. I think if given the opportunity most adults will confirm these principles.

*Shout: A quick conversation with Kyle Placy on Twitter helped in writing this post. Here it is:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks, Kyle!

Comments

[Michael E. Rubin]

I love this. It would be wonderful to implement. The moment I would try, though, I would get a roomful of well-meaning HR, IT, and Legal folks telling me that we operate in a highly-regulated industry where every word is scrutinized and parsed for what it means legally.

Someday we'll get there.

[Me]

Thanks, Michael!

We will. We just keep talking about it, sharing the ideas, giving them a little room to breathe, giving people a little room to breathe while they digest them...a few stumbles along the way.

[Michael E. Rubin]

Agreed. Or as that wonderful philosopher Dory (from "Finding Nemo") likes to say, "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..."

As always, thanks for the inspiration.