As social media has become more important in the work place and for employees themselves, you may need to consider informing your employees in how they should or should not be using social media, whether it be in or outside of the workplace. If your organisation has just begun to use social media, do you have a policy in place for your employees? If you are using it to market your organisation, you may need to put in place some guidelines and terms of use to make sure that social media is being used appropriately for your organisation.

You need to consider your company brand, and how your employees may represent that brand in their use of social media. You need to be aware of what they maybe saying about your company online. Whether you want your employees to use social media as much, or as little as possible, you need to let them know your expectations.

Liz Cable talks about the "haves" and the "have nots" in an organisation. Those who speak for the organisation and those who should only speak for themselves (and not during working hours.)

The BBC has two separate social media policies, one for the BBC use of social networking and the other for the staff's personal use of social networking.

The policy for the BBC use of social media sets out clear guidelines for how staff should use social media for the corporation.

“The guidance complements the BBC Social Media strategy principles, including the following:

· Don’t bring the BBC into disrepute

· With moderation, only police where we have to; trust our users where we don’

· Be open and transparent in our social media dealings ”

From the BBC use of social networking, microblogs and other third party websites online document. 

The BBC social media policy for the personal use of staff gives guidance on how staff should behave in their own use of social networks.

 “All BBC staff should be mindful of the information they disclose on social networking sites. Where they associate themselves with the Corporation (through providing work details or joining a BBC network) they should act in a manner which does not bring the BBC into disrepute. When a staff member is contacted by the press about posts on their social networking site that relate to the BBC they should talk to their manager before responding. The relevant BBC press office must be consulted.”

From the Personal use of social networking and other third party websites (including blogs, microblogs and personal web-space) online document.

Like the BBC, Coca-Cola has a social media policy in place that relates to both personal behaviour and behaviour of designated online spokespeople for the organisation.

The policy for online spokespeople states key expectations including 'Be a “scout” for compliments and criticism. Let the subject matter experts respond to negative posts. Be conscious when mixing your business and personal lives.' 

The expectations for the policy for personal behaviour include 'Be Certified in the Social Media Certification Program. Be mindful that you are representing the Company. Fully disclose your affiliation with the Company.' 

So there are some clear distinctions between staff who are directly responsible for representing the company brand online and those who represent the company indirectly, simply by being an employee.

The American Red Cross provides an extensive social media handbook for all of its local units, that sets out their national social media philosophy, encouraging the units to participate in their national social media presence and create their own local social media presence. It covers the social media strategy of the organisation and how it should be implemented, the measurement of success of the strategy and which tools should be used.

These organisations have understood the importance of social media in their organisations and how, just like in any other work activity, a policy is needed.

There are also specific policies for particular social media tools. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has guidelines in place specifically for blogging. This shows how detailed an organisation can be in monitoring related social media use.

When putting together a social media policy for your organisation you may want to consider some of these existing policies or use a policy template or sample.

As social media is such an important marketing tool and continues to grow at such a fast rate, it becomes more important to establish guidelines for employees. It is important to decide how social media fits in to the job roles of your staff and how you want your staff to use social media for the benefit of the organisation.

Its also beneficial to relate your social media policy to your overall social media strategy so that staff understand exactly what the company wants to achieve by using social media, rather than just having your Dos and Don'ts. Much like the Coca-Cola policy, which has 'five core values of the Company in the Online Social Media Community' that the staff are expected to adhere to.

Whether you want your employees to use social media as much, or as little, as possible, it is a sure bet that they are already using it in some way. Which makes it all the more important to have a social media policy.

What's your social media policy?